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- Laura Downing
Laura Downing
Om Laura Downing
- Funktioner: Forskare, lärare
- ORCID-ID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5609-4892
Bakgrund
Laura J. Downing earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1990, writing her dissertation under Charles W. Kisseberth on Problems in Jita Tonology.
From 1990-2001 she held visiting lecturer positions at the University of Michigan, UC-San Diego, UBC, the University of Illinois, UC-Berkeley, and the University of Pennsylvania.
From 2001-2012 she was a research fellow and project leader at the ZAS in Berlin, where her work concentrated on the focus-syntax-prosody interface in Bantu languages, especially Chewa, Tumbuka and Zulu.
Laura Downing has been awarded a Professor-II position at the Dept. of Language and Linguistics, University of the Arctic, UiTromsø, Norway, for 1 August 2015 through 31 December 2019.
Forskning
Laura J. Downing's research interests center on the formal analysis of the prosody of African languages, including prosodic morphology, lexical tone systems and phrasal prosody.
Her work has been supported by grants from the NSF (UC-Berkeley), the NWO (Guest research fellowship, University of Leiden) and the DFG (BantuPsyn project).
These grants (and funding from the ZAS) have supported field work trips to Zimbabwe and Malawi.
From 2016-2019 she has led a research project on Somali and prosodic typology funded by the Swedish Vetenskapsrådet https://www.gu.se/en/research/somali-and-prosodic-typology
She was on the editorial boards of Phonology and of Africana Linguistica for many years, and on the scientific committee of the Manchester Phonology Meeting. She serves as President of the Association for Contemporary African Linguistics (ACAL) until May 2024, having previously served on the Steering Committee, the Executive Committee and as Vice President of ACAL.
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Phrasal vowel
harmony
Laura J. Downing, Martin Krämer
The Oxford Handbook of Vowel Harmony / Harry van der Hulst, Nancy A. Ritter (ed.) - 2024 -
Domains and directionality in Kinande vowel harmony: a Correspondence
approach
Laura J. Downing, Martin Krämer
Glossa - 2022 -
Why phonetically-motivated constraints do not lead to phonetic determinism: the relevance of aspiration in cueing NC sequences in
Tumbuka
Laura J. Downing, Silke Hamann
Phonological Data and Analysis - 2021 -
Review of "Revealing structure: Papers in honor of Larry M.
Hyman."
Laura J. Downing
Language - 2020 -
Re-placing PStem in the prosodic
hierarchy
Laura J. Downing, Maxwell Kadenge
The Linguistic Review - 2020 -
(In)Direct reference in the phonology-syntax interface under phase theory: a response to Modular PIC (D’Alessandro and Scheer
2015)
Eulàlia Bonet, Lisa L.-S. Cheng, Laura J. Downing, Joan Mascaró
Linguistic Inquiry - 2019 -
Tumbuka prosody : Between tone and
stress
Laura J. Downing
Theory and description in African Linguistics: Selected papers from the 47th Annual Conference on African Linguistics. March 23-March 26, 2016, Berkeley, Calif. / edited by Emily Clem, Peter Jenks, Hannah Sande - 2019 -
Prosodic restructuring in Somali nominals
constructions
Laura J. Downing, Morgan Nilsson
African linguistics across the disciplines: Selected papers from the 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics / edited by Samson Lotven, Silvina Bongiovanni, Phillip Weirich, Robert Botne, Samuel Gyasi Obeng - 2019 -
Disentangling tone, intonation and register in selected Bantu tone
languages
Laura J. Downing
Kawauso: Simmanden in Språkströmmen. Festskrift till professor Yasuko Nagano-Madsen / Misuzu Shimotori och Fusae Ivarsson (red.) - 2019 -
Clausal morphosyntax and information
structure
Laura J. Downing, Lutz Marten
The Bantu Languages / edited by Mark Van de Velde, Koen Bostoen, Derek Nurse, and Gérard Philippson - 2019 -
Optimality Theory and Prosodic
Morphology
Laura J. Downing
The Oxford Handbook on Morphological Theory / edited by Jenny Audring and Francesca Masini - 2019 -
The phonetics of NCh in Tumbuka and its implications for diachronic
change.
Laura J. Downing, Silke Hamann
Papers in Historical Phonology - 2018 -
Differential object marking in
Chichewa
Laura J. Downing
The Diachronic Typology of Differential Argument Marking / Ilja A. Seržant & Alena Witzlack-Makarevich (eds.) - 2018 -
*NT revisited again: An approach to postnasal laryngeal alternations with perceptual Cue
constraints
Silke Hamann, Laura J. Downing
Journal of Linguistics - 2017 -
The Phonology of
Chichewa
Laura J. Downing, Al Mtenje
2017 -
Convergence of prosody under contact: two African case
studies
Laura J. Downing
Språkens magi: Festskrift for Ingmar Söhrman / edited by Andrea Castro & Anton Granvik, Ester Fernández Incógnito, Sara LIndblad, Andreas Romeborn & Katharina Vajta - 2017 -
Grounding Nguni depressor
effects
Laura J. Downing
Segmental Structure and Tone / edited by Wolfgang Kehrein, Björn Köhnlein, Paul Boersma and Marc van Oostendorp - 2017 -
Intonation in Chichewa and
Tumbuka
Laura J. Downing
Intonation in African Tone Languages / ed. by Laura J. Downing and Annie Rialland - 2016 -
Information Structure in
Bantu
Laura J. Downing, Larry M. Hyman
Oxford Handbook of Information Structure / edited by Caroline Féry and Shinichiro Ishihara - 2016 -
Introduction: Intonation in African tone
languages
Laura J. Downing, Annie Rialland
Intonation in African Tone Languages / edited by Laura J. Downing and Annie Rialland - 2016 -
Intonation in African Tone
Languages
Laura J. Downing, Annie Rialland
2016 -
Phasal syntax = cyclic
phonology?
Lisa L.-S. Cheng, Laura J. Downing
Syntax - 2016 -
Prosodic stems in Zezuru
Shona
Laura J. Downing, Maxwell Kadenge
Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies - 2015 -
What is reduplication? Typology and analysis part 1/2: The typology of
reduplication
Sharon Inkelas, Laura J. Downing
Language and Linguistics Compass - 2015 -
What is reduplication? Typology and analysis part 2/2: The analysis of
reduplication
Laura J. Downing, Sharon Inkelas
Language and Linguistics Compass - 2015 -
Information Structure in Bantu
Languages
Laura J. Downing, Larry M. Hyman
Oxford Handbook of Information Structure - 2015 -
The problems of adverbs in
Zulu
Lisa L-S Cheng, Laura J. Downing
Above and Beyond the Segments. Experimental linguistics and phonetics. Caspers, Johanneke, Yiya Chen, Willemijn Heeren, Jos Pacilly, Niels O. Schiller and Ellen van Zanten (eds.) - 2014 -
Indefinite subjects in Durban
Zulu
Laura J. Downing, Lisa L.-S. Cheng
ZAS Papers in Linguistics - 2014 -
Melodic verb tone patterns in
Jita
Laura J. Downing
Africana Linguistica - 2014 -
Rethinking the Universality of the Stress-Focus
Correlation.
Laura J. Downing
Bantu Languages and Linguistics. Papers in Memory of Dr. Rugatiri D. K. Mekacha / Karsten Legère (ed.) - 2013 -
Issues in the phonology-syntax interface in African
languages
Laura J. Downing
Selected Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Linguistic Interfaces in African Languages edited by Ọlanikẹ Ọla Orie and Karen W. Sanders. Conference dates: March 15-17, 2012, New Orleans - 2013 -
Clefts in Durban
Zulu
Laura J. Downing, Lisa S. Cheng
Cleft Structures / edited by Katharina Hartmann, Tonjes Veenstra - 2013 -
The focus prosody of Chichewa and the Stress-Focus constraint: a response to Samek-Lodovici
(2005)
Laura J. Downing, Bernd Pompino-Marschall
Natural language and linguistic theory - 2013 -
On the (non-)congruence of focus and prominence in
Tumbuka
Laura J. Downing
Selected Proceedings of the 42nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics: African Languages in Context edited by Michael R. Marlo, Nikki B. Adams, Christopher R. Green, Michelle Morrison, and Tristan M. Purvis - 2012 -
Prosodic domains do not match spell-out
domains
Laura J. Downing, Lisa L.-S. Cheng
McGill Working Papers in Linguistics. Proceedings from Phonology in the 21st Century: In Honour of Glyne Piggott J. Loughran and A. McKillen (eds.) - 2012 -
Iconicity
Laura J. Downing, Barbara Stiebels
The Morphology and Phonology of Exponence / edited by Jochen Trommer - 2012 -
Against FocusP: Evidence from Durban
Zulu
Laura J. Downing, Lisa L.-S. Cheng
Contrasts and positions in information structure / edited by Ivona Kučerová, Ad Neeleman. - 2012 -
Review of Continuum Companion to Phonology, ed. by Nancy C. Kula, Bert Botma & Kuniya
Nasukawa
Laura J. Downing
Phonology - 2012 -
Prosodic phrasing of Chichewa relative
clauses
Laura J. Downing, Al Mtenje
Journal of African Languages and Linguistics - 2011 -
Un-WRAP-ing prosodic phrasing in
Chichewa
Laura J. Downing, Al Mtenje
Lingua - 2011 -
The prosody of ‘dislocation’ in selected Bantu
languages
Laura J. Downing
Lingua - 2011 -
All Depressors are not alike: A comparison of Shanghai Chinese and
Zulu
Laura J. Downing, Yiya Chen
Prosodic categories: production, perception and comprehension - 2011 -
Challenges of Cushitic reduplication for Generalized Template
Theory
Laura J. Downing, Maarten Mous
Brill's Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistic - 2011 -
Review of Modeling Ungrammaticality in Optimality
Theory
Laura J. Downing
Language - 2011 -
Bantu
tone
Laura J. Downing
The Blackwell Companion to Phonology - 2011 -
Prosodic Phrasing in Relative Clauses: A Comparative Look at Zulu, Chewa and
Tumbuka
Laura J. Downing
Bantu Languages: Analyses, Description and Theory - 2010 -
An Edge-based approach to the alignment of syntactic phases and prosodic
phrases
Laura J. Downing
Transactions of the Philological Society - 2010 -
Accent in African
languages
Laura J. Downing
A Survey of Word Accentual Patterns in the Languages of the World - 2010 -
Where’s the topic in
Zulu?
Laura J. Downing, Lisa L-S Cheng
The Linguistic Review - 2009 -
Optimality Theory and African language
phonology
Laura J. Downing
Selected Proceedings of ACAL 38 - 2009 -
On pitch lowering not linked to voicing: Nguni and Shona group
depressors
Laura J. Downing
Language Sciences - 2009 -
Explaining the role of the morphological continuum in Bantu
spirantisation
Laura J. Downing
Africana Linguistica - 2007 -
Canonical Forms in Prosodic
Morphology
Laura J. Downing
2006 -
The Emergence of the Marked: Tone in some African reduplicative
systems
Laura J. Downing
Studies on Reduplication - 2005 -
On the ambiguous segmental status of nasals in homorganic NC
sequences
Laura J. Downing
The internal organization of phonological segments - 2005 -
Morphology conditions minimality in Bantu
language
Laura J. Downing
Studies in African Comparative Linguistics, with special focus on Bantu and Mande - 2005 -
Jita causative doubling and Paradigm
Uniformity
Laura J. Downing
Paradigms in Phonological Theory - 2005 -
The tonal phonology of
Jita
Laura J. Downing
1996