Gerardo Augusto Lorenzino
(Associate Chair for Graduate Studies)
Gerardo Augusto Lorenzino
PhD, Graduate Center, City University of New York
Associate Professor of Spanish and Portuguese
Research Interests:
My interest on language structure, change and mixing must have its roots with a former passion for chemistry, which I studied all the way up to graduate school before considering a career in linguistics. My research encompasses several language types and speech communities and it is formally and empirically informed by theories of contact linguistics.
I could outline my research projects as follows:
(1) Pidgins Creoles and Cognitive-Based Linguistic Theory:
Cognitive-based models of language study such as grammaticalization theory applied to lexico-semantics and pragmatic-discourse in Portuguese- and Spanish-lexified Creoles as a mechanism to explain common patterns and developmental trends in comparative creolistics.
(2) Language Use, City and Identity:
By studying the Quechua and Spanish varieties spoken by urban migrants from Santiago del Estero (northwestern Argentina), living in Buenos Aires, I would like to know more about how bilingual minority groups adapt their communicative practices as an integral component for redefining identity. The study examines language choices and structural changes in language varieties used by migrant Santiagueños as a way to pose basic questions about the relationship between language, the city and identity.
(3) Dialect Contact and Natural Second Language Acquisition:
In collaboration with J. Clancy Clements of Indiana University, this is the first-large scale study of Barranquenho, a mixed Spanish-Portuguese dialect spoken in the town of Barrancos in southern Portugal. We'd like to understand how theories of second language acquisition, sociolinguistics and contact linguistics can explain the fuzzy linguistic boundaries separating the regional dialects on both sides of the political Portuguese-Spanish border.
Most Recent Publications:
Books:
1. With Jonathan Holmquist and Lotfi Sayahi (eds.). Selected Proceedings of the Third Workshop in Spanish Sociolinguistics . Cascadilla Press. 2007
2. The Morphosyntax of Spanish-lexified creoles . Munich: Lincom. 2001.
3. The Angolar Creole Portuguese of São Tomé (West Africa): its grammar and sociolinguistic history. Munich: Lincom. 2000.
Articles
1.
'African vs Austronesian Substrate Influence on the Spanish-based Creoles'. In John Holm & Susanne Michaelis (eds.), Contact Languages: Critical Concepts in Language Studies, volume IV. New York: Routledge, pp. 309-408. 2008.
2. 'Angolar Syntax'. In Holm and Patrick (eds.), Comparative Creole Syntax. Westminster: Battlebridge Press. 2007.
3. 'Linguistic, historical and ethnographic evidence on the formation of the Angolares: a maroon descendant community in São Tomé (West Africa)'. Portuguese Studies Review 13. 2006.
4. 'Language and Identity: The Case of Quechua-Speaking Santiagueños'. In Ashley and Finke (eds.), Language and Identity. NY: Cummings and Hathaway. 2004.
5. 'Bilingüismo y migración urbana: el quechua santiagueño'. In Sayahi (ed.), Selected Proceedings of the First Workshop on Spanish Sociolinguistics . Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. 2003.
6. 'The mixed origins of Santiagueño Quechua syntax'. University of Kansas Papers in Linguistics 25:111-120. 2001.
7.'El rol de la gramaticalización en la formación de nuevas lenguas (criollización).'In Englebert, Pierrard, Rosier and van Raemdonck (eds.) Contacts interlinguistiques. Brussels: Max Niemeyer Verlag, 2000.
8. With John Holm et al. 'The creole verb: a comparative study of stativity and tense reference.' In McWhorter (ed.), Language change and language contact in pidgins and creoles. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins. 2000.
Teaching Interests:
For the past seven years I have been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses in Spanish Syntax, Second Language Acquisition, Languages in Contact, Hispanic Dialectology, Foreign Language Teaching Methods, Spanish Phonetics, History of the Spanish Language and Spanish Applied Linguistics. Our growing graduate and undergraduate program in Spanish Linguistics combined with other linguistically-oriented researchers and course offerings in the departments of Anthropology, Communication Sciences, Education and TESOL makes Temple University an exciting place to pursue a degree in Hispanic linguistics.
Awards:
2007: Luso-American Foundation Research Fellowship2005: Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Fellowship
2003: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Portugal) Research Fellowship
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