office: 223 Tate phone: 573-882-8590 email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. office hours: M&W 11:03-noonish Research and teaching areas: linguistics and the structure, dialects, and history of the English Language

Matthew Gordon teaches courses in linguistics and the structure, dialects, and history of the English Language. His research interests include sociolinguistics, American dialectology, and language change. He authored a monograph titled Small-Town Values, Big-City Vowels: A Study of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan (Duke University Press, 2001) which examines the diffusion of sound changes to rural communities. His Sociolinguistics: Methods and Interpretation (2003, Blackwell), co-authored with Lesley Milroy, presents a critical discussion of sociolinguistic theory and methods. Currently he is engaged in research examining linguistic variation in Missouri.

Education

PhD 1997, University of Michigan

Selected Publications

• Gordon, Matthew J. (2011). Theoretical and methodological issues in the study of chain shifts. Language and Linguistics Compass. 5.11: 784-794.
• Majors, Tivoli and Matthew J. Gordon. (2008). The [+spread] of the Northern Cities Shift. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 14: Online at http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol14/iss2/14/.
• Matthew Gordon. "Techniques of analysis 1: Phonological variation." Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. Eds. C. Llamas, et al. London: Routledge, 2007. 19-27.
• Matthew Gordon. "The investigation of diachronic variety in language: Traditions and recent developments." History of the Language Sciences Vol. 3. Eds. S. Auroux, E.F.K. Koerner, et al. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Matthew Gordon. "Interview with William Labov." Journal of English Linguistics 34(2006): 1-20.
• Matthew Gordon. "Tracking the low back merger in Missouri." Language Variation and Change in the American Midland: A New Look at "Heartland" English T. Murray and B. Simon. Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2006. 57-68.
• Matthew Gordon. "Slang, dialect, and other types of marked language." American History through Literature: 1870-1920 Eds. G. Scharnhorst and T. Quirk. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2006. 1051-1055.
• Matthew Gordon. "The sounds, they are a shiftin'. Do you speak American?" This website is a companion to a documentary series which aired on PBS in January 2005.
• Matthew Gordon. "Research aims and methodology." Sociolinguistics: An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society, 2nd edition Eds. U. Ammon, N. Dittmar, K. Mattheier, and P. Trudgill. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2005. 955-965.
• Matthew Gordon. "New York, Philadelphia, and other northern cities." Handbook of Varieties of English: The Americas and Caribbean, Vol. 1, Phonology Ed. E. Schneider. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2005, 282-299.
• Matthew Gordon. "The Midwest and West." Handbook of Varieties of English: The Americas and Caribbean, Vol. 1, Phonology Ed. E. Schneider. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 2005. 338-350.
• Lesley Milroy and Matthew Gordon. Sociolinguistics: Methods and Interpretation (Blackwell, 2003) www.blackwellpublishing.com
• Matthew Gordon. Small-Town Values, Big-City Vowels: A Study of the Northern Cities Shift in Michigan (Duke University Press, 2001) www.dukeupress.edu

Courses Taught

• English 1060: Human Language
• English 2000: Topics in English Studies: Funny Talk in Literature and Real Life
• English 4600/7600: Structure of American English
• English 4610/7610: History of the English Language
• English 4620/7620: Regional and Social Dialects of American English
• English 8600: Seminar in the English Language