Richard Compton
Professor, Department of Linguistics, UQAM
About me
I’m a Full Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and hold the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Knowledge and Transmission of the Inuit Language. My areas of research include syntax and morphology, as well language documentation and revitalization. My work bears on the nature of polysynthesis in the Inuit language, Inuktut, particularly in Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun dialect areas, and includes the study of lexical and functional categories, noun incorporation, verbal agreement, and the linearization and formation of words. Some of my research questions include:
- Are lexical categories such as adjective and adverb universal?
- What is the internal structure of complex words in Inuktut?
- Can we define the notion of ‘word’ cross-linguistically?
- What is the proper characterization of phi-markers in Inuktut?
I am a member of the Montreal Underdocumented Languages Linguistics Lab, of the Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music – CRBLM (and its UQAM antenna, the CRLEC), of the Centre interuniversitaire d’études et de recherches autochtones (CIÉRA) (Montréal antenna), the Groupe de recherche interdisciplinaire sur les affirmations autochtones contemporaines (GRIAAC) et an affiliated member of the Institut nordique du Québec.
Contact
Richard Compton
Department of Linguistics
Université du Québec à Montréal
C.P. 8888, Succ. Centre-Ville
Montréal, QC H3C 3P8 Canada
Phone : 514.987.3000, ext. 3192
compton[dot]richard[at]uqam[dot]ca
Education
- 2014 Postdoctoral Fellowship, McGill University
- 2012 PhD Linguistics, University of Toronto
- 2004 MA Linguistics, University of Toronto
- 2002 BAH Language & Linguistics, Queen’s University
In the Media
Here are a list of media interviews and the relevant links:
- Interview on the number of Indigenous language speakers in the census, August 22, 2022, Le réveil / Nouvelle-Écosse et Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador, Radio-Canada.
- Interview on the pronunciation of Kyiv, March 2, 2022, Noovo Info.
- Interview on the French version of Wordle, February 18, 2022. La Presse.
- Interview on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation, September 30, 2021, L’heure de pointe
– Acadie, Radio-Canada. - Interview on Indigenous languages and Bill 96 with Augustin de Baudinière, September 28, 2021, Montréal Campus.
- Interview about National Indigenous Peoples Day with Samuel Rancourt, June 21, 2021, Le Téléjournal de Manitoba, Radio-Canada
- Interview about National Indigenous Peoples Day with Jean François Guérin, June 21, 2021, Le Canal Nouvelles (LCN)
- Interview about Indigenous language education, June 1, 2021, Point du jour, Radio-Canada en Saskatchewan
- Un premier baccalauréat en langues autochtones, May 1, 2021, Montréal Campus
- L’inuktut, mais pas juste à la maison, March 4, 2021, Initiative de journalisme local (IJL) dans les Territoires, Réseau Presse
- Interview on the impact of Indigenous languages on the French language in Quebec, March 18, 2021, ATM Nouvelles (Cégep de Jonquière)
- Cultures autochtones: retrouver sa voix, April 11, 2020, Québec Science
- Onywawenda’ yeienhwi’s (j’apprends notre langue), December 4, 2019, L’Actualité
- Congrès d’études inuit, September 24, 2019, Actualités UQAM
- Un langage d’un nouveau genre, May 3, 2018, Quartier Libre (Université de Montréal)
- Miniboom des langues autochtones à Montréal, May 22, 2017, Le Devoir
- La transmission comme gage de survie, April 5, 2016, Le Devoir
- Indigenous languages go under the microscope, March 25, 2016, Montreal Gazette
- Revitaliser les langues autochtones, April 12, 2016, Actualités UQAM
- Des dictionnaires pour protéger les langues autochtones, April 3, 2016, Métro
- Snow goes by many different names, December 31, 2015, Western Producer
- Montreal linguist encouraging students to study Inuktitut, April 17, 2015, Nunatsiaq News
Team
Richard Compton, Professor in the Department of Linguistique at UQAM
Matthew Schuurman, PhD student in Linguistics and Research Assistant (website)
Nora Villeneuve, MA student in Linguistics
Yoann Léveillé, MA student in Linguistics
Julien Carrier, SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow
Calendar
- October 15, 2022 — Julien Carrier (SSHRC Postdoc) will give a talk on word order in Inuktitut at NWAV 50 at Stanford University.
- Oct. 2-7, 2022 — Richard Compton gives an intensive course on the structure of inuktitut for Inuit teachers in Ivujivik, Nunavik, as part of a teacher certificate program offered by UQAT and Kativik School Board.
- July 26, 2022 — New article on Inuktitut pronouns published in the Canadian Journal of Linguistics.
- June 19-22, 2022 — Nora Villeneuve, Yoann Léveillé, and Richard Compton give talks at the 22nd Inuit Studies Conference at the University of Winnipeg.
- June 1-4, 2022 — Yoann Léveillé presents a poster on Inuktitut demonstratives at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA) (held online).
- May 13, 2022 — Richard Compton is promoted to Full Professor.
- Novembre 3, 2020 — Richard Compton receives a teaching award from the Faculté des sciences humaines.
- August 2020 — Marie-Loup Turenne submits her MA thesis entitled «L’ordre des mots dans les phrases déclaratives de l’inuktitut» (Word order in declarative sentences in Inuktitut).
- July 13, 2019 — Richard Compton is named chair-holder of the Canada Research Chair (CRC) in Knowledge and Transmission of the Inuit Language (SSHRC).
- July 3, 2019 — Matthew Schuurman defends his doctoral exam on nominalization and relativization.
- July 1, 2019 — Nora Villeneuve wins the Award for the Best Student Poster (tied) from the Canadian Linguistics Association.
- June 1-3, 2019 — Matthew Schuurman gives a talk on plosive reduction in Inuktitut at the Canadian Linguistics Association (CLA) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
- June 1-3, 2019 — Nora Villeneuve presents a poster on the Inuktitut aspectual maker –liq– at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association (CLA) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
- June 1-3, 2019 — Anja Arnhold (U. of Alberta), Emily Elfner (York U.) & Richard Compton give a talk entitled “On the Absence of Stress in Inuktitut” at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association (CLA) at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
- May 9-11, 2019 — Matthew Schuurman presents at WSCLA 24 at the University of Maryland on coordination markers in Inuktitut.
- March 27, 2019 — Richard Compton (PI), Heather Igloliorte, Mark K. Watson, Shawn-Renee Hordyk, Sarah L. Fraser, and Looee Okalik receive a SSHRC Connection Grant to organize the 21st Inuit Studies Conference.
- February 28 – March 3, 2019 — Richard Compton presents at 6th International Conference on Language Documentation & Conservation (ICLDC), Connecting Communities, Languages & Technology, at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.
- May 30 – June 1, 2018 — Richard Compton gives a talk on person complementarity at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association (CLA), at the University of Regina, in Saskatchewan.
- May 2018 — Christophe Mauro submits his MA thesis entitled «Le statut de la troisième personne en inuktitut» (The status of the third person in Inuktitut).
- April 20-22, 2018 — Richard Compton presents a poster at WCCFL 36 at UCLA.
- April 13-15, 2018 — Richard Compton gives an invited talk at WSCLA 23 at the University of Ottawa.
- December 1, 2017 — Richard Compton gives an invited talk at the Concordia University.
- November 27-29, 2017 — Richard Compton gives a talk on the Inuit language at the 12th Langage and Development Conference, organized by the British Council at Dakar, Senegal.
- November 18-19, 2017 — Richard Compton gives at talk at the MoMOT Morphology Workshop at UQAM.
- October 27-29, 2017 — Richard Compton presents a poster at the 48th North-East Linguistics Society (NELS), at the University of Iceland, in Reykjavik, Iceland.
- September 22-23, 2017 — Richard Compton gives a talk on person-case constraints (PCC) in Inuktitut at the Manitoba Person Workshop, at the University of Manitoba.
- July 17 – August 7, 2017 — Marie-Loup Turenne and Alexandra Daigneault conduct fieldwork in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
- May 27-29, 2017 — Richard Compton gives a talk on «Left-periphery φ-agreement and A-movement in Inuktitut» at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association (ACL-CLA) at Ryerson University, in Toronto.
- May 27-29, 2017 — Chris Mauro presents a talk on switch reference and language change in Inuktitut at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association (ACL-CLA) at Ryerson University, in Toronto.
- April 21-23, 2017 — Emily Kudlak and Richard Compton give a talk at the 22nd Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA), at the University of British Columbia.
- April 21-23, 2017 — Chris Mauro presents a poster at the 22nd Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA), at the University of British Columbia.
- March 14-18, 2017 — Anja Arnhold, Richard Compton, and Emily Elfner present on “XP-sized prosodic words in Inuit” at the 40th Generative Linguistics in the Old Word (GLOW), at the University of Leiden, Netherlands.
- December 12, 2016 — Marie-Loup Turenne gives a talk on word order in declarative clauses in Inuktitut at the Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics (ABLT/BWTL), at Concordia University.
- November 19, 2016 — Chris Mauro gives a talk on entitled “Personnes et non-personne en Inuktitut” at the 1st annual Montreal-Ottawa-Toronto Morphology Workshop (MoMOT) at Carleton University, in Ottawa.
- October 7-10, 2016 — Richard Compton, Chris Mauro and Marie-Loup Turenne give presentations at the 20th Congrès d’Études Inuit Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
- September 22 – 24 2016 — Richard Compton, Anja Arnhold and Emily Elfner present a talk at The Word and the Morpheme workshop at Humboldt University in Berlin.
- July 4 – July 18, 2016 — Richard Compton, Chris Mauro, and Marie-Loup Turenne conduct fieldwork in Iqaluit, Nunavut.
- June 20 – July 1, 2016 — Chris Mauro and Marie-Loup Turenne participate in the Institue on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang 2016) at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
- May 29, 2016 — Emily Elfner (UBC), Richard Compton (UQAM) and Anja Arnhold (Konstanz) present a talk on polysynthetic words at the CLA at the University of Calgary.
- May 28, 2016 — Chloé Larouche and François Steffann give a talk on vowels in Inuktitut at the annual meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association (ACL-CLA) at the University of Calgary.
- April 1-3, 2016 — Chris Mauro, Marie-Loup Turenne, Chloé Larouche, and François Steffann present talks on Inuktitut at the 21st WSCLA at UQAM.