research interests

Linguistics is the scientific study of language. As a linguist, my task is to reverse engineer natural languages in order to better understand Language and its diversity.

Since 2009 I have done fieldwork on Kwak'wala, a Northern Wakashan language spoken on the northwestern area of Vancouver Island and adjacent mainland in British Columbia. Though Kwak'wala was suppressed by the colonial Canadian government in league with religious institutions and is now endangered, meaningful efforts are underway within the Kwakwaka'wakw community to revitalize the language.

My work specifically involves carrying out focused interviews (called “elicitation sessions”) with Kwak’wala speaking elders, where we unravel aspects of the language through a variety of visual, conversational, and experimental methods. The elders are my teachers, though the way we interact in elicitation sessions is somewhat different from what you see in a classroom. I am extremely privileged to have learned all that I have from the elders, and I consider it my responsibility to share what I have learned with the Kwakwaka'wakw community and the wider research community over the course of my life.

My past and current linguistic research focuses on issues at the syntax-semantics interface, including event semantics, diachronic aspects of case-marking, the expression of causation, indefinite object constructions, weather predicates, expressive clitics, aspect, verb meaning, and the semantic factors underlying the distribution of object case. I am also especially interested in fieldwork methodology, and have been involved in several projects involving visual methods, such as the Totem Field Storyboard Project and Story-builder.

I am committed to making my work accessible and publishing open source. You will find links to download my work below, in two sections:

• The first section is where I will post downloadable materials for Kwak’wala learners. If you are a Kwak’wala learner and have a request for a certain type of learning material, please contact me!

• The second section, my Curriculum Vitae, summarizes my academic credentials. You will find links to download my academic papers there.

Current Status

From Dec. 2022-Nov. 2024, I worked as a SSHRC postdoctoral researcher in the Linguistics Department at the University of British Columbia, under the supervision of Prof. Henry Davis. My project was to develop a Kwak’wala course that uses an inductive learning paradigm to teach Kwak’wala sentence structure, at the same time as it teaches linguistic analysis. Students learn the language by observing patterns in linguistic data (structured sets of words and sentences) and learning how to draw generalizations from these patterns. By the end of the course, students will be able to 1) form sentences in Kwak’wala that they have never heard before, and 2) carry out linguistic analysis on Kwak’wala (or any other language) to discover new patterns and new generalizations.

As of March 2025, the course content is complete in draft form and is undergoing final revisions. As modules of the course are completed, they will be posted online. My aim is to have the first module of the course posted before the growing season on my farm ramps up.

UPDATE: The course will be located at www.kwakwalacourse.ca. Check back for updates!

Learn kwak’wala

The following short Kwak’wala texts with sound files were created with intermediate-level learners in mind, but should be useful for motivated beginners as well. Listen to the texts, read along as you listen, and study the grammar of Kwak’wala sentences.

• t̕’ła̱wile’ ‘forgetting’ told by Mildred Child (download pdf)(download sound file)

• ḵ̕aḵ̕ut’łamas ‘teacher’ told by Mildred Child (download pdf)(download sound file)

• n̓a̱mukwwu’łe’ ‘long-ago friend’ told by Violet Bracic (download pdf)(download sound file)

• ixp’a ‘yummy’ told by Violet Bracic (download pdf)(download sound file)

The following is a series of short essays describing the meaning, argument structure, and contexts of use for various Kwak’wala verbs. If there is a particular verb you would like to learn more about, please email me!

• t’sa̱ndika / t̓sa̱mdika ‘to be spooked’ (download pdf)

• ka̱ł- ‘scared, afraid’ (download pdf)

Curriculum Vitae

Academic work experience

2022-2024

SSHRC Postdoctoral Researcher, University of British Columbia (Supervisor: Prof. Henry Davis). 2022-2024

2022

Sessional Instructor, Simon Fraser University, Department of Indigenous Languages and Linguistics, Morphology and Syntax of an Indigenous Language (Ling 831), 4 units.

2016

Graduate Student Instructor, UC Berkeley, Department of Linguistics, Intro to Syntax and Semantics (Ling 120), instructed by Amy Rose Deal

2015

Graduate Student Instructor, UC Berkeley, Department of Linguistics, Logical Semantics (Ling 121), instructed by Amy Rose Deal

2014-2015

Graduate Student Researcher, UC Berkeley, Department of Linguistics, Assistant in the Survey of California and Other Indian Languages, directed by Andrew Garrett

2011

Teaching Assistant, North Island College, Port Hardy, BC, Field Methods for Language Preservation and Revitalization, taught by Adam Werle

Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of British Columbia, Department of Linguistics, Field research on Kwak’wala, advisor Henry Davis

2010-2011

Undergraduate Research Assistant, University of British Columbia, Department of Linguistics, Illustrator and elicitor for the Totem Fields Storyboards Project, advisors Strang Burton and Lisa Matthewson

2009

Language policy intern, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Ottawa, Canada, Research on funding gaps for language programming in the four Inuit regions of Canada, advisor Heather Graham

Education

2017

Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley

Dissertation committee: Line Mikkelsen (chair), Amy Rose Deal, William Hanks

2014

M.A. in Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley

2011

B.A. in Cognitive Systems, Minor in Anthropology, University of British Columbia

publications

2024

Sardinha, Katie. The role of the voice system within Kwak’wala grammar. In D. K. E. Reisinger, Laura Griffin, Ella Hannon, Gloria Mellesmoen, Sander Nederveen, Bruce Oliver, Julia Schillo, Lauren Schneider, and Bailey Trotter (eds.), Papers for the 59th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, 501-517. <pdf>

2022

Sardinha, Katie. The perils of combining translation tasks and judgment tasks. Semantic Fieldwork Methods, Special Issue: Collecting semantic data: A sample of individual practices , Vol. 4, No.1. DOI: https://doi.org/10.14288/sfm.v4i1 <pdf>

2021

Sardinha, Katie. A fieldworker’s reflection on the psycholinguistics of language and aging. In D. K. E. Reisinger, Hannah Green, Laura Griffin, Marianne Huijsmans, Gloria Mellesmoen, and Bailey Trotter (eds.), Papers for the 56th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages, 376-391. <pdf>

2020

Sardinha, Katie. Aspectual /-x’id/ in modern Kwak’wala. In D. K. E. Reisinger, Hannah Green, Marianne Huijsmans, Gloria Mellesmoen, and Bailey Trotter (eds.), Papers for the 55th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. 265-289. <pdf>

Sardinha, Katie. The grammar of body-directed action verbs in Kwak’wala. In D. K. E. Reisinger, Hannah Green, Marianne Huijsmans, Gloria Mellesmoen, and Bailey Trotter (eds.), Papers for the 55th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. 290-304. <pdf>

2019

Dawson Cranmer, Ruby. T̓sit̓sa̱k̓ala̱mes Ruby (Ruby’s Stories). Transcribed and edited by Jonathan Janzen and Katie Sardinha. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Occasional Papers in Linguistics Vol. 8. <link>

2018

Sardinha, Katie. Viewpoint aspect and object case in Kʷak̓ʷala and Finnish. In Garvin, Karee, Noah Hermalin, Myriam Lapierre, Yevgeniy Melguy (eds.), Papers for the 44th Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. 271-285. <pdf> 

Sardinha, Katie. Non-culminating accomplishments in Kʷak̓ʷala and Salish. In Matthewson, Lisa, Erin Guntly, and Michael Rochemont (eds.), Wa7 xweysás i nqwal’utteníha i ucwalmícwa:  He loves the people’s languages. Essays in honour of Henry Davis. 275-290. Vancouver, BC: UBC Occasional Papers in Linguistics Vol. 6. <pdf>

Sardinha, Katie. Deriving eventualities in Kwak’wala. In Huijsmans, Marianne, Roger Lo, Oksana Tkachman, and Daniel Reisinger (eds), Papers for the 53rd International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. 241-268. <pdf>

2017

Sardinha, Katie. The semantics of Kʷak̓ʷala object case. University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D. dissertation. <link>

2016

Sardinha, Katie. The semantics of object case marking in Kʷak̓ʷala. In Thuy Bui & Rudmila-Rodica Ivan (eds.), SULA 9: Proceedings of the Ninth Conference on the Semantics of Under-represented Languages in the Americas. 155-172. <pdf>

Sardinha, Katie. Weather predicates in Kwak’wala. In Huijsmans, Marianne, Thomas J. Heins, Oksana Tkachman, and Natalie Weber (eds.), Papers for the 51st International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. 171-202. <pdf>

2015

Sardinha, Katie. Kwak’wala –mas and event causation. In Sadlier-Brown, Emily, Erin Guntly, and Natalie Weber (eds.), Proceedings of the 20th annual Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA). 89-103. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Working Papers in Linguistics. <pdf>

Sardinha, Katie. Locus of causation and by itself phrases: A case study of Russian sam po sebe. In Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Workshop on Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics. 302-321. Michigan Slavic Publications. <pdf>

2013

Sardinha, Katie. Nominal, verbal, and idiomatic uses of –nukʷ in Kwak’wala. In Dunham, Joel, Patrick Littell, & John Lyon (eds.), Papers for the 48th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. 155-185. <pdf>

2011

Sardinha, Katie. Prepositional *his and the development of morphological case in Northern Wakashan. In Lyon, John & Joel Dunham (eds.), Papers for the 46th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages. 366-397. <pdf>

Sardinha, Katie. Story-builder: Picture cards for language activities. <link>

Presentations (*invited)

2024

The role of the voice system in Kwak’wala grammar. 59th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), University of British Columbia (Okanagan), July 26.

2024

Teaching Kwak’wala sentence structure using an inductive learning paradigm (continued) & Discussion of Teaching Methods. Wakashan Language Circle, Zoom, Jan. 31.

Teaching Kwak’wala sentence structure using an inductive learning paradigm. Wakashan Winter Meeting 2, Zoom, Jan. 6.

2023

*Using an inductive learning approach to train speaker-linguists in Kwak’wala grammar: Can we accelerate language revitalization? Joint meeting between Language Revitalization Working Group & Fieldwork Forum, University of California, Berkeley, Dec. 6.

Causal sequence storyboards for teaching and learning Kwak’wala, International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), Snuneymuxw Learning Center, Nanaimo, BC, July 29.

2022

A teaching grammar of argument structure in Kwak’wala. Wakashan Winter Meeting 1, Zoom, Dec. 27.

2021

*A fieldworker’s reflection on the psycholinguistics of language and aging. Fieldwork Forum, University of California, Berkeley, CA, Jan. 27.

2020

The grammar of body-directed action verbs in Kwak’wala. International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), Zoom, Aug. 15.

Aspectual /-x’id/ in modern Kwak’wala. International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), Zoom, Aug. 13.

2018

Deriving eventualities in Kwak’wala. International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, WA, Aug. 10.

2017

Kʷak̓ʷala’s empty root ʔəx̌- and the semantics of case-marking. 91st Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, Austin, TX, Jan. 6.

2016

*The semantics of object case alternations in Kwak’wala. Plenary address given at Semantics of Underrepresented Languages of the Americas (SULA) 9, Santa Cruz, CA, May 6.

*Expressive clitics in Kwak’wala. Group in American Indian Languages (GAIL), Berkeley, CA, Apr. 27.

*Expressive clitics in Kwak’wala. Syntax and Morphology Circle (Smircle), Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, Mar. 4.

2015

Revisiting -lh and controllability in Kwak’wala. California Universities Semantics and Pragmatics (CUSP) 8, Stanford University Palo Alto, CA, Nov. 7.

*Strong and stronger modality in Turkmen. UC Santa Cruz Syntax and Semantics Circle, Santa Cruz, CA,  Apr. 24.

Weather predicates in Kwak’wala. 50th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), UBC, Vancouver, BC,  Aug. 5.

Real and fictional referents in linguistic fieldwork. 4th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), Honolulu, HI, Feb. 27.

Kwak’wala -mas and event causation. 20th Annual Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA). Tucson, AZ, Jan. 23.

2014

Strong and stronger modal force in Turkmen. California Universities Semantics and Pragmatics (CUSP) 7, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, Nov. 7.

*Semantic fieldwork on cognitive state and process terms. CogNetwork, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, Oct. 1.

Using the CLA prearchive (joint presentation with Andrew Garrett, Ronald Sprouse). Fieldwork Forum, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, Sept. 24.

Internal causation and event construal: A case study of Russian (sam) po sebe. Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, May 3.

2013

Nominal, verbal, and idiomatic uses of -nukw in Kwak’wala. 48th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Aug. 11.

Story-builder: Picture cards for language activities. Poster presented at the 3rd International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), Honolulu, HI, Mar. 2.

2011

Story-builder: Picture cards for language activities. 46th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Aug. 7. 

Prepositional *his and the development of morphological case in Northern Wakashan. 46th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Aug. 6.

Argument structure in Kwak’wala (co-authored with Henry Davis). 46th International Conference on Salish and Neighbouring Languages (ICSNL), University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Aug. 6. 

Fellowships and awards

2022-2024

Social Sciences and Humanitics Research Council (SSHRC), Postdoctoral Fellowship, A dual-purpose grammar of causation in Kwak’wala, Supervisor Henry Davis, host institution University of British Columbia

2012-2017

Berkeley Fellowship for Graduate Study, UC Berkeley Graduate Division

2016-2017

Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award, UC Berkeley Graduate Division

2006-2010

Major Entrance Scholarship, University of British Columbia (Vancouver)

2006-2010

Loran National Scholarship, Loran Scholars Foundation

2009

Margaret Lawrence Scholarship in Arts, University of British Columbia

2007

Fern Cochrane James Prize for excellence in English, Department of Arts, University of British Columbia

Grants

2018-

Jacobs Research Funds individual grant, Verbs, objects, and aspect in Kwak’wala

2016-2017

SSHRC Knowledge Synthesis Grant, O’man’s ’Nam’a (We are One) Project: Unearthing Indigenous Leadership Principles through Language (Principle Investigators: Sara Child, Caitlin Hartnett)

2016

Oswalt Endangered Language Grants, Event structure, case, and nominalization in Kwak’wala

2015

Oswalt Endangered Language Grants, Psych domain analysis and intensification in Kʷak̓ʷala

2014

Oswalt Endangered Language Grants, Causes, agents, and experiencers in the Kwak’wala lexicon

2013

Jacobs Research Funds group grant, Aspects of Kwak’wala Morphosyntax, with Patrick Littell (Principle Investigator), Jonathan Janzen, Laura Sherer, and Naomi Francis

2012

Jacobs Research Funds group grant, Focus, Prosody, and Argument Structure in Kʷak̓ʷala, with Patrick Littell (Principle Investigator), Jonathan Janzen, andLaura Sherer

2010

Jacobs Research Funds group grant, Explorations in the Grammar of Kwak’wala, with Henry Davis (Principle Investigator), Jennifer Abel, Alexis Black, Hannah Greene, Jonathan Janzen, Patrick Littell, Connor Mayer, Stacey Menzies, Ayako Moewaki, Masaki Noguchi, Catherine Stewart, and Audra Vincent

Advising experience

2016-2017

Graduate student mentor, Linguistic Research Apprenticeship Program (LRAP), UC Berkeley Department of Linguistics

languages

English (fluent), Kwak’wala (intermediate), Russian (intermediate), Turkmen (beginner), Mongolian (beginner)