 Alana Johns is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, University of Toronto. She specializes in theories of syntax and morphology, and her research has focused predominantly on grammatical properties of Inuktitut, including grammatical differences across dialects. She currently has a group of linguistics graduate students working on the syntax of Inuktitut.
In addition to her linguistic research on Inuktitut, she has also been involved in issues having to do with the teaching and maintenance of Inuktitut within the communities where it is spoken. She taught Inuttitut linguistic courses to Inuit teachers and translator/interpreters in Nunatsiavut (northern Labrador) for a number of years, and has been invited to Nain by the Torngâsok Cultural Centre to speak on language maintenance issues.
On top of her regular linguistics teaching and research, Professor Johns also co-teaches Inuktitut as a second language. She has done this in St. John's and Happy Valley/Goose Bay for Memorial University of Newfoundland, as well as Rigolet Labrador on the request of the community. At the University of Toronto, Professor Johns is currently co-teaching Inuktitut courses with Saila Michael as part of the Aboriginal Studies Program.
Selected Publications:
Articles
- (2005) Catharyn Andersen and Alana Johns. Labrador Inuttitut: Speaking into the Future. Etudes Inuit Studies Vol. 29, 187-205.
- (2001) An Inclination towards Accusative. Linguistica Atlantica, 127-144.
- (1999) On the Lexical Semantics of Affixal Meaning ‘want’ in Inuktitut. International Journal of American Linguistics 65:2, 176-200.
- (1996) Ergativity: Working Through Some Recent Analyses. Glot International. Vol. 2, Issue 6, 3-7.
- (1996) with B. Elan Dresher. Rigolet and Phonological Change in Labrador. Etudes/Inuit /Studies 20:1, 113-121.
- (1996) with B. Elan Dresher. The Law of Double Consonants in Inuktitut. Linguistica Atlantica 17, 79-95.
- (1992) Deriving Ergativity. Linguistic Inquiry 23:1, 57-87.
Book Chapters
- (2006) Ergativity and Language Change. In A. Johns, D. Massam and J. Ndayiragije, eds. Ergativity: Emerging Issues, Springer, 293-315.
- (2001) Ergative to Accusative: Comparing Evidence from Inuktitut. In Changing Relations, ed. by Jan Terje Faarlund. In Language Companion Series, John Benjamins, Amsterdam, 205-221.
- (2001) with Irene Mazurkewich. The Role of the University in the Training of Native Language Teachers: Labrador. Chapter in The Green Book: Language Revitalization in Practice, ed. by Ken Hale and Leanne Hinton. New York: Academic Press.351-362.
- (2000) Ergativity: A Perspective on Recent Work. In the First GLOT International State-of-the-Article Book: The Latest in Linguistics, eds. L. Cheng and R. Sybesma, 47-73. The Hague: Mouton de Gruyter.
- (1996) The Occasional Absence of Anaphoric Agreement in Labrador Inuttut. Chapter in Micro-Parametric Syntax and Dialect Variation., ed. by J. Black and V. Motapanyane. Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 139. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins, , 121-143
- (1996) On Some Mood Alternations in Labrador Inuttut. Chapter in Grammatical Relations: Theoretical Approaches to Empirical Questions, ed. by C. Burgess, K. Dziwirek, and D. Gerdts, Center for the Study of Language and Information, CA [distributed by Cambridge University Press], 131-151.
- (1989) with John T. Jensen The Morphosyntax of Eskimo Causatives. Chapter in Theoretical Perspectives on Native American Languages, eds. D. Gerdts and K. Michelson, SUNY Press, N.Y., 209-229.
Monographs
- 2006. Ergativity: Emerging Issues. Edited with Diane Massam and Juvenal Ndayiragije. Springer.
e-mail: ajohns@chass.utoronto.ca
Websites:
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajohns/Inuktitut.html
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~ajohns/index.html
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