Lisa Matthewson

Last updated
Lisa Matthewson
Academic background
Alma mater University of British Columbia
Thesis Determiner Systems and Quantificational Strategies: Evidence from Salish
Doctoral advisor Dale Kinkade
Website linguistics.ubc.ca/profile/lisa-matthewson/

Lisa Christine Matthewson is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at University of British Columbia with specialties in pragmatics and semantics. [1] She has also done significant work with semantic fieldwork and in the preservation and oral history of First Nations languages, especially St'át'imcets and Gitksan. [2] Matthewson's appointment at UBC was notable because she was the first female full professor in the department's history. [3]

Contents

Biography

Matthewson received her BA and MA from Victoria University of Wellington. She received her PhD in linguistics from the University of British Columbia in 1996. [4] In 1998, her PhD thesis, "Determiner Systems and Quantificational Strategies: Evidence from Salish," was awarded the E. W. Beth Dissertation Prize, [5] given to outstanding PhD theses in the fields of Logic, Language, and Information.

Matthewson's research explores how variation in semantics and pragmatics among languages can provide insight into the proposal of a Universal Grammar. [6] Her paper, On the Methodology of Semantic Fieldwork, is one of her most widely cited papers. [7] Matthewson co-edited the 2015 book Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork from Oxford University Press. [8]

Matthewson also co-developed the Totem Field Storyboards project, which seeks to gather linguistic information from speakers without direct interviews. [9] [10]

Key publications

Matthewson, Lisa 1999. On the Interpretation of Wide-Scope Indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 7:79-134.

Matthewson, Lisa 2001. Quantification and the Nature of Cross-Linguistic Variation.Natural Language Semantics 9:145-189.

Matthewson, Lisa 2004. On the Methodology of Semantic Fieldwork. International Journal of American Linguistics 70:369-415.

Schaeffer, Jeannette and Lisa Matthewson 2005. Grammar and Pragmatics in the Acquisition of Article Systems. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 23:53-101.

Matthewson, Lisa 2006. Temporal Semantics in a Supposedly Tenseless Language.Linguistics and Philosophy 29:673-713.

Matthewson, Lisa, Hotze Rullmann and Henry Davis 2007. Evidentials as Epistemic Modals: Evidence from St’at’imcets. The Linguistic Variation Yearbook 7.

von Fintel, Kai and Lisa Matthewson 2008. Universals in Semantics. The Linguistic Review 25(1-2):139-201.

Rullmann, Hotze, Lisa Matthewson and Henry Davis 2008. Modals as Distributive Indefinites. Natural Language Semantics 16:317-357.

Bochnak, Ryan and Lisa Matthewson (eds.) 2015. Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork.Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Burton, Lisa and Strang Burton 2015. Targeted Construction Storyboards in Semantic Fieldwork. In R. Bochnak and L. Matthewson (eds.), Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 135–156.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Functional linguistics</span> Approach to linguistics

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The following outline is provided as an overview and topical guide to linguistics:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Semantics</span> Study of meaning in language

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pragmatics</span> Branch of linguistics and semiotics relating context to meaning

In linguistics and related fields, pragmatics is the study of how context contributes to meaning. The field of study evaluates how human language is utilized in social interactions, as well as the relationship between the interpreter and the interpreted. Linguists who specialize in pragmatics are called pragmaticians. The field has been represented since 1986 by the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dirk Geeraerts</span>

Dirk Geeraerts is a Belgian linguist. He is professor emeritus of theoretical linguistics at the University of Leuven, Belgium. He is the founder of the research unit Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL). His main research interests involve the overlapping fields of lexical semantics, lexicology, and lexicography, with a theoretical focus on cognitive semantics. His involvement with cognitive linguistics dates from the 1980s, when in his PhD thesis he was one of the first in Europe to explore the possibilities of a prototype-theoretical model of categorization. As the founder of the journal Cognitive Linguistics and as the editor of the Oxford Handbook of Cognitive Linguistics, he played an instrumental role in the international expansion of cognitive linguistics. Geeraerts is one of the outspoken advocates of the implementation of empirical methodologies, such as corpus linguistics in cognitive linguistic research. He also argues for the involvement of more pragmatic elements such as contextual factors, lectal variation, and language history that influence the construal of word meanings and the choice of lexical items for concepts.

Frame semantics is a theory of linguistic meaning developed by Charles J. Fillmore that extends his earlier case grammar. It relates linguistic semantics to encyclopedic knowledge. The basic idea is that one cannot understand the meaning of a single word without access to all the essential knowledge that relates to that word. For example, one would not be able to understand the word "sell" without knowing anything about the situation of commercial transfer, which also involves, among other things, a seller, a buyer, goods, money, the relation between the money and the goods, the relations between the seller and the goods and the money, the relation between the buyer and the goods and the money and so on. Thus, a word activates, or evokes, a frame of semantic knowledge relating to the specific concept to which it refers.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katarzyna Jaszczolt</span> British linguist

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References

  1. "Lisa Matthewson | UBC Linguistics". linguistics.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  2. Kratzer, Angelika (January 7, 2014). "Lisa Matthewson: Semantic variation". My semantics notebook. Retrieved March 3, 2016.
  3. "Inaugural Professorial Lecture: Professor Lisa Matthewson". University of British Columbia. Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  4. "Full List Of Alumni Dissertations & Theses | UBC Linguistics". linguistics.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2017-09-23.
  5. "Beth Award | The Association for Logic, Language and Information" . Retrieved January 18, 2016.
  6. "Lisa Matthewson | UBC Linguistics". linguistics.ubc.ca. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  7. "Lisa Matthewson - Google Scholar Citations". scholar.google.com. Retrieved 2017-09-24.
  8. Bochnak, M. Ryan; Matthewson, Lisa, eds. (2015). Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork - Oxford Scholarship. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190212339.001.0001. ISBN   978-0-19-021233-9.
  9. "Storyboards for Language Documentation". totemfieldstoryboards.org. Retrieved 2016-03-05.
  10. Burton, Strang & Lisa Matthewson (2015). "Targeted Construction Storyboards in Semantic Fieldwork". In Matthewson, Lisa (ed.). Methodologies in Semantic Fieldwork. pp. 135–156. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190212339.003.0006. ISBN   978-0-19-021233-9.