Profile
Carol Rose Little obtained her PhD from Cornell University. She joined the Modern Languages, Literatures and Linguistics department as an assistant professor of linguistics in 2021. Prior to coming to OU, she was a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University.
Her research program brings together syntax, semantics and morphology, rooted in a strong commitment to fieldwork and language documentation. She investigates possible structural variations crosslinguistically and how these structures interface with semantic computation. Her theoretical analyses draw on data collected from fieldwork with understudied languages, primarily the Mayan language Ch'ol. She has also published papers on Mi'gmaq, Finnish and Indonesian. She has been doing fieldwork with Ch'ol-speaking communities in Chiapas, Mexico since 2015.
At OU, Dr. Little teaches syntax, semantics, introduction to linguistics and field methods. She strives to create a dynamic environment in her courses so that each student may come away with a deeper understanding of the material. Her holistic approach to teaching makes it so that students may apply skills and concepts learned in her courses outside the classroom.
Selected publications
Accepted. Cheyenne demonstratives: A corpus study. Proceedings of the 52nd Algonquian Conference. University of Wisconsin-Madison. With Sarah Murray, Chloe Ortega, Wayne Leman, Richard Littlebear, Jessie Angel-Brien, Haley Ash-Eide, and Desta Sioux Calf.
2022. Classifiers can be for numerals or nouns: Two strategies for numeral modification, Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7(1). With Mary Moroney and Justin Royer.
2020. Mutual dependences of nominal and clausal syntax in Ch'ol. PhD dissertation. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University.
2020. Left branch extraction, object shift and freezing effects in Tumbalá Ch'ol. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 5(1), 26.
2019. Classifiers and the definite article. In Proceedings of the 49th North East Linguistics Society, Maggie Baird and Jonathan Pesetsky (Eds), 209--220. Amherst, MA: GLSA. With Ekarina Winarto.
2018. A feature-based analysis of the Ch'ol (Mayan) person paradigm. In Karee Garvin, Noah Hermalin, Myriam Lapierre, Yevgeniy Melguy, Tessa Scott and Eric Wilbanks (Eds), Proceedings of the Forty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. pages 147--161. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Linguistics Society.
2018. A Binary Feature Analysis of Mi'gmaq Number Agreement. Proceedings of the 35th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. edited by Wm. G. Bennett, Lindsay Hracs, and Dennis Ryan Storoshenko. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Education
PhD in linguistics with graduate minors in (i) American Indian and Indigenous Studies and (ii) Cognitive Science Cornell University 2020
MA in linguistics Cornell University 2017
BA linguistics and Russian studies McGill University 2012
Research
Syntax, semantics, morphology, language documentation, Mayan languages, Ch'ol
Teaching Schedule for FALL 2023
LING 4970-001 Glyphs and Glottals, BURT 208, M/W 15:00-16:15
LING 3353-001 Syntax, COH 248, M/W 13:30-14:45
