Trondheim, Norge
Nicholas
Toler
Department of Linguistics
Hello, Waqaa, Tansi!
I am a linguist and a circumpolar researcher. My research and interests emphasize endangered and minority language documentation and description, morphosemantics, corpus linguistics, and curriculum design. I love exploring all of the world's languages, but my heart belongs to the NSKY dialect of Central Alaskan Yup'ik.
Research
I am a linguist working with the Norton Sound Kotlik Yugtun (NSKY) community in Alaska. My work with the community is geared towards creating a spoken corpus to support dictionary development, grammatical inquiry, and long-term preservation. My research currently emphasizes deictic function in natural connected language use both in Yugtun and cross-linguistically. I focus primarily on the role of demonstratives in discourse, examining how the "world's largest demonstrative system" is utilized in everyday speech. I am also interested in modality, lexical categorization, and polysynthesis.
Teaching and Pedagogical Design
I believe teaching plays a crucial role in the best research practice and is the most effective way to disseminate knowledge. Through my teaching, I aim to instill the values of life-long, hands-on, collaborative, and critical learning. I work to achieve these values in my pedagogical design by using foundational lectures followed by class engagement or discussion and then skill implementation through practice problem sets and quizzes that reinforce concepts learned. I also provide additional resources that facilitate students' learning by allowing them to follow up on topics they find the most valuable.
