Hi, I'm Shabri!
I'm a PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Toronto.
Recent/Current Projects
GP 2 (ongoing): "That's How We Talk Only": 'Only' as a particle of assurance in Indian English. (working title).
Project in progress. The word 'only' in Indian English, when clause-final, can have a number of pragmatic functions. It has been primarily analyzed thus far as a focus particle, however it can also be a 'particle of assurance' whereby the speaker uses it in response to a question, to assure the addressee that the answer they are seeking is indeed the most obvious/optimal one. This use of Indian English only has yet to be formally analyzed. This paper will investigate this novel use of only in Indian English and place it within the broader typology of pragmatic particles within World Englishes.
GP 1 (2021): The Mass/Count Distinction in Cusco Quechua
This project explores the difference in nominal features that distinguish notional count nouns from notional mass nouns in the Cusco variety of Quechua. Importantly, it brings new evidence to the literature on classifier constructions that individuate portions of a substance. This research shows that in Cusco Quechua, there is a difference in case marking between container classifiers denoting physical containment of a substance (glasses of x, bowls of x), and classifiers that do not denote containment (drops of x , puddles of x).
MA Thesis (2019): Language Contact in Canada: Restructuring of Ditransitive Constructions in Heritage Hindi
My MA thesis looked at ditransitive constructions in two varieties of Heritage Hindi: 1st generation speakers (born and raised in India/ moved to Canada in adulthood) and 2nd generation speakers (born and raised in Canada with Hindi L1). In comparing these two varieties, I found that speakers born in Canada use a verb-medial construction (similar to the Prepositional Dative Construction in English) significantly more often than 1st generation Hindi speakers, who maintained the verb-final feature of Hindi.
Presentation on this topic upcoming, at Heritage Languages Around the World (HLAW), Lisbon, Portugal, May 2022.