Diane Massam Explained

Alma Mater:	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Doctoral Advisor:	Noam Chomsky
Discipline:	Linguistics
Sub Discipline:	Syntax of Niuean
Workplaces:	University of Toronto

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

External links

• Massam's faculty homepage at U of Toronto
• 50 years of Linguistics at MIT
• "A Conversation with Diane Massam", Sali Tagliamonte, 13 November 2017, Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto

Notes and References

1. Web site: Diane Massam Curriculum Vitae. 2011. University of Toronto.
2. Web site: Linguistics . The U. Of T. Department Of . 2017-11-13 . What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics : A Conversation with Diane Massam, by Sali Tagliamonte . 2022-08-16 . What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics.
3. Web site: Alumni and their Dissertations – MIT Linguistics . 2022-08-16 . linguistics.mit.edu . en-US.
4. Web site: 2017-11-08 . Diane Massam . 2022-08-16 . Department of Linguistics . en.
5. Web site: 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 . 2022-08-16 . What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics.
6. Web site: Diane Massam . 2022-08-16 . scholar.google.com.
7. Web site: Diane Massam at AFLA 21. 2014-05-29. June 13, 2015. What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics (WHITL).
8. Web site: Conseil d'administration et comités. June 13, 2015. August 11, 2015. https://web.archive.org/web/20150811151049/http://cla-acl.ca/administration/. dead.
9. Web site: What's Happening in Toronto Linguistics (WHITL). 3 June 2015. 2015-06-13.
10. Book: Niuean: Predicates and Arguments in an Isolating Language. June 9, 2020. Oxford University Press. Oxford Studies of Endangered Languages . 978-0-19-879355-7 . Massam . Diane .