Diane Massam

Diane Massam is a Canadian linguist, Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto.

Diane Massam
Academic background
Alma materMassachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral advisorNoam Chomsky
Academic work
DisciplineLinguistics
Sub-disciplineSyntax of Niuean
InstitutionsUniversity of Toronto

Education and research

She earned her PhD in linguistics under Noam Chomsky[1][2] in 1985 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.[3] She held a position in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Toronto from 1989 until her retirement in 2017, when she became professor emeritus.[4][5]

Massam specializes in the syntax of Niuean, an Austronesian language spoken in the South Pacific country of Niue.[6] She developed an analysis of a type of verb plus noun compounding called noun incorporation which has opened a window to analyze similar phenomena in other languages. Her analysis also proposed a novel way of understanding the relationship between a subject and its predicate.

Honors

She was a keynote speaker at the 21st annual meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA) in 2014.[7]

She has served on the Advisory Board of the Canadian Journal of Linguistics, and on the Editorial Board of the journal Linguistic Inquiry.

Massam was appointed Vice-President of the Canadian Linguistic Association in 2015. Upon completion of her two-year term in this position she served as President of the CLA from 2017 to 2019.[8][9]

Publications
  • Massam, D. 2020. Niuean: Predicates and Arguments in an Isolating Language. (Oxford Studies of Endangered Languages). Oxford University Press.[10]
  • Massam, D. 2017. Extra be: The syntax of shared shell-noun constructions in English. Language 93.1: 121–152.
  • Massam, D. (Ed.) 2012. Count and Mass Across Languages (Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 42). Oxford University Press.
  • Massam, D., J. Lee and N. Rolle. 2006. "Still a Preposition: The Category of ko," Te Reo: Journal of the Linguistic Society of New Zealand 49:3-38.
  • Massam, D., Starks and O. Ikiua. 2006. "On the Edge of Grammar: Discourse Particles in Niuean," Oceanic Linguistics 45.1:191-205.
  • Massam D., M. Abdolhosseini and K. Oda. 2002. "Number and Events: Verbal Reduplication in Niuean" Oceanic Linguistics 41.2:475-492.
  • Massam D. 2001. "Pseudo Noun Incorporation in Niuean", Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 19:1:153-197.
  • Massam D. 2000. VSO and VOS: Aspects of Niuean word order," The syntax of verb initial languages.
  • Massam D. and W. Sperlich. 2000. "Possession in Niuean"in Steven Fischer, ed. Possessive Markers in Central Pacific Languages: Thematic volume of Language Typology and Universals (Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung). pp. 281-292.
  • Massam, D. 1999. "Thing-is Constructions: The thing is, is what's the right analysis" English Language and Linguistics 3.2:335-352.
  • S. Bejar and D. Massam. 1999. "Multiple Case Checking" Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research, 2.2:65-79. 1999.
  • Massam, D. 1998. "Instrumental aki and the Nature of Niuean Transitivity" Oceanic Linguistics: 37.1:12-28.
  • Ghomeshi, J. and D. Massam. 1994, "Lexical/Syntactic Relations Without Projection" Linguistic Analysis 24.3-4:175-217.
  • Massam, D. 1985. "Case theory and the projection principle."
  • Levin, J. and D. Massam. 1985. "Surface ergativity: Case/theta relations reexamined," Proceedings of NELS.

References
  1. "Diane Massam Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). University of Toronto. 2011.
  2. Linguistics, The U. Of T. Department Of (2017-11-13). "What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics : A Conversation with Diane Massam, by Sali Tagliamonte". What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  3. "Alumni and their Dissertations – MIT Linguistics". linguistics.mit.edu. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  4. "Diane Massam". Department of Linguistics. 2017-11-08. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  5. Linguistics, The U. Of T. Department Of (2017-07-03). "What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics : Diane Massam's retirement: messages from some former students". What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  6. "Diane Massam". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2022-08-16.
  7. "Diane Massam at AFLA 21". What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics (WHITL). 2014-05-29. Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  8. "Conseil d'administration et comités". Retrieved June 13, 2015.
  9. "What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics (WHITL)". 3 June 2015. Retrieved 2015-06-13.
  10. Massam, Diane (June 9, 2020). Niuean: Predicates and Arguments in an Isolating Language. Oxford Studies of Endangered Languages. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-879355-7.


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