Name Judith Aissen | ||
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JUDITH AISSEN
Judith Aissen is a Professor Emerita in linguistics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her research is focused on the Mayan language Tzotzil. She is particularly known for her analysis of Tzotzil and other Mayan languages having abstract obviation systems akin to those described in Algonquian languages and for her work on differential object marking.
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Biography
Aissen began to study Mayan languages in 1972 as a graduate student at Harvard University, conducting field research in San Cristobal de las Casas, Chiapas. Her 1974 dissertation on The Syntax of Causative Constructions was published by Garland in 1979.
In 1983, Aissen joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz. Since 1995, she has been making trips to Chiapas to teach workshops in syntax to linguistics students who are native Mayan language speakers.
Honors
On January 3, 2008, she became a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America. In 2011, Aissen's colleagues at University of California, Santa Cruz organized a festschrift in her honor, entitled Representing Language: Essays in Honor of Judith Aissen.