Sali A. Tagliamonte is a Canadian linguist. Her main area of research is the field of language variation and change.

Education

Tagliamonte received a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...

in Linguistics from

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,000 faculty and sta ...

in 1981, and a

Master of Arts A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

in 1983 and a Ph.D. in 1991 in Linguistics from University of Ottawa. Her graduate thesis, supervised by

Shana Poplack Shana Poplack, is a Distinguished University Professor in the linguistics department of the University of Ottawa and three time holder of the Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Linguistics. She is a leading proponent of variation theory, the appr ...

, looked at past temporal reference structures in

Samaná English Samaná English (SE and SAX) is a variety of the English language spoken by descendants of black immigrants from the United States who have lived in the Samaná Peninsula, now in the Dominican Republic. Members of the enclave are known as the Sa ...

Career

Tagliamonte has been a professor at the

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

since 2001, where she currently serves as Chair of the Department of Linguistics. Tagliamonte is also an Honorary Visiting Professor in the Department of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. She currently holds the title of

Canada Research Chair Canada Research Chair (CRC) is a title given to certain Canadian university research professors by the Canada Research Chairs Program. Program goals The Canada Research Chair program was established in 2000 as a part of the Government of Canada ...

in Language Variation and Change. Tagliamonte held a number of professional positions before joining the faculty of the University of Toronto. From 1995 to 2002 she held the position of Adjunct Professor at the Linguistics Department at University of Ottawa. She was a lecturer at the University of York on two occasions, in 1995 and 2000 and held a position of Visiting Assistant Professor there in 2001 until she became a professor at the University of Toronto. Tagliamonte's widely-cited research has focused on varieties of English. In particular, her work has focused on Ontario English, including projects related to speech communities looking at various communities in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

, North Bay,

South Porcupine The city of Timmins, Ontario, Canada contains many named neighbourhoods. Some former municipalities that were merged into Timmins continue to be treated as distinct postal and telephone exchanges from the city core. According to Barnes, "With th ...

, Kirkland Lake, Haliburton, Almonte,

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

Kapuskasing Kapuskasing is a town on the Kapuskasing River in the Cochrane District of Northern Ontario, Canada, approximately east of Hearst. The town was known as MacPherson until 1917, when the name was changed so as not to conflict with another rail ...

and

Barry's Bay Barry's Bay is a community in the township of Madawaska Valley, Ontario, Canada, located two hours west of Ottawa on the shores of Kamaniskeg Lake, with a 2016 population of 1,259. History The Algonquin people named the area Kuaenash Ne-ish ...

. She also collaborated with

Jennifer Smith (sociolinguist) Jennifer Smith, PhD, FRSE is a sociolinguistic specialist in language variation and dialects, especially Scottish dialects across the generations and geography of Scotland, including developing the Scottish syntax atlas which analyses the diver ...

FRSE on dialects in Scotland and North America. Tagliamonte has also worked on internet and youth language. She is a co-creator of a variable rule program, ''Goldvarb''.

Honors

Tagliamonte was a Killam Research Fellow from 2013-2015 and has been a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada since 2013. She was a media expert for the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: '' Language'' ...

in 2013. She was an associate editor of ''Language'' from 2007-2010. In 2017, Tagliamonte was inducted as a

Fellow A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context. In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements. Within the context of higher education ...

of the

Selected publications

* Shana Poplack and Sali A. Tagliamonte. (1989) There’s no tense like the present: Verbal ''-s'' inflection in early Black English. ''Language Variation and Change'' 1.1: 47-84. * Sali A. Tagliamonte. (1998) ''Was/were'' variation across the generations: View from the city of York. ''Language Variation and Change''. 10:2: 153-191. * Sali A. Tagliamonte and Rachel Hudson. (1999). ''Be like'' et al. beyond America: The quotative system in British and Canadian youth. ''Journal of Sociolinguistics''. 3:2: 147-172. * Sali A. Tagliamonte and Shana Poplack. (2001) ''African American English in the diaspora: Tense and aspect''. Oxford: Blackwell. * Sali A. Tagliamonte. (2001) ''Come/came'' variation in English dialects. ''American Speech''. 76.1: 42-61. * Sali A. Tagliamonte and Chris Roberts. (2005) So weird; so cool; so innovative: The use of intensifiers in the television series Friends. ''American Speech''. 80.3: 280-300 * Sali A. Tagliamonte. (2006) ''Analysing Sociolinguistic Variation''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. * Sali A. Tagliamonte. (2012) ''Variationist Sociolinguistics: Change, Observation, Interpretation''. Wiley-Blackwell Publishers. * Sali A. Tagliamonte. (2013) ''Roots of English: Exploring the History of Dialects''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. *Sali A. Tagliamonte. (2016) ''Teen Talk: The Language of Adolescents.'' Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tagliamonte, Sali Linguists from Canada York University alumni University of Ottawa alumni University of Toronto faculty Fellows of the Royal Society of Canada Women linguists Canadian women academics Sociolinguists Living people Year of birth missing (living people) Fellows of the Linguistic Society of America