Linguistics Field Research

UCSD Department of Linguistics has a long tradition of fieldwork on different languages. Previously, Prof. Margaret Langdon, Prof. Ron Langacker and their students conducted fieldwork on Native American languages, including local languages of the San Diego area (Kumeyaay and Luiseno).
Farrell Ackerman is conducting research on Moro and Tundra Nenets. Previous languages included Estonian and Hungarian.
Sharon Rose is currently focusing primarily on Moro, but has researched Semitic languages of Ethiopia and Eritrea, including Chaha, Muher, Ezha, Endegen, Harari, Tigre and Tigrinya.
Other projects in the department are underway on Jinhua (Wu dialect of China), Mixtec (Oto-Manguean language of Mexico).and Spanish of the Tijuana/San Diego border area. Sign language research on different sign languages in the department is conducted through the Mayberry Lab for Comparative Language Acquisition

Graduate students take a Field Methods class as part of training in empirical methods. Undergraduate students can participate in research through courses such as Languages of Africa or independent study.

The Linguistics Field Research Lab is located in 1782 AP&M (Annex). The Lab is used for elicitation sessions with language consultants, project meetings and individual research. There is also an office in 1840 AP&M (Annex) for student use

Current Research

Current language projects in the department include:

  • Moro Language Project - funded by the National Science Foundation
  • Border Spanish Project - funded by the UCSD Academic Senate
  • Mixtec Language Project - funded by UCSD Latino Studies Research Initiative
  • Ejective Fricatives in Tigrinya - funded by the UCSD Academic Senate
  • Jinhua Tone Project

    • News

    Congratulations

    Undergraduate honors student Carlos Cisneros and Prof. Ivano Caponigro received a Latino Studies Research Initiative Summer Research Grant to conduct field research on Mixtec in Oaxaca, Mexico and with a local Mixtec immigrant community

    Publications

    Jenks, Peter & Sharon Rose. to appear. High Tone in Moro: Effects of Prosodic Categories and Morphological Domains. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory

    Lab Members