People: Faculty

Dr. Donna B. Gerdts

778-782-3682
gerdts@sfu.ca
Office: RCB 9209

Research Areas

 Morphology
 Syntax and Semantics
 Discourse Analysis
 First Nations Languages

Donna Gerdts received her Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego. Her research and teaching interests include syntactic theory, language typology and universals, and the syntax/morphology interface. She is currently engaged in SSHRC-funded research on Halkomelem, a First Nations language of British Columbia, focusing on verb classes and on the discourse use of morphosyntax.

Donna is a founding editor of Northwest Journal of Linguistics, and has served as associate editor of Language and the Journal of East Asian Linguistics. She is on the board of the Jacobs Research Fund, Whatcom Museum. Her graduate students have written theses on a variety of languages, including Arabic, ASL, Breton, Hausa, Kashmiri, Koine Greek, Korean, Kunuz Nubian, Okanagan, and Shuswap.

Some recent publications:

• Gerdts, Donna B., and Thomas E. Hukari. 2004. Determiners and Transitivity in Halkomelem Texts. In Donna B. Gerdts and Lisa Matthewson (eds.), Studies in Salish Linguistics in Honor of M. Dale Kinkade. University of Montana Occasional Papers in Linguistics No. 17, Missoula, 151-171.
• Gerdts, Donna B., and Kaoru Kiyosawa. 2004. Halkomelem Psych Applicatives. Studies in Language 29.2: 329-362.
• Gerdts, Donna B., and Mercedes Q. Hinkson. 2004. The Grammaticalization of Halkomelem FACE into a Dative Applicative Suffix. International Journal of American Linguistics 70.3: 227-250.
• Gerdts, Donna B. 2004. Combinatory Conditions on Halkomelem Causatives. Linguistics 42.4: 767-789.
• Gerdts, Donna B., and Mercedes Q. Hinkson. 2004. Salish Numeral Classifiers: A Lexical Means to a Grammatical End. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 57.2/3: 247-279.
• Gerdts, Donna B. 2003. The Morphosyntax of Halkomelem Lexical Suffixes. International Journal of American Linguistics 69.4: 345-356.