Mary Catherine O’Connor
Office address:
2 Silber Way
SED Room 330
Boston University
Boston , MA 02215
(617) 353-3318
mco@bu.edu
Education
Ph.D. Linguistics, University of California , Berkeley . May, 1987. Dissertation: Topics in Northern Pomo Grammar.
M.A. Linguistics, University of California , Berkeley . June, 1983.
A.B. Human Language, Stanford University . June, 1977.
Selected Academic Experience
Program Director
Program in Applied Linguistics, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Boston University (1999-present)
Professor
Boston University, Boston, MA. School of Education : Developmental Studies; and Graduate School : Program in Applied Linguistics, (1996-present)
Selected Presentations
O’Connor, M.C., A. Anttila, V. Fong (January 2004). Differential possessor expression in English: Re-evaluating animacy and topicality effects. Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, January 9-11, 2004. Boston, MA.
O’Connor, M.C., A.R. Deal (January 2004). Case-marking and clause type in Nez Perce: A corpus study of animacy and discourse dimensions. Annual Meeting of Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas , January 9-11, 2004 . Boston, MA.
Skarabela, B., O’Connor, M.C., & J. Maling (January 2004). The mono-lexemic possessor construction: pragmatic constraints in the noun phrase. Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, January 9-11, 2004. Boston, MA.
O’Connor, M.C. and A.R. Deal. (July, 2003). Differential possessor expression: Are pair-wise comparisons required? LFG03: 25th Annual Conference on Lexical Functional Grammar. Workshop on Native American Languages. SUNY Albany, held at Saratoga, NY. July 19-21.
O’Connor, M.C. (May, 2003). Implicatures and event frames: Interpretive consequences of the external/internal possession alternation. Conference on the Linguistic Encoding of Three-Participant Events: Crosslinguistic and Developmental perspectives. The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen , NL. May 14-16.
O’Connor, M.C. (October, 1999). An Optimality Theory account of possessive DPs in Northern Pomo. Joint meeting of the NSF-funded Optimal Typology projects at Stanford University and U.C. Santa Cruz. Stevenson College , UCSC.
O’Connor, M.C. (July, 1999). Harmonic alignment of the animacy hierarchy and the structure of possessive DPs in Northern Pomo. Workshop on Native American Languages, LFG 99. University of Manchester , Manchester UK .
Selected Publications
O’Connor, M.C. (2003). Differential possessor expression: Are pair-wise comparisons ever required? In Butt, M and T. King, (Eds.) Proceedings of the LFG03 Conference. CSLI Publications. http://csli-publications.stanford.edu. Pp. 119-140.
Skarabela, B., C. O’Connor, and J. Maling (2004). Monolexemicke posesory v cestine a jinych jazycich. (Monolexemic possessors in Czech and other languages.) In: Hladka, Z. a P. Karlik. Cestina– univerzalia a specifika, 5. (Czech – universals and specifics, 5.) Praha: Nakladatelstvi Lidove Noviny. Pp.28-36.
O’Connor, M.C. (1996). The situated interpretation of possessor raising. In S.Thompson and M. Shibatani (Eds), Grammatical Constructions: Their Form and Meaning. Oxford: Oxford University Press. pp. 125-156.
O’Connor, M.C. (1995) Privative opposition and pragmatic inference: the marking of possession in Northern Pomo. Proceedings of the 20th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society. University of California, Berkeley: Berkeley Linguistics Society, 387-401.
O’Connor, M.C. (1993). Disjoint reference and pragmatic inference: anaphora and switch reference in Northern Pomo. In W.A.Foley (Ed.) The Role of Theory in Language Description. Trends in Linguistics: Studies and Monographs No. 69. W. Winter, Series Editor. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 215-242.
O’Connor, M.C. (1992). Topics in Northern Pomo Grammar. Garland Series of Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics, J. Hankamer, Ed. New York: Garland Publishing Inc.
O’Connor, M.C. (1990). Third person reference in Northern Pomo conversational narrative: The indexing of discourse genre and social relations. International Journal of American Linguistics. 56(3): 377-409.
Fillmore, C.J., Kay, P. and O’Connor, M.C. (1988). Regularity and idiomaticity in grammatical constructions. Language, 64(3): 501-538.
Selected Research Grants in Linguistics
National Science Foundation, supplement to “Optimal typology of the DP: Markedness within the nominal” ($31,000) 2003.
National Science Foundation, two-year grant to conduct a crosslinguistic study of the internal structure of determiner phrases. “Optimal typology of the DP: Markedness within the nominal” ($158,854), 2000-2002.
National Endowment for the Humanities, two one-year grants to construct a dictionary and text data base of Northern Pomo ($73,000), 1995-97.
National Science Foundation, Supplementary Grant to DBS 9111264.($8000), 1994-95.
National Science Foundation, three-year grant to study the interaction of grammar and discourse in Northern Pomo (DBS 9111264; $124,800), 1991-94.
Research in Applied Linguistics and Education
Selected Presentations
O’Connor, M.C. (May, 2002). “Can any fraction be represented as a decimal?” A case study of position-driven discussion. Invited presentation, International Conference on Qualitative Research in Classrooms, sponsored by the Spencer Foundation and the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Avanzados , Mexico City, DF.
O’Connor, M.C. (May, 1999). Is this square a rectangle? The linguistic sign and the contexts of classroom discussion. Conference on Problems in Discourse Analysis in Mathematics and Science Classrooms. Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford , CA .
Selected Publications
Chapin, S., O’Connor, C., and Anderson, N. (2003). Classroom Discussions: Using Math Talk to Help Students Learn, Grades 1-6. Sausalito, CA: Math Solutions Publications.
O’Connor, M.C. (2001). “Can any fraction be turned into a decimal?” A case study of a mathematical group discussion. Educational Studies in Mathematics, Vol. 46. pp. 143-185.
O’Connor, M.C. (1999). Language socialization in the mathematics classroom: Discourse practices and mathematical thinking. M. Lampert and M. Blunk, Eds. Talking Mathematics. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 17-55.
O’Connor, M.C. (1998). Can we trace the “efficacy of social constructivism”? P. David Pearson & Ali Iran-Nejad, Eds. Review of Research in Education, Vol.22: 1-47.
O’Connor, M.C., Godfrey, L. and Moses, R.P. (1998). The missing data point: negotiating purposes in classroom mathematics and science. J. Greeno and S. Goldman. Thinking Practices in Mathematics and Science. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. Pp. 89-125.
O’Connor, M.C., Michaels, S. (1996). Shifting participant frameworks: orchestrating thinking practices in group discussion. In D.Hicks (Ed.), Child Discourse and Social Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 63-102.
O’Connor, M.C., Michaels, S. (1993). Aligning academic task and participation status through revoicing: analysis of a classroom discourse strategy. Anthropology and Education Quarterly 24(4): 318-335.
Gee, J. , S. Michaels and M.C. O’Connor. (1992). Discourse analysis. In M.D. LeCompte, W.L. Millroy, & J. Preissle (Eds) Handbook of Qualitative Research in Education. New York: Academic Press, 227-291.
Gifford, B.R. and O’Connor, M.C. (Eds). (1992). Changing Assessments: Alternative Views of Aptitude, Achievement, and Instruction . Boston, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Selected Grants
National Science Foundation, three-year grant to conduct study of the efficacy of focused classroom discussion on mathematics learning in middle school. C. O’Connor, PI; S. Chapin, Co-PI. ($733,000) 2003-2006.
Jacob K. Javits Foundation, U.S. Dept. of Education. Three-year grant to continue intervention research on mathematics learning among Chelsea students with potential talent in mathematics. “Project Challenge” (co-PI with Prof. Suzanne Chapin, project founder) ($646,000) 2001-2004. [Grant awarded, not funded, due to changes in DOE allocations with new administration.]
Lernout & Hauspie Speech Technologies. One-year research internship for MA student in Applied Linguistics. “Statistical approaches to natural language processing” ($15,000) 2000-2001.
Spencer Foundation Major Grants Program, three-year grant: “Teacher discourse in middle school mathematics classrooms” ($212,507), 1996-1999.
National Academy of Education Spencer Postdoctoral Fellowship, 1989-91.
University Teaching
Sociolinguistics Discourse Analysis: Theory and Methods
Language Universals Linguistic Field Methods
Introduction to Linguistics Discourse, Narrative & Literacy
Foundations of Inquiry Language and the Deaf Child
Selected Other Professional Activities
National Science Foundation Member, Organizing Committee: Initiative to establish funding program for research on endangered languages. 2001-present.
National Science Foundation Member, Senior Review Panel, Linguistics Program. 2001-2003.
Linguistic Society of America Program Committee, appointed 2004-2006.
Member, Editorial Board Cognition and Instruction. 2003-2005.
Manuscript, article and grant proposal review: Cambridge University Press; Natural Language and Linguistic Theory; Cognitive Science, Journal of Research in Mathematics Education; Journal of Teacher Education; Spencer Foundation Major Grants Program; Bunting Institute Fellows Program, National Science Foundation.
Institute for Learning, (PI: Professor Lauren Resnick, University of Pittsburgh Learning Research and Development Center ) With Sarah Michaels, designed and wrote materials for CD-ROM on the use of discussion in K-12 classrooms. CDs distributed to school districts across the nation who have contracted with the Institute, an OERI-funded major grant to reform K-12 education.
Chelsea Public Schools , Chelsea , MA . Professional development associated with Project Challenge and Moving Forward classrooms at Clark Middle School and Burke Complex. Includes summer workshops and in-service training. 1999—2003.
Northern Pomo Coyote Valley Tribe, Creation of language learning materials (written and video) for the Northern Pomo Coyote Valley Tribe. 1993—1997; 1999-2003. Pinoleville Tribe, 1999.
National Voluntary Tests on Reading and Mathematics Development of item review processes for NAEP-style items to be used in the National Voluntary Tests proposed by the Clinton administration. Consultant to American Institutes for Research, Palo Alto (Contract from NAGBE). 1997-1998.