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Adam Singerman

Adam Singerman

Adam Singerman

Pronouns: he/him/his
Assistant Professor, Native American Linguistics

CONTACT

Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics

Email: asingerm@syr.edu

Degrees

  • University of Chicago PhD 2018
  • University of Chicago MA 2014
  • Harvard College BA 2009

Social/Academic Links

Biographic Overview

Adam Singerman is a linguist specializing in the Indigenous languages of the Amazon Basin. Since 2013 he has conducted field research into Tuparí, a Tupían language spoken by approximately 350-400 people, all of whom reside in the Brazilian state of Rondônia. Singerman’s research seeks to contextualize Tuparí grammar in the broader landscape of linguistic typology and to investigate areas of Tuparí grammar of interest to linguistic theory. His research synthesizes various strands of linguistic inquiry, including historical linguistics. His fieldwork in Rondônia has been supported by grants from the Jacobs Research Funds at the Whatcom Museum, the National Science Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Research Interests

Indigenous languages, morphosyntax, historical linguistics, language endangerment

Research Specializations

morphosyntax, historical linguistics, field linguistics

Publications

  • Singerman, Adam Roth. 2016. ‘Nasal harmony and phonotactic well-formedness in Tupari.’ International Journal of American Linguistics 82(4):453-485.

  • Singerman, Adam Roth. 2018. ‘Negation as an exclusively nominal category.’ Language 94(2):432-467.

  • Singerman, Adam Roth. 2018. The morphosyntax of Tuparí a Tupían language of the Brazilian Amazon. PhD dissertation, University of Chicago.

  • Antonia Fernanda de Souza Nogueira, Nicole Soares-Pinto, Ana Vilacy Galucio, and Adam Roth Singerman. 2019. ‘Termos de parentesco na família Tupari (Tupi) / Kin Terms in Tupari Family (Tupi).’ Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Ciências Humanas 14(1):33-64.

  • Singerman, Adam Roth. 2019. ‘Non-witnessed evidentiality in Tuparí and its connection to resultative constructions in the perfect aspect.’ International Journal of American Linguistics 85(3):401-445.

  • Singerman, Adam Roth. 2020. ‘The clausal organization of Tuparí, an indigenous Brazilian language.’ Acta Linguistica Academica 67(4):429-479.

  • Singerman, Adam Roth. 2021. ‘On finite embedded clauses in Tuparí: their synchrony, diachrony, and typology.’ Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 6(1): 77. 1–46.

Honors and Awards

Singerman’s dissertation received the 2020 Mary Haas Book Award from the Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA).