{{Short description|American linguist (fl. 21st century)}} {{BLP sources|date=January 2019}} '''Donna B. Gerdts''' (Halkomelem: Sp’aqw’um’ultunaat) is professor of linguistics and associate director of the First Nations Languages Program at Simon Fraser University.<ref>{{Cite news|url=http://sxwiem.hwulmuhwqun.ca/story-team/|title=Story Team|work=Sxwi'em': Stories from the Hul'q'umi'num' people|access-date=2018-09-15|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.sfu.ca/fnlp/people.html|title=First Nations Languages Program|access-date=2019-07-16|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://snuhwulh.hwulmuhwqun.ca/project-team/|title=Project Team|work=Snuhwulh|access-date=2018-09-15|language=en-US}}</ref> She is a syntactician who has worked most extensively on Halkomelem and Korean. She has created extensive teaching materials for Halkomelem, and is currently engaged in further research on the language, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.uvic.ca/education/assets/docs/secdocs/MILR%20Project%20Report%20By%20Pearl%20Harris%20-%20final.pdf|title=Lesson Plans for Teaching Resources in a Hul'q'umi'num' Junior Kindergarten|last=Harris|first=Qwat’Xwa’maat Pearl|date=2016|website=University of Victoria|access-date=}}</ref><ref name=":0" /> Some of her key areas of interest are: syntactic theory, language typology and universals, the syntax/morphology interface, and the form and function of grammatical categories.<ref name=":0" />
Gerdts earned her Phd in Linguistics from the University of California at San Diego.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfu.ca/linguistics/people/faculty/gerdts.html|title=Dr. Donna Gerdts - Department of Linguistics - Simon Fraser University|website=www.sfu.ca|access-date=2018-09-15}}</ref> Gerdts was editor of ''International Journal of American Linguistics'' from 2014 to 2019.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/journals/ijal/board|title=International Journal of American Linguistics: Editorial Board|website=www.journals.uchicago.edu|language=en|access-date=2018-03-15}}</ref> She was a founding co-editor of the ''Northwest Journal of Linguistics'', and currently serves on its editorial board.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sfu.ca/nwjl/people.html|title=Northwest Journal of Linguistics|website=www.sfu.ca|access-date=2018-03-15}}</ref> She also worked as an associate editor of ''Language'', a journal produced by the Linguistic Society of America.<ref name=":0" />
In 2008, Gerdts was president of the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://ssila.org/officers/|title=Executive Committee|date=2014-03-30|work=SSILA|access-date=2018-03-15}}</ref>
== Research and Works == Gerdts has researched and written extensively on [https://www.sfu.ca/~gerdts/papers/Halkomelem.htm Halkomelem] and [https://www.sfu.ca/~gerdts/papers/Korean.htm Korean], and proposed syntactic theory [https://www.sfu.ca/~gerdts/papers/MappingTheoryAndRG.htm "Mapping Theory,"] an offshoot of Relational Grammar. She has also created substantive educational materials on Halkomelem, including a talking dictionary and school materials for students and teachers in the First Nations Representatives and Nanaimo School District No. 68.<ref name=":0" />
=== Mapping Theory === Gerdts proposed Mapping Theory in 1992 as an offshoot of Relational Grammar that takes into account the association between grammatical relations and morphosyntactic argument structure. There are no levels between grammatical relations and the argument structure, and instead of using a universal inventory of grammatical relations, Mapping Theory posits "morphosyntactically-licensed argument positions," or MAPs.
==== Mapping Halkomelem Grammatical Relations (1993) ==== In this article, Gerdts gives a relational profile for Halkomelem. She starts by arguing that the relational profile of a language is related to its morphosyntactic argument structure and uses this as a starting point for Mapping Theory. She defines relational profile as an account of the systematic constructions in a language's grammar, emphasizing that grammatical constructions are not random. A relational profile for Halkomelem would be that it is a direct object-centered language, because "rules of the grammar pivot on the concept ''object'', while the concept ''indirect object'' seems to be irrelevant."<ref>Gerdts, Donna B. (1993) "Mapping Halkomelem Grammatical Relations," 31, 591–621.</ref>
==== Mapping Korean Grammatical Relations (1993) ==== In this article, Gerdts provides an outline of Korean grammar based in Mapping Theory, and concludes that Korean is a 2-MAP language, despite the fact that it displays characteristics of languages that allow more MAPs.<ref>Gerdts, Donna B. (1993) "Mapping Korean Grammatical Relations," in S. Kuno et al. (eds.), ''Harvard Studies in Korean Linguistics V: Proceedings of the 1993 Harvard International Symposium on Korean Linguistics'', Hanshin Publishing Company, Seoul, Korea, 299-318.</ref>
=== Additional Works ===
*{{cite journal|last1=Gerdts|first1=Donna B.|title=Surface Case and Grammatical Relations in Korean: The Evidence from Quantifier Float|journal=Studies in Language|date=1987|volume=11|issue=1|pages=181–197|doi=10.1075/sl.11.1.08ger}} *{{cite book|last1=Gerdts|first1=Donna B.|title=Object and Absolutive in Halkomelem Salish|date=1988|publisher=Routledge|location=London|isbn=9781317918080}} *{{cite book|editor1-last=Gerdts|editor1-first=Donna B.|editor2-last=Michelson|editor2-first=Karin|title=Theoretical Perspectives on Native American Languages|date=1989|publisher=State University of New York Press|location=Albany|isbn=9780887066436}} *{{cite journal|last1=Gerdts|first1=Donna B.|last2=Marlett|first2=Stephen A.|title=Introduction: The Form and Function of Denominal Verb Constructions|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|date=October 2008|volume=74|issue=4|pages=409–422|doi=10.1086/595571|jstor=10.1086/595571|s2cid=143978309 }} *{{cite journal|last1=Gerdts|first1=Donna B.|last2=Hukari|first2=Thomas E.|title=Halkomelem Denominal Verb Constructions|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|date=October 2008|volume=74|issue=4|pages=489–510|doi=10.1086/595575|jstor=10.1086/595575|s2cid=145756089 }} *{{cite journal|last1=Gerdts|first1=Donna B.|title=Indigenous linguists: bringing research into language revitalization|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|date=October 2017|volume=83|issue=4|pages=607–617|doi=10.1086/693763|s2cid=149081645 }}
== Teaching == Gerdts teaches classes on languages of the First Nations, which are indigenous languages of southern Canada. More specifically, she teaches courses on narrative and discourse structure, morphology and syntax, and socio-cultural and cognitive aspects of First Nation Languages. She also teaches more general linguistics courses, on field methods and description analysis.<ref name=":0" />
Graduate students who she taught have contributed to linguistic literature through their theses in a variety of languages, including but not limited to: Arabic, ASL, Azeri, Breton, Hausa, Kashmiri, Koine Greek, Korean, Kunuz Nubian, Okanagan, and Shuswap.<ref name=":0" />
== References == {{reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.sfu.ca/~gerdts/ Gerdts' home page]
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gerdts, Donna}} Category:Linguists from the United States Category:Linguists from Canada Category:Living people Category:American women linguists Category:Linguists of Salishan languages Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:Linguists of Korean