2009-2008
News Release
REF NO.: 152
SUBJECT: Vanier Scholarship for linguistics grad
DATE: May 7, 2009
Will Oxford, who completed his MA in linguistics in 2007, has been chosen as one of the first recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, a prestigious doctoral scholarship valued at $50,000 per year for up to three years.
Mr. Oxford will begin his PhD studies at the University of Toronto in the fall and is the only linguist to receive the award. He is one of 55 recipients chosen by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), one of three federal research granting agencies responsible for the administration of the award. A total of 166 scholarships will be awarded this year.
“Needless to say, I'm thrilled and honoured to receive the Vanier Scholarship,” said Mr. Oxford. “It's an extremely generous award, and it will allow me to focus 100 per cent on my studies and research without having to worry about financial matters. It's hard to express just what a difference this award will make. To be honest, I think I'm still in shock!”
The scholarship is awarded to doctoral students who have demonstrated strong leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health. The scholarship of $50,000 per year will fund Mr. Oxford’s PhD research topic, which will explore how to build an Innu-aimun sentence and will examine syntax in a free word order language.
Mr. Oxford explains that a “free word order languge” is one in which the order of words appears at first glance to be completely random.
Although Innu-aimun word order is more fluid than that of a language like English, it is still, in fact, governed by grammatical rules; the rules are just more subtle than those of English. The goal of Mr. Oxford’s research is to help document the rules that determine Innu-aimun word order. The practical applications for this research include benefitting future English-Innu translation.
“Will Oxford's work represents the unique focus of our department on combining a high level of theoretical expertise with solid field work on varieties of speech in local communities,” said Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie, head of the department of linguistics here at Memorial.
Originally from Lewisporte, Mr. Oxford’s master’s thesis, Toward a grammar of Innu-aimun particles, was published by the Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics Memoir series at the University of Manitoba last fall, a singular achievement for an MA thesis.
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program was launched by the Government of Canada in Budget 2008, with an initial $25 million investment. When fully operational, the program will support 500 graduate students per year. Both Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Of the 166 awards, 129 scholarships will go to Canadian students pursuing doctoral studies while 37 will be given to international students pursuing doctoral studies at Canadian universities.
Ping Lu, a student who is completing his PhD in Memorial’s Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, has also been chosen as one the first recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
REF NO.: 152
SUBJECT: Vanier Scholarship for linguistics grad
DATE: May 7, 2009
Will Oxford, who completed his MA in linguistics in 2007, has been chosen as one of the first recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship, a prestigious doctoral scholarship valued at $50,000 per year for up to three years.
Mr. Oxford will begin his PhD studies at the University of Toronto in the fall and is the only linguist to receive the award. He is one of 55 recipients chosen by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), one of three federal research granting agencies responsible for the administration of the award. A total of 166 scholarships will be awarded this year.
“Needless to say, I'm thrilled and honoured to receive the Vanier Scholarship,” said Mr. Oxford. “It's an extremely generous award, and it will allow me to focus 100 per cent on my studies and research without having to worry about financial matters. It's hard to express just what a difference this award will make. To be honest, I think I'm still in shock!”
The scholarship is awarded to doctoral students who have demonstrated strong leadership skills and a high standard of scholarly achievement in graduate studies in the social sciences and humanities, natural sciences and engineering, and health. The scholarship of $50,000 per year will fund Mr. Oxford’s PhD research topic, which will explore how to build an Innu-aimun sentence and will examine syntax in a free word order language.
Mr. Oxford explains that a “free word order languge” is one in which the order of words appears at first glance to be completely random.
Although Innu-aimun word order is more fluid than that of a language like English, it is still, in fact, governed by grammatical rules; the rules are just more subtle than those of English. The goal of Mr. Oxford’s research is to help document the rules that determine Innu-aimun word order. The practical applications for this research include benefitting future English-Innu translation.
“Will Oxford's work represents the unique focus of our department on combining a high level of theoretical expertise with solid field work on varieties of speech in local communities,” said Dr. Marguerite MacKenzie, head of the department of linguistics here at Memorial.
Originally from Lewisporte, Mr. Oxford’s master’s thesis, Toward a grammar of Innu-aimun particles, was published by the Algonquian and Iroquoian Linguistics Memoir series at the University of Manitoba last fall, a singular achievement for an MA thesis.
The Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarships program was launched by the Government of Canada in Budget 2008, with an initial $25 million investment. When fully operational, the program will support 500 graduate students per year. Both Canadian and international students are eligible to be nominated for a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
Of the 166 awards, 129 scholarships will go to Canadian students pursuing doctoral studies while 37 will be given to international students pursuing doctoral studies at Canadian universities.
Ping Lu, a student who is completing his PhD in Memorial’s Department of Physics and Physical Oceanography, has also been chosen as one the first recipients of the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.
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