Diane Massam is a Canadian linguist. She earned her PhD in linguistics under

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...

in 1985 from the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

. She held a position in the Department of Linguistics at the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

from 1989 until her retirement in 2017, when she became

professor emeritus ''Emeritus'' (; female: ''emerita'') is an adjective used to designate a retired chair, professor, pastor, bishop, pope, director, president, prime minister, rabbi, emperor, or other person who has been "permitted to retain as an honorary title ...

. Massam specializes in the syntax of Niuean, an Austronesian

language Language is a structured system of communication. The structure of a language is its grammar and the free components are its vocabulary. Languages are the primary means by which humans communicate, and may be conveyed through a variety of ...

spoken in the South Pacific country of

Niue Niue (, ; niu, Niuē) is an island country in the South Pacific Ocean, northeast of New Zealand. Niue's land area is about and its population, predominantly Polynesian, was about 1,600 in 2016. Niue is located in a triangle between Tong ...

. She developed an analysis of a type of verb plus noun

compound Compound may refer to: Architecture and built environments * Compound (enclosure), a cluster of buildings having a shared purpose, usually inside a fence or wall ** Compound (fortification), a version of the above fortified with defensive struc ...

ing called

noun incorporation In linguistics, incorporation is a phenomenon by which a grammatical category, such as a verb, forms a compound with its direct object (object incorporation) or adverbial modifier, while retaining its original syntactic function. The inclusion of ...

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 Predicate or predication may refer to: * Predicate (grammar), in linguistics * Predication (philosophy) * several closely related uses in mathematics and formal logic: **Predicate (mathematical logic) **Propositional function **Finitary relation, o ...

. She was a keynote speaker at the 21st annual meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association (AFLA) in 2014. She has served on the Advisory Board of the

Canadian Journal of Linguistics The ''Canadian Journal of Linguistics'' (French: ''Revue canadienne de linguistique'') is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering theoretical and applied linguistics. It is published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Can ...

, 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.

Publications

* Massam, D. 2020. Niuean: Predicates and Arguments in an Isolating Language. (Oxford Studies of Endangered Languages). Oxford University Press. * 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

References

Living people Linguists from Canada Syntacticians MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences alumni University of Toronto alumni University of Toronto faculty Women linguists Linguists of Austronesian languages Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century linguists 21st-century linguists {{Niue-stub