Research and Teaching
Problem-solving and linguistic argumentation have always appealed
to me. There's something I find deeply satisfying about
discovering new evidence for an analysis or bringing new evidence to
bear on a theoretical claim. I also enjoy doing linguistic fieldwork. And
I'm committed to the idea that lesser-studied languages
have as much to contribute to syntactic theory as do languages like English,
French, and Italian. These interests have shaped my research on
syntactic theory and Austronesian languages. The Austronesian languages --
some 1200 languages dispersed over a large area that includes the Pacific --
form one of the world's largest language families. I began doing fieldwork
on Maori, Tongan, and Samoan (all languages of the South Pacific) as an
undergraduate. As a graduate student, I also did fieldwork on
Indonesian. Since 1977, the main empirical focus of my research has been
Chamorro, a language of the Mariana Islands. My fieldwork on Chamorro
takes me regularly to Saipan. Some of the questions
I've investigated: How is verb-first word order derived? What is the
best way to understand ergativity? What accounts for wh-agreement -- the special
morphological agreement found in questions and relative clauses
in some languages, -- and what does this agreement reveal about the
syntax of displacement? Lately my interests have broadened. I'm currently working on several projects at the syntax-semantics interface. I'm also collaborating with Dr. Elizabeth D. Rechebei on a three-year NSF project to upgrade the documentation of the Chamorro language. In July 2011, Matt Wagers, Manuel F. Borja, and I began an experimental syntax project in the Mariana Islands.
I teach syntax at all levels. At the undergraduate level, I also teach introductory logic, poetics, and historical linguistics. I will be on sabbatical in Fall 2011 and Spring 2012. My teaching in Winter 2012: Linguistics 108 (Poetry and Language) and Linguistics 112 (Syntax 1).
Selected Links
The Chamorro Language Project (NMI Council for the Humanities)Utugrafihan Finu' Chamorro (the new Chamorro orthography)
Trip to Taiwan, March 2006
I Mina'dos na Konferensian Chamorro, September 2007
Winter Holidays in Berlin, 2007
Photo of Sandy by S. Jay Keyser, July 2005; photos of Saipan, July 2009.