South Asia

United States of America

Professor Emeritus of Dravidian Linguistics

University of Pennsylvania

haroldfs@gmail.com

Dept. of South Asia Studies
820 Williams Hall, Box 6305
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

phone: 856-216-0513
Fax: 215-573-2138

http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

India

My research interests focus on the linguistics of the Dravidian languages,
especially Tamil, and to a lesser extent, Kannada, and in the area of
language policy. I have published in these two areas where overlapping
interests in sociolinguistics (diglossia, language standardization,
multilingualism) intersect with language policy and the politics of
language. I am also director of the Consortium for Language Policy and
Planning, and recently finished a stint as Pedagogical Materials Director
of the National South Asia Language Resource Center. Recent publications
include Linguistic Culture and Language Policy (Routledge 1996) and A
Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil (Cambridge University Press, 1999). My
English Dictionary of the Tamil Verb was published on DVD in 2007 and on
paper (available from Cre-A Publishers, in India) in 2009.

Books and Monographs:

A Transformational Grammar of the Tamil Aspectual System. 1969. University of Washington Studies in Linguistics and Language Learning, Vol. VII, pp. i-xviii, 1-223. Seattle: University of Washington Department of Linguistics.

Dravidian Phonological Systems, (with Carol Eastman, eds.) 1975. South Asian Studies Program, Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies, and University of Washington Press, pp. i-xxii, 1-409.

A Grammar of Spoken Tamil. 1979. Madras: Christian Literature Society. Pp. i-viii, 1-104.

Language and Society in South Asia. 1982. (With Michael Shapiro.) Delhi: Matilal Banarsidass. Pp.i-x, 1-283.

A Reference Grammar of Spoken Kannada. 1983. Seattle: University of Washington Press and School of International Studies Publications on Asia, Vol. 39. Pp. i-xx, 1-182.

Geolinguistics: Language Dynamics and Ethno-Linguistic Geography. 1991. Translation of La Géographie des Langues. (Roland Breton, Les Presses Universitaires de France, 1983.) Les Presses de l'Université d'Ottawa. Pp. i-vii, 1-155.

Linguistic Culture and Language Policy. (1996) Politics of Language Series, Routledge (London). Pp. i-x, 1-356.

A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil , (1999), Cambridge University Press. Pp. i-xxii, 1-232.

Les langues régionales de France: un état des lieux à la veille du XXIe siècle/The Regional Languages of France: an Inventory on the Eve of the 21st Century. Philippe Blanchet, Roland Breton, and Harold Schiffman (eds.). Louvain-la-Neuve: Éditions Peeters: Bibliothèque des Cahiers de l'Institut de Linguistique de Louvain. Pp. 1-201.

2008: An English Dictionary of the Tamil Verb Available on DVD from Linguistic Data Consortium.

Selected Articles:

1974: ``Language, Linguistics and Politics in Tamilnad." in Edwin Gerow and Margery Lang, (eds.) Studies in the Language and Culture of South Asia. University of Washington Press, and Publications on Asia, No. 23, of the Institute for Comparative and Foreign Area Studies, pp. 125-34.

1975: ``On the Ternary Contrast in Dravidian Coronal Stops." in H. Schiffman and C. M. Eastman (eds.) Dravidian Phonological Systems, pp. 69-85.

1976: ``Causativity and the Tamil Verbal Base." International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics Vol. V, No.2, pgs. 238-48.

1978: ``Diglossia and Purity/Pollution in Tamil." In Contributions to Asian Studies, Vol. II: Language and Civilization Change in South Asia. Clarence Maloney (ed.). Leiden: E. J. Brill. Pp. 98-110.

1980: ``The Tamil Liquids," in Proceedings of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, 6:100-110. (Emeneau Felicitation Volume). Berkeley: Department of South and South east Asian Languages.

1985: ``Diglossic Variation in Tamil Film and Fiction." (with S. Arokianathan) in Bh. Krishnamurti, Masica, and Sinha (eds.), South Asian Languages: Structure, Convergence, and Diglossia. Delhi: Matilal Banarsidas. Vol. 3, MLBD Series in Linguistics. Pp. 371-381.

1986: ``Deferential Speech Acts and the Pragmatics of Politeness in Tamil: from Case to Aspect." In Joshua Fishman et al. (eds.), The Fergusonian Impact. Vol. II, Sociolinguistics and the Sociology of Language., pp. 23-33. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

1987: ``Losing the Battle for Balanced Bilingualism: The German-American Case." 1987. in J. Pool (ed.), Linguistic Inequality. Special Issue of Language Problems and Language Planning (Vol 11, No. 1, Spring, 1987). pp. 66-81.

1989: ``The Malayalam-Tamil Relationship and the Abstractness of Phonological Representations." Proceedings of the First International Seminar on Dravidian Linguistics and The Fourteenth All-India Conference of Dravidian Linguists. Trivandrum: Dravidian Linguistics Association. Pp. 9-27.

_________ and George L. Dillon, Doyle, A., Eastman, C., Silberstein, S., & Toolan, M., with Kline, S. & Philipsen, G. (1989) `Analyzing a Speech Event: The Bush-Rather Exchange. A (Not Very) Dramatic Dialogue.' Cultural Anthropology, 4, 73-94.

1991: Kannada. In Wm. Bright, (ed.), Oxford International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, Vol. II, pp. 266-268. Oxford: the Clarendon Press.

1991: ``Swiss-German Diglossia." In A. Hudson (ed.), Studies In Diglossia., Southwest Journal of Linguistics. 1991, 10(1), pgs. 173-188.

1992: `` `Resisting Arrest' in Status Planning: Structural and Covert Impediments to Status Change." Language and Communication 12(1), 1-15.

1993: ``The Balance of Power in Multiglossic Languages: Implications for Language Shift." 1993. Language and Power, Carol M. Eastman (ed.), International Journal of the Sociology of Language 103:115-148.

1993: ``Intervocalic V-deletion in Tamil: Its Domains and its Constraints." Journal of the American Oriental Society 113(4)513-528.

1995: ``Language Shift in the Tamil Communities of Malaysia and Singapore: The Paradox of Egalitarian Language Policy." Southwest Journal of Linguistics Language Loss and Public Policy, I. (G. Bills, ed.) Vol. 14, Nos. 1-2

1997: ``Diglossia as a Sociolinguistic Situation." In Florian Coulmas (ed.), The Handbook of Sociolinguistics. London: Basil Blackwell, Ltd.

1998: ``Standardization and Restandardization: the case of Spoken Tamil." Language in Society, Vol. 27 (3) 359-385.

1999: ‘South and Southeast Asia’. In Joshua A. Fishman (ed.), Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity, 431-443. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

1999: Review of Foley et al., English in New Cultural Contexts: Reflections from Singapore. In Language and Education, Vol. 13:3 (1999), pgs. 228-231.

1999: "Language, Primordialism and Sentiment." In G. Palmer and D. Occhi (eds.), Languages of Sentiment. Volume 18 of Advances in Consciousness Research. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Pp. 25-38.

2000: Review of Gopinathan et al., Language, Society and Education in Singapore. In Language and Education, Vol. 14:1, pgs. 64-68.

2001: Review of Tariq Rahman, Language, Education and Culture. Oxford and New York : Oxford University Press, and Sustainable Development Policy Institute, 1999. Pp. xvi, 318. In Language in Society, Vol. 30(2), June 2001.

2001: Review of Roland J.-L. Breton, Atlas of the Languages and Ethnic Communities of South Asia. Walnut Creek, London, New Delhi : Altamira Press, 1997. Pp. 231. In Language in Society, Vol. 30(2), June 2001.

2002: ``Malaysian Tamils and Tamil Linguistic Culture," in Language and Communication, Vol. 22:2, pp. 159-169, April 2002.

2002: "Linguistic Tolerance Policies: Can a Viable Model be Constructed for Moldova?" In Gremalschi, Anatol (ed.) (2002) Educating Tolerance in Multicultural Societies: Roundtable Discussion Materials. Chisinau: Soros Foundation-Moldova and ARC Publishing House

2002: "Tongue-Tied in Singapore: A Language Policy for Tamil?" Journal of Language, Identity and Education, Vol. 2, No. 2, pp. 105-125.

2002: "French Language Policy: Centrism, Orwellian dirigisme, or Economic Determinism?" In Li Wei, Jean-Marc Dewaele, and Alex Housen, (eds.) Opportunities and Challenges of Bilingualism. in
Contributions to the Sociology of Language 87, (2002) pp. 89-104.

2003: Review of Tariq Rahman Language, Ideology and Power: Language-learning among the Muslims of Pakistan and North India. Karachi and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp. xix, 689. In Language Policy.

2003: "The Language Policy of State Drivers' License Testing: Expediency, Symbolism, or Creeping Incrementalism?" Paper presented at Language Policy Session, American Anthropology Association, Washington, D.C., November, 2003.

2004: "The Tamil case system." In South-Indian Horizons: Felicitation Volume for François Gros on the occasion of his 70th birthday. Jean-Luc Chevillard and Eva Wilden, eds. Publications du Département d'Indologie 94. Institut Français de Pondichéry and École Française d'Extrême-Orient, pp. 293-305

2004: "Bilingualism in South Asia: Friend or Foe?" In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISBL4), Tempe, AZ.

2004: Co-editor: (with Philippe Blanchet) Volume on “Sociolinguistics of Southern France.” CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SOCIOLOGY OF LANGUAGE, n° 169.

2004: Review of Fighting Words: Language Policy and Ethnic Relations in Asia. Edited by Michael E. Brown and ŠSumit Ganguly. BCSIA Studies in International Security. Cambridge, Mass. MIT Press, 2003. Journal of Asian Studies Vol. 63, No. 4 (2004) pgs. 1069-71.

2005: "Language Policy and Linguistic Culture." Chapter in T. Ricento (ed.) An Introduction to Language Policy: Theory and Method. London: Blackwell 2005. pp. 111-125.

2005: "The Grammaticalization of Aspect in Tamil, and its Semantic Sources." In S. Mufwene, R. Wheeler et al., (eds.) Polymorphous Linguistics: Jim McCawley's Legacy. Cambridge:MIT Press, 2005.

2005: "Deverbal Nominal Derivation in Tamil" International Journal of Dravidian Linguistics, Vol. 34, No. 2, June 2005, pp. 159-166.

2007: "Tamil Language Policy in Singapore: the Role of Implementation." In Viniti Vaish, S. Gopinathan and Liu Yongbing (eds.) Language, Capital, Culture: Critical Studies of Language in Education in Singapore. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

2008: "The Ausbau Issue in the Dravidian Languages: the Case of Tamil and the Problem of Purism." IJSL Vol. 191, pp. 45-63.

2008: "Language, Policy and Citizenship: three views." in The Future of Citizenship, Jose V. Ciprut, (ed.) MIT Press, 2008.

Review of Linguistic Inequality in Scientific Communication Today to appear in Language Policy.

linguistics ; sociolinguistics ; Dravidian languages ; language policy ; ...