Photo of Kumiko Murasugi

Kumiko Murasugi

Professor (Linguistics)

Degrees:B.A. (Toronto, Carleton), M.A. (Ottawa), Ph.D. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Email:kumiko.murasugi@carleton.ca
Office:247 Paterson Hall

Research interests 

  • Inuit languages
  • Language documentation
  • Language standardization
  • Language acquisition, attrition, and heritage language
  • General linguistics: morphology and syntax

Courses

Current course information for this faculty member can be found by searching the Carleton Central/Public Schedule by Term and Name.

Courses previously taught

  • LING 1001: Introduction to Linguistics I
  • LING 2005: Linguistic Analysis
  • LING 3004: Syntax I
  • LING 3005: Morphology I
  • LING 4004: Syntax II
  • LING 4801/ALDS 5801: Linguistic Field Methods
  • LING 5004: Syntax (MA)
  • LING 6802: Language Documentation (PhD)

Current grants

  • Canadian Foundation for Innovation – John R. Evans Leadership Fund (CFI-JELF), Ontario Research Fund, Office of the Vice-President (Research International), Carleton. 2022-2024. Project Leader, with researchers Erik Anonby and David Mould. Digital tools for documentation and renewal of global endangered Languages, $168,000.
  • Multidisciplinary Research Catalyst Fund (MRCF), OVPRI, Carleton University. 2019-2024. Co-PI with Erik Anonby. Digital tools for global endangered languages. $50,000.
  • SSHRC Partnership Development Grant. PI. A pilot atlas of the Inuit language in Canada. 2016-2024, $199,800.

Selected publications

Murasugi, K. 2015-2024. Online atlas. Atlas of the Inuit Language in Canada. Ottawa: GCRC (Geomatics and Cartographic Research Centre), Carleton University.

Patrick, D. and K. Murasugi. To appear. Language status, maintenance and revitalization. In A. Berge and A. Arnhold (eds.), Handbook of Inuit-Yupik-Unangan Languages. Oxford University Press.

Murasugi, K. and D. Patrick. 2023. The evolution of Inuktut dictionary-making: From historical documentation to Inuit authorship and collaborations. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America. Special Issue: Indigenous Lexicography 44, 7-27.

Filho, B.S., R.P.P. Machado, K. Murasugi and U.D.V. Souza. 2021. Traditional communities and mental maps: Dialogues between local knowledge and cartography from the Socioenvironmental Atlas of Lençóis Maranhenses, Brazil. International Journal of Geo-Information, 10(11).

Murasugi, K. 2020. Antipassives. In M. Barrie, J. Coon, C. Gillon, J. Haugen, E. Matthieu and D. Siddiqi (eds.), Routledge Handbook of North American Languages, 275-289. New York: Routledge.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Linguistic cybercartography: Expanding the boundaries of language mapping. In D.R.F. Taylor (editor), E. Anonby and K. Murasugi (associate editors), Further Developments in the Theory and Practice of Cybercartography, 389-412.San Diego: Elsevier.

Murasugi, K. and M. Ittusardjuat. 2018. Documenting linguistic knowledge in an Inuit language atlas. Etudes/Inuit/Studies 40: 169-190.

Patrick, D., K. Murasugi and J. Palluq-Cloutier. 2017. Standardization of Inuit languages in Canada. In P. Lane, J. Costa and H. de Korne (eds.), Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery. Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism, pp. 135-153.

Murasugi, K. 2017. Linguistic fieldwork and scientific methodology. In C. Haplert, H. Kotek and C. van Urk (eds.), A pesky set: Papers for David Pesetsky. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics 80. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.

Murasugi, K. 2009. Acceptability judgments and linguistic competence. Revista Linguistica, 5 (1).

Murasugi, K. 2008. Asymmetric movement in raising-to-object structures. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 53, 83-100.

Conference proceedings

Murasugi, K. and B. Jararuse. 2019. An Inuktut language vitality survey. In Ghyslain Cantin-Savoie, Matthew Schuurman & Richard Compton (eds.), Actes de colloque du 21e Congrès d’études Inuit / Proceedings of the 21st Inuit Studies Conference, 131-135. Montréal, Québec, Canada.

Murasugi, K. 2018. Atlas of the Inuit Language in Canada: Mapping and visualizing language beyond the land. In S. Drude, N. Ostler & M. Moser (eds.), Endangered languages and the land: Mapping landscapes of multilingualism, Proceedings of FEL XXII/2018 (Reykjavík, Iceland), 64–68. London: FEL & EL Publishing.

Anonby, E., K. Murasugi and M. Dominguez. 2018. Mapping language and the land with the Nunaliit atlas framework: Past, present and future. In S. Drude, N. Ostler & M. Moser (eds.), Endangered languages and the land: Mapping landscapes of multilingualism, Proceedings of FEL XXII/2018 (Reykjavík, Iceland), 56–63. London: FEL & EL Publishing.

Sherkina-Lieber, M. and K. Murasugi. 2015. Noun incorporation and case in heritage Inuktitut. In S. Vinerte (ed.), Proceedings of the 2015 Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference.

Conference and workshop presentations

Murasugi, K., B. Jararuse, S. Jararuse, R. Martin and S. Shields. 2022. Inuttitut language survey in Nunatsiavut: Preliminary results. Inuit Studies Conference, University of Winnipeg, June 2022.

Anonby, E., K. Murasugi, M. Barker, M. Veselka and R. Ingram. 2019. A survey of digital tools for Indigenous languages. FEL XXIII 2019, Sydney, Australia, December 2019.

Murasugi, K. and B. Jararuse. 2019. An Inuktut language vitality survey. Inuit Studies Conference, University of Quebec à Montreal and Concordia University. October 2019.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Inuktut language atlas: A collaborative digital project with Inuit communities. SSILA Summer Meeting 2019. University of California, Davis, July 2019.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Inuit language atlas. Cybercartography Workshop, University of São Paulo. May 2019.

Murasugi, K. 2019. Language and land in fragile ecosystems: Mapping the Inuit language of Canada’s Arctic. 2019 Symposium on the Symbiotic Relationship Between Language and Nature in Arabia, University of Leeds, April 2019.

Murasugi, K., D.R.F. Taylor and A. Hayes. A Nunaliit atlas of the Inuit language. ArcticNet ASM2018, Ottawa, December 2018.

Murasugi, K. Language mapping: Linking language and space. Nunaliit Cybercartography Workshop. CIESAS and CentroGeo, Mexico City. February 2018.

Murasugi, K. The Inuit and their language. Presented at the Nunaliit Workshop, Terra Peninsular, Ensenada, Mexico, February 2018.

Murasugi, K. Four perspectives on the Inuit language in Canada. Invited speaker, Linguistics from Different Horizons. Dept. of Linguistics, University of Florida Gainesville. February 2018.

Anonby, E, A. Hayes, K. Murasugi and F. Taylor. Mapping language with the Nunaliit Atlas Framework: The languages of Iran and the Inuit language in Canada. International Cartographic Conference 2017, Washington DC, July 2017.

Ittusardjuat, M., J. Palluq-Cloutier and K. Murasugi. One Inuit language writing system. Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IX), Umeå University, Sweden, June 2017.

Murasugi, K., J. Palluq-Cloutier, M. Ittusardjuat and A. Hayes. Inuit Language Atlas: A place for all dialects. Ninth International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences (ICASS IX), Umeå University, Sweden, June 2017.

Murasugi, K. Making Inuktut Dictionaries. Invited speaker. Inuktitut Language and Linguistics Workshop. University of Toronto, May 2017.

Murasugi, K. Person features of ergative and antipassive subjects. 20th Inuit Studies Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, October 2016.

Murasugi, K. and M. Ittusardjuat. A pilot atlas of the Inuit language: The stories words can tell. 20th Inuit Studies Conference, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John’s, October 2016.

Murasugi, K. Issues in a unified writing system. Invited speaker at the Summit on the Unification of the Inuit Writing System, Iqaluit, Nunavut, August 2015.

Sherkina-Lieber, M. and K. Murasugi. Noun incorporation and case in heritage Inuktitut. Canadian Linguistic Association Annual Conference, University of Ottawa, June 2015.

Palluq-Cloutier, J. and K. Murasugi. A standardized Inuit writing system. Invited Colloquium: Indigenous Languages and Identities. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL 2015), Toronto, March 21, 2015.

Murasugi, K. A hierarachical view of the ergative and antipassive in Inuktitut. Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association, Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario, May 25, 2014.

Murasugi, K. Inverse marking in Inuktitut. Workshop on the Structure and Constituency of Languages of the Americas, University of California, Berkeley, April 2014. Abstract accepted, unable to attend conference.

Murasugi, K. History of the Inuit writing system. Invited speaker at the Pre-summit workshop for 2015 Inuktut Language Writing Summit. Amaujaq National Center for Inuit Education, Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, Ottawa, March 2014.

Murasugi, K. and E. Christie. Word-final consonant deletion in Inuktitut. 18th Inuit Studies Conference, Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC, 2012.

Murasugi, K. Morphological complexity in Inuktitut speakers. Language Death, Endangerment, Documentation & Revitalization (26th UWM Linguistics Symposium), University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, 2011.

Murasugi, K. 21st Century Inuktitut: The spoken language of today’s Inuit. Invited speaker at Taiguusliurniq (Inuit Language Authority) Symposium, Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, October 2011.

Murasugi, K. Inuktitut language change. Seventh International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences, University of Akureyri, Iceland, 2011.

Conference posters

Murasugi, K. Direction marking in Inuktitut verbal agreement. Inuktitut Language and Linguistics Workshop. University of Toronto, May 2017.

Kutlu, E., L. Sabourin and K. Murasugi. When typological advantages disappear: The case of Turkish-English simultaneous interpreters. The 10th International Symposium on Bilingualism. Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ, May 2015.

Murasugi, K. Ergative and antipassive structures in bilingual Inuktitut speakers. Conference on Formal Approaches to Heritage Language. University of Massachusetts, Amherst, 2012.

Murasugi, K. Verbal agreement in bilingual Inuktitut-English speakers. Language as a Social and Cultural Practice: Advances in Linguistics [Theme: Multilingualism and migration]. University of Basel, Switzerland, 2011.

Murasugi, K. On the syntax and semantics of gradient judgments. Linguistic Evidence 2008, University of Tuebingen, Germany, 2008.

Memberships

  • Canadian Linguistic Association
  • FEL Canada
  • Foundation for Endangered Languages
  • The Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas