People
ProfessorsRichard Cameron |
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601 South Morgan Street (MC 162) |
Associate Professor |
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Sociolinguistics and TESOL
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Richard Cameron works in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis with interests in TESL. In sociolinguistics, he pursues quantitative dialect research with the goal of applying or testing linguistic and social theory. His recent work uses spreading activation theory from psycholinguistics to explain patterns of subject expression in Spanish. Other work investigates the effects of age and gender segregation on degrees of difference between female and male speakers across the life span in Puerto Rico. Unlike class or ethnic differences, sex-based differences are assumed to result from social difference, not social distance. Yet much ethnographic research reveals that females and males, both as children and adults, will segregate themselves or will be segregated to varying degrees. Such separation creates social distance. Social distance can lead to linguistic difference. Finally, he is slowly investigating Chicago English across class, gender, and age groups. At this point, he has interviewed speakers, ranging in age from 7 to 83, from Bridgeport, Beverly, Evergreen Park, Rogers Park, Forest Glen, and Back of the Yards. Among these folks, we find a philosopher detective, a smart x-ray technician, a sensitive stenographer, a poetic car salesman, an electrician who is a great athlete, and a Chinese-American second grader who likes pizza!
PUBLICATIONS
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Spanish in Contact: Policy, Social and Linguistic Inquiries |
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A Romance Perspective on Language Knowledge and Use |