Jacqueline Toribio

Interests

Biography

Almeida Jacqueline Toribio is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at The University of Texas at Austin. Her scholarly interests reside at the intersection of linguistics and the sociology of language. Her research itinerary in linguistics examines the ways in which the structural facts of contact and rural varieties of Spanish can be brought to bear on issues central to linguistic theorizing, which has proceeded largely by reference to the language knowledge and use of highly literate, monolingual individuals. Of interest are the phonological, morpho-syntactic, and discursive forms that emerge among monolinguals and bilinguals in the absence of literacy and other normative pressures. A second, related line of research in sociology of language is founded on her abiding concern with the contributions of specific language behaviors, attitudes, and dispositions to the understanding of the configurations of communities and societies in which speakers find themselves. Of particular relevance are the ideologies surrounding language maintenance and identity formation in contexts of cultural contact, as in the case of speakers of Spanish language heritage in the United States and persons residing at the border between the Dominican Republic and Haiti. She has co-edited, with Barbara Bullock, The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Code-switching and a special issue of Bilingualism: Language and Cognition devoted to bilingual convergence and she has edited a special issue of Lingua highlighting syntactic-theoretical perspectives on code-switching. Her research has been presented in notable journals, including Linguistic Inquiry, Lingua, Bilingualism: Language & Cognition, International Journal of Bilingualism, Spanish in Context, Linguistics, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Probus, and Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana.