Lisa Christine Matthewson is Professor of

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 ...

in the Department of Linguistics at

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

with specialties in

pragmatics In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the int ...

and

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy Philosophy (f ...

. She has also done significant work with semantic fieldwork and in the preservation and oral history of

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

languages, especially St'át'imcets and

Gitksan Gitxsan (also spelled Gitksan) are an Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous people in Canada whose home territory comprises most of the area known as the Skeena Country in English (: means "people of" and : means "the River of Mist"). Gitksan ...

. Matthewson's appointment at UBC was notable because she was the first female full professor in the department's history.

Biography

Matthewson received her BA and MA from

Victoria University of Wellington Victoria University of Wellington ( mi, Te Herenga Waka) is a university in Wellington, New Zealand. It was established in 1897 by Act of Parliament, and was a constituent college of the University of New Zealand. The university is well know ...

. She received her PhD in linguistics from the

in 1996. In 1998, her PhD thesis, "Determiner Systems and Quantificational Strategies: Evidence from Salish," was awarded the E. W. Beth Dissertation Prize, given to outstanding PhD theses in the fields of Logic, Language, and Information. Matthewson's research explores how variation in semantics and pragmatics among languages can provide insight into the proposal of a

Universal Grammar Universal grammar (UG), in modern linguistics, is the theory of the genetic component of the language faculty, usually credited to Noam Chomsky. The basic postulate of UG is that there are innate constraints on what the grammar of a possible hum ...

. Her paper
On the Methodology of Semantic Fieldwork
is one of her most widely cited papers. Matthewson co-edited the 2015 book ''Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork'' from

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 ...

. Matthewson also co-developed the Totem Field Storyboards project, which seeks to gather linguistic information from speakers without direct interviews.

Key publications

Matthewson, Lisa 1999. On the Interpretation of Wide-Scope Indefinites. ''Natural Language Semantics'' 7:79-134. Matthewson, Lisa 2001. Quantification and the Nature of Cross-Linguistic Variation.''Natural Language Semantics'' 9:145-189. Matthewson, Lisa 2004. On the Methodology of Semantic Fieldwork. ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' 70:369-415. Schaeffer, Jeannette and Lisa Matthewson 2005. Grammar and Pragmatics in the Acquisition of Article Systems. ''Natural Language and Linguistic Theory'' 23:53-101. Matthewson, Lisa 2006. Temporal Semantics in a Supposedly Tenseless Language.''Linguistics and Philosophy'' 29:673-713. Matthewson, Lisa, Hotze Rullmann and Henry Davis 2007. Evidentials as Epistemic Modals: Evidence from St’at’imcets. ''The Linguistic Variation Yearbook'' 7. von Fintel, Kai and Lisa Matthewson 2008. Universals in Semantics. ''The Linguistic Review'' 25(1-2):139-201. Rullmann, Hotze, Lisa Matthewson and Henry Davis 2008. Modals as Distributive Indefinites. ''Natural Language Semantics'' 16:317-357. Bochnak, Ryan and Lisa Matthewson (eds.) 2015. ''Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork.''Oxford: Oxford University Press. Burton, Lisa and Strang Burton 2015. Targeted Construction Storyboards in Semantic Fieldwork. In R. Bochnak and L. Matthewson (eds.), ''Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork.'' Oxford: Oxford University Press, 135–156.

References

External links

Lisa Matthewson's page
on the UBC website
Featured Linguist
on the LinguistList
Interview on Radio New Zealand
{{DEFAULTSORT:Matthewson, Lisa Living people Women linguists Year of birth missing (living people) Linguists from New Zealand University of British Columbia alumni 21st-century linguists University of British Columbia faculty Canadian women academics Linguists of Salishan languages