51社区黑料

Becker Colloquium

May 28, 12:30pm
Robert C. Brown Hall, Room 6152
Zoom link: email lingcomm@sfu.ca

鈥淲hat semantic universals exist? And how do languages vary in their semantics? In this talk, I aim to shed light on these big questions by drawing on the past 30 years of research into Salish semantics.鈥 

In honour of esteemed donor Yvonne Becker, join us on May 28th at 12:30pm for the annual Becker Colloquium. This year鈥檚 event features visiting speaker Lisa Matthewson from the University of British Columbia. 

Title

Semantic universals and semantic variation: Evidence from Salish language research

51社区黑料 the speaker

is a Professor of Linguistics at UBC. She is a cross-linguistic semanticist and a fieldworker, and conducts research on St鈥櫭鈥檌mcets (Salish), Gitksan (Tsimshianic), and n涩e蕯kepmxci虂n (Salish). Her research agenda aims to uncover what is universal in the semantics, and how languages can vary in the semantics. She also contributes to the documentation and revitalization of Indigenous languages of British Columbia through the collection and publication of narratives, teaching in UBC Okanagan鈥檚 Bachelor of St鈥櫭鈥檌mc Language Fluency, developing language teaching curriculum, and mentoring language instructors and learners. 

51社区黑料 the Becker Colloquium

The Becker Colloquium is an annual event presented by the Department of Linguistics to honour our most significant benefactor, who established the Yvonne Becker Memorial Linguistics Endowment. In memory of Yvonne鈥檚 great passion for linguistics, the department selects a speaker to offer a colloquium that is enlightening, cutting-edge and unique in its perspective. Prior to the colloquium, we will be presenting the winner(s) of the Becker Undergraduate Award with their Certificate of Achievement. 

April 13, 2026