Curriculum vitae

 Catherine LÉGER

Current address              

14 Western Avenue

Northampton, Massachusetts

USA 01060                    

(413) 585–3956 (work)                

(413) 584–8191 (home)              

Permanent address          
6009 De Chateaubriand Avenue

Montreal, Quebec

Canada                  

H2S 2N3               

(514) 277–0715

 

Emails: cleger@smith.edu, leger.catherine@gmail.com

Languages: French (native ability), English (bilingual ability)

Citizenships: Canadian, Swiss

EDUCATION        

2006

Ph.D. in Linguistics, with honours              

Dissertation: La complémentation de type phrastique des adjectifs en français (Sentential Complementation of Adjectives in French), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), Quebec, Canada

1999

Master’s in Linguistics, with honours

1991–1992

Courses in linguistics, Université de Poitiers, France, exchange program with the Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

1991

B.A. in French Studies, Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS  

2006–2008

Postdoctoral fellowship: Quebec Fund for Research on Society and Culture (FQRSC), provincial competition, $32000CND/year

2000–2003

Doctoral fellowship: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), national competition, $17700CND/year

1999–2001

Doctoral fellowship: Quebec Fund for Research Training and Support (FCAR), provincial competition, $13000CDN (1st year) and $20000CND (2nd year). Refused upon the award of the SSHRC fellowship, for one cannot concurrently hold these two fellowships

1997–1998 and 1998–1999

Financial Support Program for Research and Creation (PAFARC), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), $4500CND/year

1997–1998 and 1998–1999

Judith Mc A’Nulty Scholarship, Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), $1000CND/year

1991–1992

Local Council of the Vienne Department Scholarship, France, $6000CND, undergraduate studies in linguistics at the Université de Poitiers

1986–1990

Governor’s Scholarship, Université de Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada, $2000CND/year, undergraduate studies in French Studies

WORK EXPERIENCE    

Current

Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Smith College (Northampton, MA) and University of Massachusetts at Amherst, MA. Research project: English- and French-speaking children’s understanding of factive and non-factive complements. Supervisors: Jill de Villiers and Thomas Roeper

 

Winter 2007

Organizer of workshops. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM. Organized a series of presentations on complementation (invited experts, proofread abstracts, made the announcements, etc.).

 

Winter 2007

Lecturer. Effective Oral Communication. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM.
Taught the course to two groups, course designed to improve speaking skills by using delivery elements effectively such as pitch, volume, projection, posture, eye contact with the audience, facial expressions and body language.

Spring 2005

Lecturer. Effective Oral Communication. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM.
Taught the course to two groups, course designed to improve speaking skills by using delivery elements effectively such as pitch, volume, projection, posture, eye contact with the audience, facial expressions and body language.

Winter 2005

Teaching Associate. Linguistic Description of French. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM. Supervise students on their assignments (on French phonology, morphology and syntax) and graded assignments and exams.

Winter 2004

Visiting Assistant Professor (full time). Department of French Studies, Université de Moncton, New Brunswick. Taught three courses in French at the undergraduate level: Introduction to Linguistics, Semantics and Pragmatics, History of the Language Sciences.

Winter 2003

Visiting Assistant Professor (full time). Department of French Studies, Université de Moncton, New Brunswick. Taught three courses in French at the undergraduate level: Introduction to Linguistics (to two different groups) and Morphology.

Fall 2003, Winter 2002 and Winter 2000

Teaching assistant. Semantics. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM. Led weekly workshops and discussions on a wide array of subjects in semantics.

Fall 2002    

Research assistant. Canadian Linguistic Association. Prepared author, subject and language indexes for the Canadian Journal of Linguistics.

2001 

French teacher. YMCA (Montreal) and CLIC (Montreal). Taught French as a second language to adults.

Fall 2000    

Teaching assistant. Introduction to the Study of Language. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM. Graded exams and assignments.

Fall 2000    

Teaching assistant. Syntax. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM. Led weekly workshops and discussions on a wide array of subjects in syntax.

1996–2000    

Research assistant. Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, UQÀM. Conducted research on a variety of subjects: acquisition of L1 (Lucie Godard and Marie Labelle), psycholinguistics (Joachim Reinwein), errors in writing (Gilles Fortier) and creoles (Claire Lefebvre).

1993–1995    

Proofreader. Éditions d’Acadie, Moncton, New Brunswick. Proofread French novels, art books and pedagogical material.

1994    

French teacher. Continuous Education Program, Université de Moncton, New Brunswick. Taught French as a second language to adults.

1992–1993    

Proofreader and research assistant. Center for Acadian Studies, Université de Moncton, New Brunswick. Accomplished different tasks for the recast of Pascal Poirier’s Acadian Glossary.

PUBLICATIONS        

To appear

"Sentential complementation of adjectives in French". In Ora Matushansky (ed), The Formal Analysis of Adjectives, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

2003

"La complémentation phrastique des adjectifs en français". In Sophie Burelle and Stanca Somesfalean (eds), Proceedings of the 2003 Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, 133–144.

2000

"The use of tenses in French-speaking children’s narratives". In Eve V. Clark (ed), The Proceedings of the Thirtieth Stanford Child Language Research Forum (April 9–11, 1999), Stanford, CA: Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), 105–112.

REFEREED CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS 

2007

"Knowing, Thinking, Seeing and Being Happy: The Acquisition of Factive and Nonfactive Predicates", Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition 2007 (GALA 2007) (September 6th to September 8th, 2007), Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, September 6th, 2007.

2006

"Understanding of factivity under negation: an asymmetry between two types of factive predicates", Boston University Conference on Language Development 31 (November 3rd to November 5th, 2006), Boston University, November 4th, 2006.

2005

"Sentential Complements of Adjectives in French", Journée d’études sur l’analyse formelle d’adjectifs/Workshop on the Formal Analysis of Adjectives (September 28th, 2005), organized by the Joint Research Unit 7023 of the National Council for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Université Paris 8, Université de Paris 6 (Pierre and Marie Curie), September 28th, 2005.

2004

"Les propriétés syntaxiques et sémantiques des adjectifs de qualités morales", 72nd Annual Meeting of the Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS) (May 10th to May 14th, 2004), Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM), May 10th, 2004.

2003

"Une analyse sémantique de la complémentation des adjectifs en français", Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference (June 1st to June 4th, 2003), Dalhousie University, Halifax (Nova Scotia), June 3rd, 2003.

1999

"L’utilisation des temps de verbe dans les narrations écrites et orales d’enfants francophones de la première à la cinquième année scolaire", Annual Meeting of the Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics (June 4th to June 6th, 1999), Université de Sherbrooke (Quebec), June 5th, 1999.

1999

"Tense and aspect in French-speaking children’s written and oral narratives", Thirtieth Stanford Child Language Research Forum (April 9th to April 11th, 1999), Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University, April 10th, 1999.

OTHER CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS  

2007

"Knowing, seeing, being happy and thinking: the development of different types of states", Smith College, Northampton, Mass., April 2, 2007.

2006

"Mastery of properties associated with the factive/non-factive distinction", UUSLAW—University of Connecticut, University of Massachusetts, Smith College Language Acquisition Workshop, Department of Linguistics, University of Connecticut, April 29, 2006.

2006

"English- and French-speaking children’s understanding of factive and non-factive complements", Department of Linguistics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, February 13, 2006.

1998

"L’utilisation des temps de verbe dans les narrations écrites et orales d’enfants francophones de la première à la cinquième année scolaire", Department of Linguistics and Didactics of Languages, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM,) November 13, 1998.

ACADEMIC SERVICES 

2007

External Evaluator, Master's Thesis, Anastassia Novale, "Les particularités d'emploi des prépositions à et de suivies de l'infinitif dans le français acadien (exemple du corpus Parkton)". October 12, 2007, Université de Moncton, Moncton, New Brunswick.