Benjamin Slade  Postgraduate Student in Linguistics (ABD) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

>> Click here for my full CV in pdf format <<

Click here for the blog Stæfcræft & Vyākaraṇa

Research Interests: Historical Linguistics and Philology Formal Syntax and Semantics Indo-Aryan and Germanic linguistics West Indian Creoles and "Dread Talk" Ancient Indo-European languages, literatures, and mythologies

Education

 Fellowships, Scholarships and Awards

• UIUC Global Studies FLAS Fellowship (Hindi), 2008-2009
  
• Beckman Institute Cognitive Science/Artificial Intelligence Award, Summer 2008
  
• University Fellowship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2006-2007
  
• Summer Research Fellowship (Dept. of Linguistics at UIUC), Summer 2006
  
• Foreign Language Building Fellowship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign), 2005-2006
  
• Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, 2000-2003
  
• National Science Foundation, Integrative Graduate Education & Research Training (IGERT) Fellowship, 1999-2003
  
• Phi Beta Kappa, elected to Alpha Chapter of Maryland, April 1999
  
• National Merit Scholarship, 1995-9
  

Publications

• (forthcoming) 'How (exactly) to slay a dragon in Indo-European? PIE *bheid- {h₃ég^whim, k^wŕ̥mi-}'. Historische Sprachforschung 121 (bisser Zeitschrift für vergleichende Sprachforschung)
• (forthcoming) 'Hwæt! LOL! Common formulaic functions in Beowulf and blogs'. [with Matt Garley & Marina Terkourafi] Proceedings of the 45th Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: CLS. [pdf]
• (2010) 'A text in speech's clothing: discovering specific functions of formulaic expressions in Beowulf and blogs'. [with Matt Garley & Marina Terkourafi] in Perspectives on formulaic language: acquisition and communication. David Wood, ed. London: Continuum, 213-233.
• (2009) Ed. [with Matt Garley]. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Proceedings of Illinois Language and Linguistics Society 1: Language Online. [link]
• (2009) 'Split serpents and bitter blades: Reconstructing details of the PIE dragon-combat'. Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Illinois Working Papers 2009: 1-57. [link]
  
• (2007) 'Untydras ealle: Grendel, Cain, and Vrtra: Indo-European shruti and Christian smrti in Beowulf'. In Geardagum 27:1-32. [pdf]
  
• (2004) '...þrym gefrunon, ...helle gemundon: Indogermanic shruti and Christian smriti in the Epistemology of Beowulf'. Journal of Northern European Studies 1(1): 5-14.
  
• (2003) 'How to Rank Constraints: constraint conflict, grammatical competition, and the rise of periphrastic do'. in Optimality theory and language change. D. Eric Holt, ed. Dordrecht: Kluwer, 337-385. [pdf]
• (2002-2005) Beowulf on Steorarume (Beowulf in Cyberspace) - a new critical electronic edition of the text, based on an examination of the original manuscript with supplementary texts including The Fight at Finnsburh, Waldere, Deor, Woden's Nine Herbs Charm, Bede's Account of Cædmon. published online at http://www.heorot.dk/.

Papers in Progress

• 'Unknown, indefinite.' Ms., University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
  
• 'Why wh-words need ordinary semantic values (and what to do about intervention effects).' Ms., University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
  
• 'Basque clausal pied piping revisited.' Ms., University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
  
• 'The diachrony of light verbs, as illuminated by Indo-Aryan.' Ms., University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign.
  

Presentations

• Unknown indefinites, (or, Question-particles: not just for questions anymore!) Seminar talk given at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign on 04-Feb-2010.
  
• Why wh-words need ordinary semantic values (and what to do about intervention effects). Paper given at the 84th meeting of the Linguistic Society of America [LSA 84], Hilton Baltimore, Baltimore, Maryland on 09-Jan-2010.
  
• Hwæt! LOL! Common formulaic functions in Beowulf and blogs. [with Matt Garley & Marina Terkourafi]. Paper given at the 45th meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society [CLS 45], at the University of Chicago on 18-Apr-2009.
  
• The development of Indo-Aryan compound verbs: an historico-geographic study. Poster presented at the 83rd meeting of the Linguistic Society of America [LSA 83], at the Hilton San Francisco, California on 09-Jan-2009.
  
• Developments in Indo-Aryan compound verb constructions. Paper given at the 27th meeting of South Asian Linguistic Analysis roundtable [SALA 27], at the University of Wisconsin at Madison on 16-Oct-2008.
  
• A Hat for a Hydra: identifying properties of formulaic sequences across genres [with Jenna Chi, Matt Garley & Marina Terkourafi]. Paper given at the Linguistics Symposium on Formulaic Language, at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee on 18-Apr-2007.
  
• Splitting the Belly: the Indo-European Dragon-Slaying Myth in Indic & Germanic. Paper given at the 25th East Coast Indo-European Conference [ECIEC 25], at the Ohio State University, Columbus on 20-June-2006.
  
• Historical Change and Repair of Aktionsart: The Development of Compound Verbs/Absolutives in Indo-Aryan, esp. Hindi and Nepali. Paper given at the 25th meeting of South Asian Linguistic Analysis roundtable [SALA 25], at the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign on 17-Sept-2005.
  
• Historical Linguistics & Language Maintenance: compound verbs, absolutives & verbal particles in Nepali, Norse & Sanskrit. Invited paper given at the 26th All India Conference of Linguists [AICL 26], at the NorthEastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India on 01-Dec-2004.
  
• History & Structure of English Verbal Constructions. Three lecture series given at the Dept. of Linguistics, NorthEastern Hill University, Shillong, Meghalaya, India on 21,23,26-Apr-2004.
  
• ...þrym gefrunon, ...helle gemundon: Indogermanic shruti and Christian smriti in the Epistemology of Beowulf. Paper given [in absentia] at the 38th International Congress on Medieval Studies [ICMS 38], at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo in May-2003.
  
• Optimal Curves: an optimality-theoretic approach to the evolution of do-periphrasis in English. Paper  given at the Hopkins, University of Maryland, Rutgers, University of Massachusetts joint class meeting [HUMDRUM 2], at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland on 05-May-2001.
• Catastrophes at 1000 Grammars/Hour on the 'S'-Curve. Paper given at the 45th annual meeting of the International Linguistic Association: Language Contact and Language Change (in honour of André Martinet) [ILA 45], in a special session on Optimal Approaches to Language Change, at Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. on 07-Apr-2000.

Teaching

• Co-Lecturer & Discussion Section Instructor: Language History (LING 210), UIUC, Spring 2009
  
• Lecturer: Language History (LING 210), UIUC, Fall 2008
  
• Co-Lecturer & Discussion Section Instructor: Language History (LING 210), UIUC, Spring 2008
  
• Discussion Section Instructor & TA: Language History (LING 210), UIUC, Fall 2007
  
• Instructor: Pronunciation in Conversation - Intensive English Institute (IEI), UIUC, Fall 2006
  
• Instructor: Pronunciation in Conversation - Intensive English Institute (IEI), UIUC, Summer 2006
  

Artwork

• illustration contributor to Beowulf: an illustrated edition, Seamus Heaney, trans., John Niles, ill. ed. New York: Norton, 2007: pg. 178.
  [=digital artwork combining British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A.xv, fol.129r with an illuminated capital from Bibliothèque Municipale de Dijon MS 168, fol. 4v: http://www.news.wisc.edu/14437#section3]
  

Service

• Co-organiser [with Matt Garley] of the 1st meeting of the Illinois Language and Linguistics Society: Language Online [ILLS 1:LOL] conference, University of Illinois-Urbana/Champaign, 29-31 May 2009.
  
• Member of the editorial board, Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Illinois Working Papers, 2008-.
  
• Designer of the LaTeX package for Studies in the Linguistic Sciences: Illinois Working Papers.

Societies

• Linguistic Society of America (LSA)
  
• Indogermanische Gesellschaft (IG)
  
• Philological Society (PhilSoc)
  
• UIUC Linguistics Student Organisation (LSO)
  

Some trees: