Doris L. Payne
Professor
Department of Linguistics
University of Oregon, Eugene,
OR 97403
Phone: (541)
346-3894
E-mail: dlpayne@uoregon.edu
Publications: Chronological or Topical
Nilotic Language Network
Maasai Language ProjectEducation & Professional Positions
Professional Associations
Students Supervised
Courses Taught
Field work: Primarily
in urban Los Angeles, the Peruvian rainforest, the Venezuelan
savannah, and urban/rural Kenya.
Research
My research has focused on morphosyntax of little-studied
languages, from typological, functional, and cognitive
perspectives. A particular interest has been verb-initial
languages (Yagua,Panare,Maasai, some
Austronesian), and those where order of major consituents is
based primarily on cognitive - pragmatic factors such as
identifiability and contrastive focus (O'odham
or Papago). However, I have also worked on fairly rigid
grammatical relations languages (Chickasaw),
and various South
American languages. A growing research question is split
syntax.
Additional interests include sentence
and discourse processingissues in verb-initial languages, the
function of grammatical forms in discourse, and external
possession. I have had the priviledge of collaborating
in study of additional
languages with other investigators. Most recently, I
have been studying Maasai verb properties and working on a Maasai
dictionary with several students.
Education & professional positions
1974 B.S. Mathematics Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois
1976 M.A. Linguistics University of Texas at Arlington
1985 Ph.D. Linguistics University of California at Los Angeles1985-1986 Visiting Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon
1986-1987 Research Associate for research in Venezuela, Department of Linguistics,
University of Oregon
1987-1993 Assistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon
1993- Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon
1994- International Linguistics Consultant, Summer Institute of Linguistics
1997-1999 Chair, Department of Linguistics, University of Oregon
Professional Associations
Since 1974 I have worked with the Summer Institute
of Linguistics and normally teach in the Oregon Summer
Institute of Linguistics program.
In summer 1998, for example, I led an introductory field methods
course on Lunda (Bantu of Zambia), with Boniface Kawasha who is
beginning a graduate program in Linguistics at Oregon.
Since 1995 I have collaborated on a Maasai dictionary and text data base with the Maasai Cultural Center, with native Maasai speakers Leonard Kotikash and Kimeli Ole-Naiyomah and others, and students at the University of Oregon (Duke Allen, Austin Bush, Mitsuyo Hamaya, Kent Rasmussen, Cindy Schneider and others).