Emily Nguyen is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Linguistics at New York University. Her research interests lie in the study of linguistic variation, sociophonetics, and acoustic phonetics, and the larger themes her research seeks to address include how language use relates to social phenomena and how phonological theory is informed by phonetic information. She has investigated various features of the Upper Midwest dialect and New York City English in addition to nasal coarticulation in English, and her dissertation research is situated within the intersection of language and ethnicity, with focus on linguistic variation and identity formation among Vietnamese Americans in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota.
Title: Speaking in a “Minnesotan accent”: TRAP-raising among Vietnamese Americans
This talk seeks to address the question of how ethnic minority speakers engage in local “mainstream” vowel phonology. There is evidence that points towards nonparticipation (see Labov, 2001), but there is also evidence suggesting that participation depends upon lifestyle orientations and network affiliations (e.g. Fought, 1999; Wong, 2007). Here, participation in local vowel phonology, with focus on the TRAP vowel class, is explored among Vietnamese Americans in the metropolitan area of Minnesota who are members of a Vietnamese American student organization. Findings suggest that members of this community of practice (Eckert and McConnel-Ginet, 1992) vary in their use of TRAP forms, but this variation is related to their involvement in the larger Vietnamese community. A discussion of the findings will include how qualitative information on individuals and communities can be incorporated into linguistic analysis.
Deanna Yoder-Black is a graduate (BA 2002 Linguistics, BS2004 Communication Science and Disorders) of St. Cloud State University who went on to earn her Master’s of Science in Speech Language Pathology from Boston University (2006). She has the unique position, then, to utilize her linguistics foundation in her treatment of her patients. Deanna’s patients primarily see her for a neurological communication and cognition disorders resulting from a variety of neurological insults (e.g. stroke, brain injury, progressive disorders, congenital disorders). Deanna is passionate about the field of neurolinguistics and strives to utilize this exciting sub-field of theoretical linguistics in order in improve patient outcomes as her patients aspire to return to home, work, and life. Deanna has traveled the United States gaining a wide variety of experience while working in IL, NC, GA, TX, MN, VA, and AK. She currently works and resides in the great state of Alaska. Her plenary talk will highlight the complementarity between theoretical linguistics, neurolinguistics, and communication sciences and disorders.