Noah Diewald

Linguist

palm trees and sunset

I am a linguistic morphologist. This is not the sames as the biological kind of morphologist. Despite a healthy admiration for the shapes of organisms, I have dedicated my career to the forms of words, instead. Specifically, I study the co-variation of word forms and their meanings. Much of my research is performed in the field with the Wao of Ecuador, who speak the logically named language, Wao Terero — literally Wao (or person) language. I also spend a lot of time in a comfy armchair in North America, using dependent type theory to develop theoretical models of Wao Terero and other grammars. I am currently a postdoc at Concordia University in Montreal, where I am developing software for linguistic fieldwork.

boat on a river

Research

My research focuses on morphology-semantics interfaces in Word-and-Paradigm-style systems. I integrate two methodologies, formal modeling, using the calculus of constructions, and elicitation-based fieldwork.

I utilize additional methodologies, especially in the fieldwork setting, but formal theory and elicitation techniques are areas where I focus on applying innovations. For instance, I believe it is important to develop a theory of test validity in the elicitation space.

Morphology is often seen as dependent on syntax. This hypothesis is popular despite clear empirical contradictions. Overabundance is one example. Most languages have patterns where the morphological system produces more than one form relative to a particular inflectional category or meaning. An English example are pairs such as leap and leapt, which are interchangeable past tense forms of 'leap'. Cross-linguistically, such patterns may demonstrate productivity. Clearly syntactic category does not determin morphology in such cases. Such patterns may be influenced by phonological forms of stems, or lexical semantic factors. Morphologists call this conditioning. Conditioning exposes intricacies of grammatical interaction, but conditioning is, by definition, a non-deterministic influence.

In addition to morphology having independent patterns, it is also evident that extra-syntactic factors play a role in licensing morphological forms. Most linguists would agree that there are lexical semantic, discourse meanings, and social meanings that determine the felicity of morphological forms in context. Syntax may have a constraining influence in such cases, but does not determine appropriate forms. My thesis provides a realizational model where semantic information directly interfaces with morphology.

a bus by a river

Dissertation

Wao Terero Lexical Suffixes

My dissertation research studied the properties of Wao Terero lexical suffix constructions. Wao Terero is a linguistic isolate spoken in the Ecuadorian Amazon. Lexical suffixes are suffixes that have concrete, noun-like meanings. They contribute to noun-noun compound-like meanings in nominal constructions. When used with other parts of speech, they often function as classifiers. This does not exhaust their uses by any means, but describes a salient dichotomy. An exciting aspect of the system is that the suffixes occur with most parts of speech. In these diverse contexts they maintain their descriptive content, e.g. 'ball', 'stone', etc. Due to the fact that essential aspects of form and meaning remain constant, the system allows for comparisons of the differing roles of the affixes across categories. I leverage this to investigate the contributions of construction types and dynamic semantic interactions, which vary. This aids my theoretical research on the interface between lexical semantics, dynamics semantics, construction types, and morphological forms.

In addition to my theoretical work, I have had a long involvement with the digital humanities, contributing technical skills to a number of documentation projects that have resulted in valuable resources for both researchers and the communities involved. I have also worked on teams that seeks to create tools for linguistic description and annotation that utilize NLP and machine learning techniques. I am currently writing fieldwork software tools at Concordia University.

Talks and Publications

Co-authored Publications

rock face over a lake

Talks