Robert D. Hoberman

Education
Academic Appointments
Publications
Work in Progress
Fellowships and Grants
Courses Taught

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Education

1983 Ph.D., University of Chicago, Linguistics, with distinction
1975 M.A., University of Chicago, Linguistics
1971 A.B., Cornell University, Linguistics

Other study
1976-78 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
1973 Linguistic Society of America Summer Institute (at the University of Michigan)
1969-70 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv University

Academic Appointments

1981- SUNY at Stony Brook
2002- Professor of Linguistics

1998-2002 Associate Professor, Dept. of Linguistics
1988-1998 Associate Professor, Dept. of Comparative Studies, and Associated faculty member, Dept. of Linguistics
1983-88 Assistant Professor, Judaic Studies Program, and Associated faculty member, Dept. of Linguistics
1981-83 Lecturer, Judaic Studies Program

1989-90 The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Visiting Scholar, Department of Linguistics

1978-81 Cornell University
1980-81 Visiting Fellow, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics
1978-80 Instructor, Dept. of Near Eastern Studies

Publications

Book

1989

The Syntax and Semantics of Verb Morphology in Modern Aramaic: A Jewish Dialect of Iraqi Kurdistan. American Oriental Series, 69. New Haven: American Oriental Society.

Articles

1981

Subjects, Objects, and Verb Morphology in Modern Aramaic. In Cornell University Working Papers in Linguistics 2, 88-107. Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.

1985

The Phonology of Pharyngeals and Pharyngealization in Pre-Modern Aramaic. Journal of the American Oriental Society 105: 221-231.

1987

Emphasis (Pharyngealization) as an Autosegmental Harmony Feature. In Papers from the 23rd Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, Part Two: Parasession on Autosegmental and Metrical Phonology, ed. by Anna Bosch et al., 167-181. Chicago Linguistic Society, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.

1988

Emphasis Harmony in a Modern Aramaic Dialect. Language 64: 1-26.

1988

Local and Long-Distance Spreading in Semitic Morphology. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 6: 541-549.

1988

The History of the Modern Aramaic Pronouns and Pronominal Suffixes. Journal of the American Oriental Society 108: 557-575.

1989

Initial Consonant Clusters in Hebrew and Aramaic. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 48: 25-29.

1989

Parameters of Emphasis: Autosegmental Analyses of Pharyngealization in Four Languages. Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 2: 73-97.

1989

Agglutination and Composition in Neo-Aramaic Verb Inflection. In Studia Linguistica et Orientalia Memoriae Haim Blanc Dedicata, ed. by Alexander Borg, Sasson Somekh, and Paul Wexler, 145-155. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

1990

Reconstructing Pre-Modern Aramaic Morphology: The Independent Pronouns. In Studies in Neo-Aramaic, ed. by Wolfhart Heinrichs, 79-88. Harvard Semitic Studies, 36. Atlanta: Scholars Press.

1991

Aramit hadashah ve-shitat ha-shihzur ha-hashva'ati (Modern Aramaic and the method of comparative reconstruction; in Hebrew). Massorot: Studies in Language Traditions and Jewish Languages 5-6: 51-76. Jerusalem: Institute of Jewish Studies, The Hebrew University.

1991

Modern Syriac Conjugation (translation of "Neusyrische Konjugation" by H. J. Polotsky, from the original German and Syriac, with added notes and bibliography). Journal of Semitic Studies 36: 263-277.

1991

Aramaic. In International Encyclopaedia of Linguistics, ed. by William Bright, 98-102. Oxford University Press.

1992

Formal Properties of the Conjugations in Modern Aramaic. In Yearbook of Morphology 1991, ed. Geert Booij and Jaap van Marle, 49-64. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

1993

Local Spreading. Journal of Afroasiatic Languages 3: 226-254.

1993

Chaldean Aramaic of Zakho. In Semitica: Serta philologica Constantino Tsereteli dicata, ed. by R. Contini, F. Pennacchietti, and M. Tosco, 115-126. Torino: Silvio Zamorani.

1995

Current Issues in Semitic Phonology. In A Handbook of Phonological Theory, ed. by John Goldsmith, 839-847. Oxford, U.K., and Cambridge, Mass.: Blackwell.

1996

Modern Aramaic. In The World's Writing Systems, ed. by Peter T. Daniels and William Bright, 504-510. New York: Oxford University Press.

1996

Subtractive Morphology and Morpheme Identity in Arabic Pausal Forms. In Yearbook of Morphology 1995, ed. Geert Booij and Jaap van Marle, 161-174. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

1997

Modern Aramaic Phonology. In Phonologies of Asia and Africa, ed. Alan S. Kaye, 313-335. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.

1997

The Modern Chaldean Pronunciation of Classical Syriac. In Humanism, Culture, and Language in the Near East: Studies in Honor of Georg Krotkoff, ed. by Asma Afsaruddin and A. H. Mathias Zahniser, 253-265. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns.

1999

(with A. Manaster Ramer) Sephardic Scansion and Phonological Theory. Journal of the American Oriental Society 119: 211-217.

2001

Aramaic. In Facts about the World's Major Languages, ed. Jane Garry and Carl Rubino, 28-32. New York: H.W. Wilson.

In press

(with M. Aronoff) The verbal morphology of Maltese: From Semitic to Romance. In Root-Based Morphology, ed. by Joseph Shimron. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Forthcoming.

Modern Aramaic šímma < šma: ‘name’ and Semitic “triradicality”. Mediterranean Language Review.

Reviews

1985

The Book of Genesis in Neo-Aramaic (in Hebrew and Aramaic), by Yona Sabar. Journal of the American Oriental Society 105: 734-735.

1987

Homilies in the Neo-Aramaic of the Kurdistani Jews on the Parashot Wayhi, Beshallah and Yitro (in Hebrew and Aramaic), by Yona Sabar. Journal of the American Oriental Society 107: 551-552.

1988

A Neo-Aramaic Dialect of Kurdistan, by Georg Krotkoff. Journal of Semitic Studies 33: 340-346.

1990

The Sound System of Modern Assyrian (Neo-Aramaic), by Edward Y. Odisho. Journal of Semitic Studies 35: 179-181.

1992

The Language and Culture of the Jews of Sefrou, Morocco, by Norman A. Stillman. Association for Jewish Studies Review 17: 362-364.

1996

Multi-Dictionary: Bilingual Learners Dictionary Hebrew-English, by Edna Lauden and Liora Weinbach, and Modern Hebrew-English Dictionary, by Avraham Zilkha. Hebrew Studies 37: 127-131.

In press

Early Medieval Arabic: Studies on al-Khalil ibn Ahmad, ed. by Karin C. Ryding. Language.

In press

Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar, by Edward Lipinski. Association for Jewish Studies Review.

Work In Progress

Major Fellowships and Grants

Courses Taught

Linguistics:
Introduction to Linguistics
Phonology (graduate)
Introduction to Syntax
Historical Linguistics (undergraduate and graduate)
Writing Systems of the World
Writing in Linguistics

Field Methods

Linguistics (Semitic, Middle Eastern, and Jewish):
The Linguistic Structure of Arabic

Language and Life in the Middle East
The History of the Hebrew Language
Topics in Semitic Linguistics
Seminar on Jewish Interlinguistics
Analysis of an Uncommonly Taught Language (Turkish)

Hebrew language and literature:
Modern Hebrew (all levels)
Biblical Hebrew
Biblical Narrative Prose
The Israeli Short Story
Poetry in Hebrew
Hebrew Love Poetry Through the Ages

Arabic language and literature:
Modern Standard Arabic (elementary, intermediate)
Classical Arabic (elementary, intermediate)
Colloquial Arabic (Palestinian, elementary)
Classics of Islamic Literature (in translation)

Other:
Translation Theory (graduate Comparative Literature program)
Modes of Knowledge (Honors College seminar)

M.A. (Liberal Studies) Research Writing Seminar

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