Marie-Lucie Tarpent
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Marie-Lucie Tarpent | |
|---|---|
| Born | November 9, 1941 |
| Academic background | |
| Alma mater | University of Paris BA Cornell University MA University of Victoria PhD |
| Thesis | A Grammar of the Nisgha Language (1987) |
| Academic work | |
| Discipline | Linguist |
| Institutions | Coast Mountain College (formerly Northwest Community College) Mount Saint Vincent University |
| Main interests | Nisga'a language |
| Notable works | "Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages." |
Marie-Lucie Tarpent (born November 9, 1941) is a French-born Canadian linguist, formerly an associate professor of linguistics and French at Mount Saint Vincent University [MSVU], Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is known for her descriptive work on the Nisga'a language, a member of the Tsimshianic language family,[1][2] and for her proof of the affiliation of the Tsimshianic languages to the Penutian language group.[3]
Marie-Lucie Tarpent was born on November 9, 1941, in Tonnerre, France.[2] Tarpent graduated with a licence ès lettres (bachelor's) degree in English and German from the University of Paris in 1963.[4] The following year, she attended the University of Vermont before earning a master's degree in linguistics in 1965 from Cornell University.[2] From 1967–1970 and 1974–1977, Tarpent attended Simon Fraser University.[2][5] She was on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral fellowship in from 1981–1983.[2] In 1983, Tarpent was a part-time instructor at Northwest Community College (now called "Coast Mountain College").[4] She completed her Doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Victoria in 1989.[4]
Career
In addition to her work on the Nisga'a language, in the 1990s she contributed to the expansion of Harlan I. Smith's early work: Ethnobotany of the Gitksan Indians of British Columbia with details of the Gitksan language. The expanded version was published in 1997.[6][7] While at the University of Victoria, she published an analysis of the counting systems of the Nishga and Gitskan languages.[8]
In 1998, Tarpent, with linguist Daythal Kendall, presented a paper on the lack of evidence for a close relationship between the Oregon Penutian languages Takelma and Kalapuyan, and therefore for the previously hypothesized "Takelman".[9][10] In 1999, Tarpent authored a chapter titled ""On the eve of a new paradigm: The current challenges to comparative linguistics in a Kuhnian perspective."[11] She has contributed significantly to the knowledge on Nisga'a and Southern Tsimshianic languages at Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation, particularly in regard to the importance of morphemes.[12]
Starting in September 2007, Tarpent was one of ten senior scholars in the field of linguistics to participate in the International Polar Year project "Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages."[4][13]
