Laurel MacKenzie

Education
PhD
University of Pennsylvania, Linguistics, in progress
BA
University of California, Berkeley, Linguistics, French, 2006

Additional Coursework
 
Stanford University, Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute, 2007

Université de Toulouse II le Mirail, Toulouse, France, study abroad, 2004–2005

Research Interests
  • Auxiliary contraction in English
  • Grammatical variation and change
  • Quantitative and corpus methods
  • Language change across the lifespan
  • Sound change and sociophonetics
  • Sociolinguistic and documentary fieldwork
  • Romance linguistics: French (European and Canadian), Occitan
Publications
To appear. MacKenzie, Laurel. English Auxiliary Contraction as a Two-Stage Process: Evidence from Corpus Data. To appear in Proceedings of WCCFL 29.
To appear. MacKenzie, Laurel. Locating Linguistic Variation: A Case Study of English Auxiliary Contraction. To appear in Nick LaCara et al., ed., Proceedings of NELS 41.
2010. MacKenzie, Laurel. /s/-deletion and the Preservation of Plurality in Modern Occitan. In Marielle Lerner, ed., Selected Papers from NWAV 38. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 16.2, Philadelphia, PA.
2010. MacKenzie, Laurel and Gillian Sankoff. A Quantitative Analysis of Diphthongization in Montreal French. In Kyle Gorman and Laurel MacKenzie, eds., Selected Papers from NWAV 37. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 15.2, Philadelphia, PA.
2007. Keith Johnson, Christian DiCanio, and Laurel MacKenzie. The Acoustic and Visual Phonetic Basis of Place of Articulation in Excrescent Nasals. UC Berkeley Phonology Lab Annual Report. 529–561.
Presentations and Posters
2012. MacKenzie, Laurel and Constantine Lignos. Size matters: The effect of subject length on contraction. Paper to be presented at the 2012 Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics, March 8–11, 2012. (abstract)
2012. MacKenzie, Laurel. Conditions on Auxiliary Contraction as Evidence for Variation Outside the Grammar. Paper presented at the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Portland, January 5, 2012. (slides+presentation notes)
2011. Fruehwald, Josef and Laurel MacKenzie. New Results from Multilevel Models of the Speech Community. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 40, Georgetown University, October 28, 2011. (abstract | slides)
2011. Ingason, Anton Karl and Laurel MacKenzie. "Heaviness" as Evidence for a Derive-and-Compare Grammar. Poster presented at the 19th Manchester Phonology Meeting, May 20, 2011. (abstract | poster)
2011. MacKenzie, Laurel. English Auxiliary Contraction as a Two-Stage Process: Evidence from Corpus Data. Paper presented at the 29th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, University of Arizona, April 22, 2011. (abstract | slides+presentation notes)
2011. Ingason, Anton Karl and Laurel MacKenzie. Þyngd. [Heaviness.] Paper presented by Anton Karl Ingason at HugvísindaÞing [Humanities Conference], University of Iceland, March 25–26, 2011. (slides)
2011. MacKenzie, Laurel. Quantitative Data as a Clue to Auxiliary Contraction Processes. Paper presented at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Pittsburgh, January 8, 2011. (extended abstract | slides+presentation notes)
2010. MacKenzie, Laurel. Contraction Beyond the Copula. Poster presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 39, University of Texas, San Antonio, November 5, 2010. (abstract | poster | handout)
2010. MacKenzie, Laurel. Locating Linguistic Variation: A Case Study of English Auxiliary Contraction. Poster presented at North East Linguistic Society 41, University of Pennsylvania, October 22, 2010. (abstract | poster | handout)
2010. MacKenzie, Laurel. Reduplication in Itawes. Poster presented at the 2010 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Baltimore, January 9, 2010. (extended abstract | poster)
2009. MacKenzie, Laurel. /s/-deletion and the Preservation of Plurality in Modern Occitan. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 38, University of Ottawa, October 24, 2009. (abstract | slides+presentation notes)
2009. MacKenzie, Laurel and Gillian Sankoff. Issues in Longitudinal Vowel Analysis: Evidence from Montreal French. Paper presented at Change and Variation in Canada III, York University, June 21, 2009. (abstract | slides)
2009. MacKenzie, Laurel and Gillian Sankoff. Longitudinal Evidence for Vowel Change in Montreal French. Paper presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, San Francisco, January 10, 2009. (abstract)
2009. Gorman, Kyle and Laurel MacKenzie. A Boho in SoHo: Emerging Specificity in English Templatic Hypocoristics. Paper presented at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, San Francisco, January 8, 2009. (abstract | slides)
2008. MacKenzie, Laurel and Gillian Sankoff. A Quantitative Analysis of Diphthongization in Montreal French. Paper presented at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 37, Rice University, November 8, 2008. (abstract | slides)
2008. Johnson, Keith, Christian DiCanio, and Laurel MacKenzie. The Acoustic and Visual Phonetic Basis of Place of Articulation in Excrescent Nasals. Paper presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Chicago, January 5, 2008. (abstract | slides)
2006. Johnson, Keith and Laurel MacKenzie. Visual-Phonetic Cues in the Phonology of Toulousain French. Paper presented by Keith Johnson at Phonetic Bases of Distinctive Features, Carré des Sciences, Paris, July 3, 2006. (abstract | slides)
Teaching and Research Experience
Courses Taught
Summer 2011
Introduction to Sociolinguistics (LING 102)
Courses Assisted
Fall 2008
Introduction to Sociolinguistics (LING 102)
Instructor: Prof. Gillian Sankoff
Spring 2008
Introduction to Sociolinguistics (LING 102)
Instructor: Prof. Gillian Sankoff
Fall 2007
Introduction to Linguistics (LING 001)
Instructor: Prof. Mark Liberman
Research Assistantships
2006–2007,
Spring 2009
Research Assistant, Language Change Across the Lifespan
P.I.: Gillian Sankoff
Awards, Fellowships, and Grants
2011–2012
Dissertation Completion Fellowship, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
2006–2011
Benjamin Franklin Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
2011
2nd place, Student Paper Prize, NWAV 40, Georgetown (with Josef Fruehwald)
2010
2nd place, Student Poster Prize, NWAV 39, UT San Antonio
2009
Dean’s Award for Distinguished Teaching by Graduate Students (Teaching Assistants)
2008–2010
3 Dean's Summer Fellowships, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
2008–2010
3 Travel Grants from the University of Pennsylvania Graduate and Professional Student Assembly (GAPSA), University of Pennsylvania
2008–2009
3 Travel Grants from the School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania
2007
Presidential Prize Fellowship, University of Pennsylvania
2006
University Medal Finalist, University of California, Berkeley
2006
Departmental Citation in French, University of California, Berkeley
2006
Phi Beta Kappa

Professional Service
2007–present
Editorial board, Penn Working Papers in Linguistics. Editor of volumes 15.2 (with Kyle Gorman), 15.1, and 14.1 (with Joshua Tauberer and Aviad Eilam)
2011–2012
Student coordinator, Sociolinguistic Archival Preparation satellite workshop, LSA Annual Meeting
2011
Student coordinator, Demographic coding for sociolinguistic corpus archive preparation workshop, NWAV 40
2011
Reviewer, 35th Penn Linguistics Colloquium
2008–2011
Co-president, Graduate Students’ Linguistics Club, University of Pennsylvania
2010
Program committee, NELS 41
2007
Organizing committee, NWAV 36, University of Pennsylvania
2007–2008
Co-chair, 32nd Penn Linguistics Colloquium
2006–2009
Organizing committee, Penn Linguistics Colloquium
Language Proficiency
French: advanced
Spanish: reading knowledge
Itawes, Occitan: research
Programming languages: Python, R, Praat, LaTeX, HTML