Welcome to MUSL!
The Memorial University Sociolinguistics Laboratory (MUSL, pronounced “mussel”) was established in 2006 and is located in the Facilities Management building, FM-2006. Our goal is to be a resource for local sociolinguists, and eventually for researchers worldwide who are interested in language and society in Newfoundland and Labrador.
Latest news
Canadian Language Museum at Memorial University
Posted 05 November 2012
The Canadian Language Museum's exhibit on Canadian English will be on display in the Arts Atrium until Saturday, November 10. Canadian English, Eh? is the first traveling exhibit the Canadian Language Museum has produced. It looks at variation in Canadian English across the country and discusses influences from French and Aboriginal languages.
Congratulations to Evan Hazenburg
Posted 29 October 2012
Evan Hazenburg received his Master's of Arts this fall! His thesis, entitled "Language and identity practice: A sociolinguistic study of gender in Ottawa, Ontario," looks at three gender-indexing variables in Ottawa, studied across several gender and identity categories (queer/straight, male/female, transsexual/bisexual).
Evan will be heading to New Zealand soon to start his PhD at The University of Auckland to study with Miriam Meyerhoff.
Celebrating 30 years of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English
Posted 24 October 2012
Next month, MUSL folks will be participating in "Celebrating 30 years of the Dictionary of Newfoundland English: Newfoundland and Labrador English Symposium", a two-day event in honour of the dictionary and its editors. The event is presented by Memorial's English Language Research Centre, as well as the Linguistics and English Departments.
MUSL participants include:
- Sandra Clarke on "Mapping regional diversity: Introducing the Online Dialect Atlas of Newfoundland and Labrador English"
- Rachel Deal, on "“Our Little Townie”: Observing and performing in Ferryland"
- Paul De Decker, title TBA
- Suzanne Powe on "In the field with Dr. John Widdowson"
- Jennifer Thorburn on "English in Labrador"
- Gerard Van Herk on "Enregister now! Salience, enregisterment, and Newfoundland English and identity"
For more information, consult this entry on Twig, the ELRC's blog. All of the events are free so we hope to see you there!
MUSLing in on LSA 2013
Posted 22 September 2012
Next January, Paul De Decker and Jennifer Thorburn will be heading to Boston to present their research at the annual meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Paul's paper is entitled "Constructing Gender through quoted voices: A quantitative study" and Jennifer's poster is "On English in Aboriginal communities: A variationist analysis of Inuit English".
Call for papers: LSA
Posted 13 July 2012
The 2013 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America is meeting 3-6 January 2013 at the Boston Marriot Copley Place in Boston, MA.
The call for papers is open to all members in good standing of LSA, including those who join the LSA at this time. Abstracts must be no more than 500 words, and not longer than one page. For more details, see the website.
The deadline for abstract submission is July 31, 2012.
MUSL at NWAV 41
Posted 5 July 2012
Two MUSL associates will be presenting at the 41st annual New Ways of Analyzing Variation conference, 25-28 October 2012, at Indiana University Bloomington.
- Gerard Van Herk, "Using the past to explain the past: Aspect and past temporal reference in urbanizing Newfoundland English". [abstract]
- Evan Hazenberg, "Identity, privilege, and linguistic choice: covariation in gender-marked forms". [abstract]
Stay tuned for updates as the schedule is released.
