Keren Rice (born 1949) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

linguist Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. She is a professor of linguistics and serves as the Director of the Centre for Aboriginal Initiatives at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...

Education and career

Rice earned her PhD in 1976 from the University of Toronto, with a dissertation entitled, "

Hare Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...

phonology." She has published numerous works in both theoretical and Native American linguistics, in particular on

Athapaskan languages Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Co ...

. She specializes in research on

Slavey The Slavey (also Slave and South Slavey) are a First Nations indigenous peoples of the Dene group, indigenous to the Great Slave Lake region, in Canada's Northwest Territories, and extending into northeastern British Columbia and northwestern ...

, an indigenous language spoken in Canada's

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories (abbreviated ''NT'' or ''NWT''; french: Territoires du Nord-Ouest, formerly ''North-Western Territory'' and ''North-West Territories'' and namely shortened as ''Northwest Territory'') is a federal territory of Canada. ...

, and has long been involved in maintaining and revitalizing the language. She has made contributions to the study of phonological markedness (Rice 2007) and to the interaction of phonology, morphology and semantics (Rice 2000).

Awards and distinctions

* Rice was elected as a fellow of the

American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...

in 2005. *Rice was elected as a member of the

American Philosophical Society The American Philosophical Society (APS), founded in 1743 in Philadelphia, is a scholarly organization that promotes knowledge in the sciences and humanities through research, professional meetings, publications, library resources, and communit ...

in 2014. * From 2002 to 2008 she served on the board of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (

SSHRC The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC; french: Conseil de recherches en sciences humaines du Canada, CRSH) is a Canadian federal research-funding agency that promotes and supports post-secondary research and traini ...

), a granting agency of the federal government of Canada. * In 2011 she received the Killam Prize, given annually to five of Canada's finest academics for their career achievements in fields of scientific and scholastic research. * In 2013 she won the National Achievement Award from the Canadian Linguistic Association for outstanding contributions to the field of linguistics. * In 2013 she was appointed by the

Governor General of Canada The governor general of Canada (french: gouverneure générale du Canada) is the federal viceregal representative of the . The is head of state of Canada and the 14 other Commonwealth realms, but resides in oldest and most populous realm, t ...

as an Officer in the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

, which is one of Canada's highest civilian honors. *In 2015 Rice received the Pierre Chauveau medal of the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

, awarded for her continued contributions as a scholar, including her extensive work in language documentation, activism, and theoretical linguistics. *Rice served as president of the

Canadian Linguistic Association The Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA; French: Association canadienne de linguistique, ACL) is the principal professional organization of linguists in Canada. Yearly meetings are held, usually at the end of May, in which members present scho ...

from 1998 to 2002 *Rice served as the president of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

(LSA) in 2012.

Publications

Rice, K. 1977. ''Hare Noun Dictionary. ''Ottawa: Northern Social Research Division, Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. Rice, K. 1989. E. Cook and K. Rice, (eds.) ''Athapaskan Linguistics: Current Perspectives on a Language Family. ''Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Rice, K. 1989. ''A Grammar of Slave''. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. Rice, K. 1992. "On deriving sonority: a structural account of sonority relationships." ''Phonology'' 9:'' ''61—99. Rice, K. 1993. "A reexamination of the feature onorant the status of 'sonorant obstruents'." ''Language ''69: 308–344. Rice, K. 1996. "Default variability: The coronal-velar relationship." ''Natural Language and Linguistic Theory''. Rice, K. 2000. ''Morpheme Order and Semantic Scope: Word Formation in the Athapaskan Verb. ''Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Rice, K. 2006. "Ethical issues in linguistic fieldwork: An overview." ''Journal of Academic Ethics.'' Rice, K. 2007. Markedness in phonology. In P. Lacy (Ed.), ''The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology'' (Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics, pp. 79–98). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511486371.005 Rice, K. & L. Saxon. 2008. Comparative Athapaskan Syntax: Arguments and Projections. In: The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Syntax, Edited by Guglielmo Cinque and Richard S. Kayne. DOI:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780195136517.013.0016

References

External links

* Linguist List: Famous Linguists , http://linguistlist.org/studentportal/linguists/rice.cfm * LSA Member Spotlight: , http://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/lsa-member-spotlight/may-june11 * U of T Magazine , http://www.magazine.utoronto.ca/feature/keren-rice-u-of-t-aboriginal-studies-program/ * U of T: Boundless , http://boundless.utoronto.ca/story/keren-rice/ * Canada Research Chairs , http://www.chairs-chaires.gc.ca/chairholders-titulaires/profile-eng.aspx?profileId=850 {{DEFAULTSORT:Rice, Keren Linguists from Canada Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Women linguists Living people Officers of the Order of Canada 1949 births Members of the American Philosophical Society Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science Linguists of Na-Dene languages Linguistic Society of America presidents First Nations academics University of Toronto alumni University of Toronto faculty Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America