Lal Zimman is a linguist who works on

sociocultural linguistics Sociocultural linguistics is a term used to encompass a broad range of theories and methods for the study of language in its sociocultural context. Its growing use is a response to the increasingly narrow association of the term sociolinguistics wi ...

, sociophonetics,

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of met ...

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

and identity, and transgender linguistics.

Education

Zimman received his BA in

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

and MA in English with a

Linguistics 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 ...

concentration from

San Francisco State University San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different b ...

. He received his PhD in linguistics from

University of Colorado at Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado sys ...

in 2012 where he worked under

Kira Hall Kira Hall (born 1962, Birmingham, Alabama) is professor of Linguistics and Anthropology, as well as director for the Program in Culture, Language, and Social Practice (CLASP), at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The majority of Hall's wor ...

. His dissertation, ''Voices in Transition: Testosterone, Transmasculinity, and the Gendered Voice among Female-to-Male Transgender People,'' used both

ethnographic Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...

and sociophonetic methods to explore the effects of

hormone therapy Hormone therapy or hormonal therapy is the use of hormones in medical treatment. Treatment with hormone antagonists may also be referred to as hormonal therapy or antihormone therapy. The most general classes of hormone therapy are oncologic horm ...

on the voices of trans men.

Career

Zimman's work has been influential in developing the field of trans linguistics. He has been widely recognized for his work on inclusive language reform and activism, the relationship between the body, biological sex, and the voice, and pronouns and

singular they Singular ''they'', along with its inflected or derivative forms, ''them'', ''their'', ''theirs'' and ''themselves'' (or ''themself''), is a gender-neutral third-person pronoun. It typically occurs with an unspecified antecedent, in sentence ...

. Zimman is currently assistant professor of Linguistics & Affiliated Faculty in Feminist Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also General Editor for Studies in Language, Gender, and Sexuality for

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...

. In 2014, Zimman published a co-edited volume, ''Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender, and Sexuality'' (published by Oxford University Press), which won the Association for Queer Anthropology's

Ruth Benedict Prize The Ruth Benedict Prize is an award given annually by the American Anthropological Association's "to acknowledge excellence in a scholarly book written from an anthropological perspective about a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender topic". The aw ...

. He has taught several classes on Sociocultural Linguistics, Language, Gender & Sexuality, and Sociophonetics. He has been interviewed for programs such as The Vocal Fries

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

Personal life

Zimman was raised in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

. Zimman is transgender and uses he or they

pronouns In linguistics and grammar, a pronoun (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word or a group of words that one may substitute for a noun or noun phrase. Pronouns have traditionally been regarded as one of the part of speech, parts o ...

Selected publications

* Zimman, Lal (2019). Trans self-identification and the language of neoliberal selfhood: Agency, power, and the limits of monologic discourse. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 256(1):147-175. * Zimman, Lal (2018). Pronouns and possibilities: Transgender language activism and reform. In Netta Avineri, Robin Conley, Laura R. Graham, Eric Johnson & Jonathan Rosa (Eds.), Language and Social Justice: Case Studies on Communication & the Creation of Just Societies. New York: Routledge. 176–183. * Zimman, Lal (2018) Transgender voices: Insights on identity, embodiment, and the gender of the voice. Language and Linguistics Compass 12(7):e12284. * Zimman, Lal (2018) Working with Transgender Communities. In Christine Mallinson, Becky Childs, & Gerard Van Herk (Eds.), Data Collection in Sociolinguistics: Methods and Applications. New York: Routledge. 49–52. * Zimman, Lal (2014). The discursive construction of sex: Remaking and reclaiming the gendered body in talk about genitals among trans men. In Lal Zimman, Joshua Raclaw, and Jenny Davis (eds.), Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender, and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 13–34. * Davis, Jenny, Lal Zimman, and Joshua Raclaw (2014). Opposites attract: Retheorizing binaries in language, gender, and sexuality. In Lal Zimman, Jenny Davis, & Joshua Raclaw (Eds.), Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender, and Sexuality. Oxford University Press. 1–12. * Edelman, Elijah & Lal Zimman (2014). Boycunts and bonus holes: Discourse about transmasculine bodies and the sexual productivity of genitals. Journal of Homosexuality 61(5):673-690. Special issue on Trans Sexualities, edited by Carla A. Pfeffer. * Zimman, Lal (2013). Hegemonic masculinity and the variability of gay-sounding speech: The perceived sexuality of transgender men. Journal of Language & Sexuality2(1):1-39. * Zimman, Lal & Kira Hall (2009). Language, embodiment, and the “third sex”. In Dominic Watt and Carmen Llamas (eds.), Language and Identities. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 166–178. * Zimman, Lal (2009). “The other kind of coming out”: Transgender people and the coming out narrative genre. Gender and Language 3(1):53-80.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zimman, Lal Linguists from the United States University of California, Santa Barbara faculty University of Colorado Boulder alumni San Francisco State University alumni Transgender academics