27.1914, Featured Linguist: Christian DiCanio

[The LINGUIST List via LINGUIST]

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1914. Tue Apr 26 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.1914, Featured Linguist: Christian DiCanio

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Date: Tue, 26 Apr 2016 12:23:42
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Featured Linguist: Christian DiCanio

 
Dear LINGUIST List Readers,

We are pleased to present you our next featured linguist, Christian DiCanio,
for Fund Drive 2016.

Please support the LINGUIST List editors and activities with a donation:

http://funddrive.linguistlist.org/

----------------------------------------------

I was brought to linguistics partly by accident, though it has ended up being
the perfect match to my strengths and interests. As a child growing up in
Buffalo, NY, I was mainly interested in the natural sciences and did not have
much of any experience with foreign languages. Yet, when I had the chance to
study Spanish in primary school and high school, I discovered that I excelled
at it and had a knack for quickly memorizing new words and the idiosyncrasies
of grammar. Moreover, in high school, I do recall coming up with a new
alphabetic system for English which had different symbols for syllabic
consonants (you know, just for fun).

Nevertheless, at that age, it certainly seemed more practical for me to devote
my attention to the sciences, which I also loved. So, as an undergraduate, I
went away to Brandeis University where I planned to pursue a degree in
Chemistry with a minor in Spanish. As a freshman needing guidance in which
courses to take, I was assigned a random faculty advisor. That person just so
happened to be a linguist named Joan Maling. She nudgingly mentioned to me
“Many students who are interested in the sciences and in languages like
linguistics.” So, I enrolled in my first linguistics class with Ray
Jackendoff. Ray’s enthusiasm for the topic and interest in engaging with
students’ ideas proved contagious. Rather simultaneously, Chemistry became
rather dull to me. Yet, could one actually study language with scientific
rigor and make a career out of it? I didn’t really know if this was true at
the time, but I took the plunge and switched majors.

(...)

Read more:

http://blog.linguistlist.org/fund-drive/featured-linguist-christian-di-canio/






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LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1914	
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