Shana Poplack
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Shana Poplack, is a Distinguished University Professor in the
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 ...
department of the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...
and three time holder of the
Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...
(Tier I) in Linguistics. She is a leading proponent of variation theory, the approach to language science pioneered by
William Labov William Labov ( ; born December 4, 1927) is an American linguist widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of variationist sociolinguistics. He has been described as "an enormously original and influential figure who has created much of ...
. She has extended the methodology and theory of this field into bilingual speech patterns, the prescription-praxis dialectic in the co-evolution of standard and non-standard languages, and the comparative reconstruction of ancestral speech varieties, including
African American vernacular English African-American Vernacular English (AAVE, ), also referred to as Black (Vernacular) English, Black English Vernacular, or occasionally Ebonics (a colloquial, controversial term), is the variety of English natively spoken, particularly in urban ...
. She founded and directs the University of Ottawa
Sociolinguistics Sociolinguistics is the descriptive study of the effect of any or all aspects of society, including cultural Norm (sociology), norms, expectations, and context (language use), context, on the way language is used, and society's effect on languag ...
Laboratory.


Biography

Born in
Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at ...
, and raised in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, she studied at Queens College and
New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...
, then lived in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
for several years, studying with André Martinet at the
Sorbonne Sorbonne may refer to: * Sorbonne (building), historic building in Paris, which housed the University of Paris and is now shared among multiple universities. *the University of Paris (c. 1150 – 1970) *one of its components or linked institution, ...
before moving to the
University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...
, where she took her PhD (1979) under Labov's supervision. She joined the University of Ottawa in 1981.


Work

Poplack's work privileges the use of large-scale digitized databases of unreflecting,
vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...
speech and variable rule statistical methodology. Much of her research has involved the empirical testing of popular opinions on language, particularly as pertains to received wisdom surrounding language 'quality' or 'purity'.


Language contact

Poplack's many studies on language contact (examining multiple language pairs) have demonstrated that borrowing has no lasting structural effects on a recipient language and that many changes attributed to language contact can be alternately explained by internal language change. During three years as a researcher at the
Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños El Centro, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies or Centro de Estudios Puertorriqueños, is a university-based research institute whose mission is to produce, facilitate, and disseminate interdisciplinary research about the experiences of Puerto Ri ...
,
City University of New York The City University of New York ( CUNY; , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven Upper divis ...
, her studies of
code-switching In linguistics, code-switching or language alternation occurs when a speaker alternates between two or more languages, or language varieties, in the context of a single conversation or situation. Code-switching is different from plurilingualism ...
among Puerto Ricans in New York initiated her characterization of universal patterns of intrasentential language mixing, and demonstrated that fluent code-mixing is a bilingual skill rather than a defect. Over three decades, she made numerous contributions to the understanding of bilingual syntax in social context, many involving typologically contrasting language pairs. Recent projects (2008) focus on the question of contact-induced change in English where it is a minority language (e.g. Quebec anglophones).


Standard French

Much of Poplack's recent work investigates the question of whether the grammatical prescriptions of Standard French are stable, invariant, and consistent.


Corpora

In 1981, Poplack moved to the
University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...
, where she assembled, transcribed, and concordanced a mega-corpus of informal conversations among French speakers in the Canadian national capital region, providing her and many other researchers with an extraordinary research resource on contemporary vernacular French.


Historical and comparative studies

Poplack's analyses of vernacular varieties of New World Spanish,
Canadian French Canadian French (french: français canadien) is the French language as it is spoken in Canada. It includes Varieties of French#Canada, multiple varieties, the most prominent of which is Quebec French, Québécois (Quebec French). Formerly ''Can ...
and
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
, and
Brazilian Portuguese Brazilian Portuguese (' ), also Portuguese of Brazil (', ) or South American Portuguese (') is the set of varieties of the Portuguese language native to Brazil and the most influential form of Portuguese worldwide. It is spoken by almost all of ...
are characterized by skepticism towards standard explanations of variation and change based on language simplification or external influences, in favour of historical and comparative studies of internal evolution.


Diasporic English

Poplack's work on the origins of African American Vernacular is based on evidence from elderly descendants of American slaves recorded during fieldwork in isolated communities in the
Samaná Peninsula The Samaná Península is a peninsula in Dominican Republic situated in the province of Samaná. The Samaná Peninsula is connected to the rest of the state by the isthmus of Samaná; to its south is Samaná Bay. The peninsula contains many beache ...
, Dominican Republic ( Samana English) and in
Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...
. This showed widespread retention of syntactic and morphological features (including the entire tense and aspect system) from earlier British and colonial English, contrary to previous theories attributing such features to a widespread early American creole. Current projects (2008) focus on contact-induced change in English as a minority language and the role of the school in impeding linguistic change.


Awards and honours

Shana Poplack was elected a Fellow 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 ...
in 1998 and won the
Pierre Chauveau Medal The Pierre Chauveau Medal is a biennial award of the Royal Society of Canada "for a distinguished contribution to knowledge in the humanities other than Canadian literature and Canadian history". The award consists of a silver medal and is named ...
in 2005. She was voted faculty professor of the year (1999), named as Distinguished University Professor (2002), and voted Researcher of the Year (2003) at the University of Ottawa. She received a
Killam Research Fellowship Killam is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Albert Clements Killam (1849–1908), Canadian lawyer * Amasa Emerson Killam (1834–1922), Canadian politician * Dorothy J. Killam (1900–1965), Canadian philanthropist * Eva Ki ...
in 2001 and the Killam prize in 2007. She was awarded a
Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...
in 2001, which was renewed in both 2007 and 2014. She has won a Fulbright visiting scholar award (1990), a
Trudeau Foundation The Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation (french: Fondation Pierre Elliott Trudeau), commonly called the Trudeau Foundation (french: Fondation Trudeau), is an independent and non-partisan Canadian charity founded in 2001 by friends and family of for ...
fellowship (2007), the Ontario Premier's Discovery award (2008), a Fellowship with 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'', ...
(2011), the Gold Medal for Achievement in Research (2012) by the
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada 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 ...
, and the André-Laurendeau Acfas prize (2019). She was elected fellow 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'', ...
(2009), was named a Member of 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 ...
in 2014, and, in 2017, was named
Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or ') is a terminal degree in the humanities that, depending on the country, is a higher doctorate after the Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degree or equivalent to a higher doctorate, such as the Doctor ...
( honoris causa) of
University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland ...
.


Publications

Poplack's major publications include ''Instant Loans, Easy Conditions: The Productivity of Bilingual Borrowing'' (1998), a special issue of the International Journal of Bilingualism, with Marjory Meechan, ''The English History of African American English'' (2000) and, with Sali Tagliamonte, African American English in the Diaspora (2001), and ''Borrowing: Loanwords in the Speech Community and in the Grammar'' (2018; Oxford University Press ').


References


External links


Shana Poplack's home pagePremier's Discovery Awards 2008Centro de estudios puertorriqueñosTrudeau Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Poplack, Shana Living people Sociolinguists Linguists from Canada Women linguists Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada University of Paris alumni Queens College, City University of New York alumni New York University alumni University of Pennsylvania alumni City University of New York faculty University of Ottawa faculty Year of birth missing (living people) Canada Research Chairs Members of the Order of Canada Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America