RESEARCH
I consider myself an interdisciplinary scholar, but my work centers in linguistic and visual anthropology. My main interests include discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, syntax, semantics, the role of media technologies in communication, language maintenance and change and the relationship between image and language. I pursue these interests in the documentation of Mesoamerican indigenous languages, their histories and cultures, and more recently in an examination of political language in English. Broadly, my current research focuses on how meaning is transformed or changed across different levels of representation in different modalities, such as writing and art, different media technologies, or in different aspects of grammar. My projects are always sensitive to cultural, historical and linguistic contexts. Below I have listed projects and publications, past and present, where I have worked on these issues. In my research I use a mixed methodology approach, integrating corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, standard elicitation (interviews) or other methods depending on the research question.
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Multimodal Metaphor and Politics in Pre-Columbian Mayan Texts
My dissertation entitled The Materiality of Metaphor in Mayan Hieroglyphic Texts: Metaphor in Changing Political Climates examines political metaphors in pre-Columbian Mayan texts. I specifically examine how metaphor materializes in different modalities, written text and art, or media technology, vases, books, and monumental art, and how these factors shape the semantic structure of a metaphor, or what aspects of a metaphor are expressed. I also examine how these political metaphors are affected by micro-discursive contexts, as well as historical, political and cultural contexts and available media technology that shaped. This thus also involves an examination of colonial Mayan texts to contextualize results. Finally, I examine how these political metaphors change as a result of these contexts and their travel across different modalities and media. I also consider these metaphors affects on the grammar of the language they were written in.
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This research would not be possible without the help of the Maya Hieroglyphic Database research group started by Martha Macri, my committee, Aaron Broadwell (chair), John Justeson (chair), Jim Collins (member), and David Mora-Marín (member), and countless others noted in my dissertation, which can be found here:
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COVID-19, Multimodal Metaphor, Politics, and the Metapragmatics of Truth
In this project, I also examine the relationship between modality, media and metaphors in changing political climates, but here in a contemporary setting - the COVID-19 pandemic. Again, I examine not only the metaphors themselves, but how the micro-discursive contexts, and the political and cultural contexts affect metaphor understanding and use. Particularly, I examine New York State's governor Andrew Cuomo's briefings where he encourages New Yorkers to adhere to the state's social distancing measures. Part of this is a use of multimodal metaphors to convey scientific information, but also political and social messages. Cuomo asserts that if he gives the public the facts, or truth, they will act compassionately, rationally, and responsibly by complying with the state’s orders - but these facts are often conveyed through metaphors. Cuomo also uses metaphors to probe the federal government to support New York in its response to the pandemic. This project thus also examines the role of metaphor in the metapragmatics of truth and how this influences political action and responsibility.
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Clause Linkage Types in Copala Triqui
Since 2014, I have been working to document the Copala Triqui language, an Oto-Manguean language, from Oaxaca, Mexico. My work is with Copala Triqui speakers who now reside in the Capital Region of New York and has been done with the support of the Albany Copala Triqui Working Group. The Albany Copala Triqui Working Group has worked to create an trilingual online dictionary and pedagogical materials to aid heritage learners of Triqui and those new to the language. The group also supports cultural activities that benefit the local Triqui community.
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My own research involves an examination of clause linkage types in Copala Triqui, specifically with Copala Triqui's syntactic causative and pseudo-coordinate constructions. These constructions don't display all of the typical properties of subordinate or coordinate clause linkage types. Instead, the constructions show attributes of either type of clause at different levels of grammar, including their semantic structure.
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This research would not be possible without the help of Aaron Broadwell, the Albany Triqui Community, and the rest of the Albany Copala Triqui Working Group. Some of this research has been published here:
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Cultural Transmission in Prehistoric California Rock Art
This project examined the cultural transmission of prehistoric California rock art in the Coso Range. Because there are no written texts that can provide the historical meaning of the art, quantitative modeling was used to document variation of the art's features and to understand how the art might have been transmitted. The project also examined what these transmission processes might tell us about the social structure of the people who made them.
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This research would not be possible without Jelmer Eerkens and Carol Ormsbee and was published here:
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