Abigail Kaun

Associate Dean of the Graduate School
College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
University of Southern California
College of Letters Arts and Sciences

kaun@usc.edu

EDUCATION

Ph.D. (1995)
University of California, Los Angeles, 1995; Linguistics
The Typology of Rounding Harmony:  An Optimality Theoretic Approach
Ph.D. Committee Chair: Professor Bruce Hayes

BA (1988)    
University of California, Santa Barbara, 1988; Linguistics
(Departmental Honors)

1985-1986    
Université de la Sorbonne, Paris III
University of California Education Abroad Program

EMPLOYMENT HISTORY

2006-	Associate Dean of the Graduate School, College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, USC
2003-2006	Associate Director, USC Annenberg School of Communication
2001-2003	Assistant Director, USC Annenberg School of Communication
2000-present	Adjunct Assistant Professor, Linguistics, USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
2000 (09-12)	Public Communications Manager, USC Alumni Association
1995-2000	Assistant Professor, Yale University Department of Linguistics
1994-1995	Visiting Assistant Professor, The University of Iowa Department of Linguistics
1993-1994	Research Assistant, Professor Edward Keenan, UCLA
1992-1993	Research Assistant to the UCLA Department of Linguistics; Responsibility for overseeing and improving the departmental computer laboratory
1992	Lecturer, Marmara Üniversitesi Dept. of English, Istanbul, Turkey
1987-1988	Research Staff, Speech Technology Laboratories (Panasonic Technologies Inc), Santa Barbara, California

AWARDS

1998-1999	Fellow, Whitney Center for Humanities, Yale University
1997-1998	Morse Junior Faculty Fellowship in the Social Sciences, Yale University
1997	John F. Enders Collaborative Research Grant, Yale University.
1996	Social Sciences Faculty Research Grant, Yale University
1995	Social Sciences Faculty Research Grant, Yale University
1988-1991	4-year Departmental Fellowship, UCLA Dept. of Linguistics

SERVICE AND PROFESSIONAL SOCIETIES

Consultant	Cambodian Genocide Project (Yale Center for International and Area Studies): Development of an ASCII-based orthography for Khmer
Reviewer	Cambridge University Press, Kluwer Academic Publishing, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Journal of the International Phonetics Association, West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics
1998-1999	Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University
1998-1999	Faculty Advisor: Faculty/Graduate Student Seminar in Phonetics & Phonology
1995-2000	Colloquium Coordinator, Yale Department of Linguistics
1996-2000	Silliman College Fellow, Yale University
1996-2000	Freshman Faculty Advisor Silliman College, Yale University
1996-1997	Committee on Honors and Academic Standing, Yale College
1996-1997	ESCOL ‘97 Organizational Committee
1993	WCCFL XII Organizational Committee, UCLA Department of Linguistics
1995-1995	Teaching Evaluation Committee, UCLA Department of Linguistics
1989-1990	UCLA Graduate Linguistics Circle President
Member	Linguistic Society of America, American Association of University Professors

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Various USC Linguistics Screening and Dissertation Committees

Spring 200      USC Ling 275 GE: Language and Mind (co-taught with Todd Haskell)
Spring 2003    USC Ling 275 GE: Language and Mind (co-taught with Elaine Andersen)

1999-2000    Assistant Professor, Yale University Department of Linguistics
    Ling. 132a/532a    Phonological Analysis
    Ling. 240a/540a    Graduate Seminar
    Dissertation co-chair: K. David Harrison (Ph.D. awarded in 2000)
    Dissertation Committee: Douglas Honorof, Bryan Gick
    Senior Thesis Supervisor: Michael Gottlieb, Karen Westen

1998-1999    Assistant Professor, Yale University Department of Linguistics
    Ling. 132a/532a    Phonological Analysis
    Ling. 132b/532b    Phonological Theory
    Ling. 241a/641a    Field Methods (Hungarian)
    Ling. 110    Introduction to Linguistics
    Dissertation co-chair: K. David Harrison
    Dissertation committee: Bhavani Saravanan (SUNY Stony Brook)
    Senior Thesis Supervisor: Anthony Sagnella, Gordy Rogers, John Eure

1996-1997    Assistant Professor, Yale University Department of Linguistics
    Ling. 132a/532a    Phonological Analysis
    Ling. 132b/532b    Phonological Theory
    Ling. 241a/641a    Field Methods (Khmer)
    Ling. 230b    Topics in Phonology (Functionalism vs. Formalism)
    Independent Studies: Practicum in Turkic Phonology (K. D. Harrison)
    Senior Thesis Supervisor: Benn Oshrin

1995-1996    Assistant Professor, Yale University Department of Linguistics
    Ling. 132a/532a    Phonological Analysis
    Ling. 132b/532b    Phonological Theory
    Ling. 241a/641a    Field Methods (Kannada)
    Ling. 241b/641b    Field Methods (Kannada)

1994-1995    Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Iowa, Department of Linguistics
    Ling. 112    Phonological Theory and Analysis
    Ling. 120    Historical and Comparative Linguistics
    Ling. 310    Graduate Seminar:  Problems in
    Ling. 110    Articulatory and Acoustic Phonetics

1992    Lecturer, Marmara Üniversitesi Department of English
(Istanbul, Turkey)
        English Composition
        Spoken English


PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS

(2004) “The phonetic foundations of the rounding harmony typology.”  in B. Hayes, R. Kirchner, D. Steriade (eds.), Phonetics in Phonology. Cambridge University Press.

(2000)  “Consonant disharmony and epenthesis in Turkish.” Paper presented at the LSA. January 7, 2000. Chicago, IL.

(1999)    “The implications of disharmony for underspecification.” With K. David Harrison. Paper presented at the Conference on Distinctive Feature Theory. October 7, 1999. Berlin, Germany.

(1999) “Pattern-Responsive underspecification.” With K. David Harrison. Paper presented at the North Eastern Linguistics Conference. October 20, 1999. Rutgers University. In Proceedings of the 30th Conference of the North Eastern Linguistics Society.

(1999) “Phrasal signatures in articulation,”  D. Byrd, A. Kaun, S. Narayanan, and E. Saltzman. In M. Broe & J. Pierrehumbert (eds.) Papers in Laboratory Phonology 5.

(1999)    “Inactive constraints: Discharged or in reserve?” Invited lecture presented at AT&T Laboratories—Research.

(1999)    “Geometry, kinematics, and acoustics of Tamil liquid consonants,” S. Narayanan, D. Byrd, and A. Kaun. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Vol 106,  October, pp. 1993-2007.

(1999)    “Acoustic modeling of retroflex consonants” S. Narayanan and A. Kaun.  In Proceedings of XIV ICPHS, San Francisco, CA, August 1999.

(1999)    “Epenthesis-driven harmony in Turkish,” Paper presented at BLS 25: Special Session on Caucasian, Dravidian, and Turkic Linguistics, February, 1999. Appeared in Proceedings of BLS 25, Alan Yu (ed.).

(1999)    “Hybrid Neutralization in Limbu,”  A. Kaun and M. Richardson.  Paper presented at the meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Los Angeles, California, January, 1999.

(1998) “Using English to understand Tamil: Sonorants, obstruents and weight.” ms., Yale University

(1998)    What Linguistic Borrowings Can Tell us About Linguistic Systems: The Case of Turkish Epenthesis,”  Lecture delivered at the Whitney Humanities Center, Yale University, October 30, 1998.

(1998)    “Two constraint systems:  Evidence from English loanwords in Tamil.”  A. Kaun and B.  Saravanan.  Paper presented at South Asian Linguistics Association XIX, York, England, July 1998.

(1998)    “Input constraints in Tamil.”  Paper presented at Chicago Linguistics Society 34, April 17, 1998. In Proceedings of CLS 34.

(1998)    “Are input representations constrained?”  Colloquium delivered at the State University of New York, Stony Brook Department of Linguistics, February 6, 1998.

(1997)    “Abstractness in Harmony Systems:  The Case of Namangan Tatar,”  A. Kaun, D. Harrison, and F. Tcherkassova. Paper presented at the 10th Annual Conference on the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR, University of Chicago, May 8-10, 1997.  In Proceedings of the Non-Slavic Languages of the USSR.

(1996)    “The Role of Phonological Phrasing Sung and Chanted Verse.” B. Hayes and A. Kaun.  Linguistic Review 13.243-303.
 
(1996)    “Liquids in Tamil.”  S. Narayanan, A. Kaun, D. Byrd, P. Ladefoged, and A. Alwan.  Invited paper in Proceedings of ICSLP 1996, Philadelphia, PA.

(1996)    “Phrasal Boundaries and Articulatory Timing.”  D. Byrd, S. Narayanan, A. Kaun, and E. Saltzman.  Paper presented at Laboratory Phonology 5, Evanston, IL, June 1996.

(1996)    “The Coronal Underspecification Hypothesis:  Where are we now?”  Colloquium delivered at the University of Massachusetts Department of Linguistics, Amherst, MA, April 26, 1996.

(1995)    “Vowel Inventories and Vowel Processes within Optimality Theory.” In Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences 1995 vol 2, pp. 614-617.  Stockholm, Sweden.

(1995)    “Harmony as Alignment in Shuluun Höh.”  Paper presented at WCCFL XIV, USC, March 1995.
 
(1995)    The Typology of Rounding Harmony:  An Optimality Theoretic Approach.  Doctoral Dissertation, UCLA.  Published as UCLA Dissertations in Linguistics, No. 8.

(1995)    “Auditory and Articulatory Constraint Interaction in Harmony.”  Colloquium delivered at Yale University Department of Linguistics, Feb. 24, 1995.

(1994)    “An Optimality-Theoretic Account of Rounding Harmony Typology” Presentation given at WCCFL XIII, UCSD, March 1994.  Paper appears in Proceedings of WCCFL XIII, CSLI).

(1994)    “Contrast Constraints and Rounding Harmony”  Colloquium delivered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Department of  Linguistics, Feb. 1994.

(1993)    “The Coronal Underspecification Hypothesis”  in Daniel Silverman  & Robert Kirchner (eds.)  Papers in Phonology, UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics No. 13.

(1991)“The Effects of Breathy Voice on Intelligibility” with Hector Javkin, Brian Hanson, A. Kaun.  Speech Communication 10, pp. 539-543.  North-Holland.

(1991)    “Suffixal H Tone Assignment in Haya Verbs and the OCP” Presentation given at the 4th Arizona Phonology Conference.

(1991)    “Edge-In Association and the OCP in Haya” (MA thesis).

(1989)    “Breathiness and Intelligibility–are they Mutually Exclusive?”  H. Javkin, B. Hanson and A.Kaun.   Paper presented at the meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Washington, D.C., December 1989.

(1989)    “A Multi-lingual Text-to-Speech System”  with Hector Javkin et al.  Proceedings of ICASSP, Glasgow, Scotland, pp. 242-245, May 1989.

(1988)    “Definite and Indefinite Noun Phrases in Turkish:  A Discourse Study” In Sandra Thompson (ed.) Santa Barbara Papers in Linguistics 1.