Maria Polinsky, Professor of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College Park

Field linguistics, research on language endangerment, and the study of bilingualism seldom talk to each other, yet they converge on a single object: the grammars of minoritized languages. This talk argues that heritage languages and endangered indigenous languages, though they differ sharply in external setting — homeland, cultural affinity, availability of a baseline, histories of persecution — pattern alike in community-level speech behavior and, more strikingly, in internal structure. Because heritage speakers can be evaluated against an accessible baseline, they offer a template for endangered languages, where the traditional baseline is typically lost. Several recurrent factors are proposed to shape minoritized grammars: The talk closes with a methodological argument, drawing on optional agreement in Santiago Tz'utujil: pooling judgments across speakers can obscure attested grammars and yield grammars no individual possesses. 

View the talk together with us in SOL:A158 and join us for after work!