¶¡ÏãÔ°AV

Kelli Finney will be defending her PhD thesis:

'Negotiating Meaning in X̱aad Kíl (Northern Haida)' 

Thursday, January 20th, 1 pm via Zoom.

Please use this  to request the Zoom log in credentials by January 13.

Abstract: 

This thesis explores strategies for negotiating meaning in XÌ  aad K.l (Northern Haida) through transcription and translation of approximately one-and-one half hours of audio and audio-video recorded interactive talk between fluent L1 speakers. To contribute a fuller understanding of the practices of turn-taking and repair in X̱ aad K.l, I use Conversation Analysis (CA) to analyze two mainly dyadic conversations, a recording of speech interaction during a dyadic storytelling session, and a set of archived recordings of Massett Haida speeches from the early 1970s. Intensive work with the last male fluent speaker of X̱ aad K.l, Lawrence Bell, provides important ethnographic, relational, and cultural context for the conversations and speeches, and brings to light important structural features, such as the use of response tokens and interjections. In addition to contributing to the documentation of previously unstudied conversation practices, the thesis also provides a resource for teachers and learners who are seeking to create conversation-based curriculum to develop language proficiency and work toward revitalization efforts.

Members of Examining Committee:

Supervisor: Marianne Ignace
Committee: Panayiotis Pappas
Examiner: Deanna Reder, ¶¡ÏãÔ°AV Department of English and Department of Indigenous Studies
External Examiner: Patrick Moore, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, UBC