Language and Society: An Introduction to Topics in Linguistics

Shahrzad Mahootian is a professor of linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University. She received her doctorate in linguistics from Northwestern University and began teaching at NEIU in 1993. Her research interests and publications include topics in language contact including structural, cognitive, and social aspects of multilingualism, bilingual language acquisition, code switching and language choice, language and identity. She has also written on various aspects of Persian linguistics.

Judith Kaplan-Weinger is a professor of linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University. She received her PhD in linguistics from Georgetown University and has been a member of NEIU’s Linguistics faculty since 1987. Her research and teaching focus on sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, and the ethnography of communication. Currently, she researches the discursive practices of loss, grief, and mourning.

Lewis Gebhardt is an assistant professor of linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at Northeastern Illinois University. He earned his PhD at Northwestern University in 2009. His research interests include syntax and semantics, especially the syntax and semantics of noun phrases across languages. He is a linguistic consultant for The Language Conservancy, helping to document and analyze Crow, a Siouan language spoken in Montana, and with the Crow tribe’s language-education and language-revitalization efforts.