CV

Michelle Troberg

Department of Language Studies

University of Toronto Mississauga

Office: Maanjiwe nendamowinan (MN) 4168

Phone: 905-828-3768

Degrees

  • 2008    Ph.D. University of Toronto
  • 2003    M.A. University of Toronto  
  • 1997    B.Ed. Simon Fraser University                        
  • 1994    B.A. University of British Columbia                   

Employment

  • 2019-               Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Dept. of Language Studies, UTM
  • 2016 -2019      Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, Dept. of Language Studies, UTM
  • 2013-2015       Lecturer, Dept. of Language Studies, UTM
  • 2009-2013       Course Instructor, Dept. of Language Studies, UTM
  • 2008-2009       Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Toronto
  • 2005-2008       Course Instructor, Department of French, University of Toronto

Professional affiliations and activities

Member of the following learned societies, academic groups, and professional organizations:

  • School of Graduate Studies (permanent faculty), University of Toronto
  • Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education
  • Société Internationale de Diachronie du Français
  • Association for French Language Studies
  • The Canadian Linguistics Association
  • The Linguistic Society of America
  • Societas Linguistica Europaea
  • Association des Anciens Elèves, Elèves et Amis de l’École Normale Supérieure, Ulm, Paris.
  • Syntax-Semantics Research Group, University of Toronto
  • Old French Reading Group, University of Toronto
  • National Centre for Faculty Success and Diversity (alumna)

Reviewer of articles and squibs for the following scholarly journals:

  • Linguistic Inquiry, MIT Press
  • Syntax and Semantics, Brill
  • Diachronica, John Benjamins
  • Catalan Journal of Linguistics, Centre de Lingüística Teòrica of the UAB
  • Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Cambridge University Press
  • Les Voies du français, Presses de l’Université de Laval
  • Arborescences, Érudit            

Reviewer of abstracts for the following conferences and workshops:

  • Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics
  • Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages
  • Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association
  • Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française 
  • Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education

ACADEMIC HISTORY

Research endeavours

My main research interests lie in language change: correlations (what structural changes tend to co-occur), directionality, triggers (internal or external causes of change), and the acquisition process as the explanatory force behind diachronic change. I work principally on syntactic change in the history of French and how it relates to and can inform us about changes in other Romance languages. Generally, my work focuses on the first phase syntax/semantics of the verb phrase and has led me to examine various kinds of verbal arguments in Romance, both synchronically and diachronically. For a number of years, I have been working on the evolution of resultative secondary predication from Latin to Modern Romance and its typological implications. I have also recently renewed my interest in primary sources of data that shed light on aspects of very early Gallo-Romance syntax. Currently, I am a cooperating researcher in in the project Structuring the Input in Language Processing, Acquisition, and Change, funded by the German Research Foundation, a collaborator in the SSHRC project entitled Livres d’heures - textes et langue, and member of an inter-departmental project that investigates the possibilities and limits of a third internal argument of the verb phrase (the traditional view being that there should only be two). 

As a teaching-stream faculty member, I am deeply engaged in connecting my research to my role as an educator. The linguistics courses that I teach - from large introductory courses and mid-level syntax courses to upper-level courses on Romance linguistics, historical linguistics, and typology - are enriched by the currency I have with the state of the art in the discipline and by involving my students in the data and the research questions that I am currently investigating. Since the dissemination of research is tightly connected to effective writing and careful argumentation, my courses have a natural commitment to teaching such skills. I work closely with talented undergraduate students in the context of ROP and Independent Study courses and with graduate student research assistants, all of whom have presented the results of their work at national and international conferences, and some have co-authored articles with me.  ​

Research awards

  • 2020-2023   SSHRC Insight Grant (collaborator) Livres d’heures - textes et langue ($181,639)  Dorothea Kullman (PI), Franco Pierno (co-collaborator)
  • 2018-19        Teaching and Learning Grant   ($2000 x2)                               
  • 2018-2021   SSHRC (SIG)      ($1725; $500; $700; $1000)                                     
  • 2016-19        Learning and Education Advancement Fund  Predictive and Adaptive Learning Analytics in Online and Hybrid Course Delivery ($45,000)

Development grants

  • 2016-2017    Decanal Graduate Education Fund Grant, ($9,000)
  • 2014              Ontario Online Initiative, Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities ($75,000)                    
  • 2013-14        Online Undergraduate Course Initiative, University of Toronto  ($12,000)
  • 2013-14        Active Learning: Online Redesign ($3,000)                         
  • 2012-17        Writing Development Initiative ($57,176)

SCHOLARLY WORK

Books

2013. Change of Object Expression in the History of French: Verbs of Helping and Hindering. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Edited volumes

2020. Hommages à Yves Roberge : clitiques, éléments nuls, et autres problèmes de syntaxe et d’acquisition . (M. Troberg and S. Tailleur, eds.) Special issue of Arborescences vol. 10. Érudit. 

Refereed book chapters

2022.  Large online undergraduate courses: The demise of critical pedagogy? (A. Kalan and M. Troberg) In A. Gagné, A. Kalan, and S. Herath, Critical Action Research Challenging Neoliberal Language and Literacies Education: Auto and Duoethnographies of Global Experiences. 119-138. New York: Peter Lang.

2022. Syntactic Glosses and Historical Syntax. (M. Troberg and J. Whitman) In L. Grestenberger, C. Reiss, H. A. Fellner, and G. Z. Pantillon (eds), Ha! Linguistic Studies in Honor of of Mark R. Hale, 369-394. Weisbaden: Reichert Verlag.

2017. From Latin to Modern French: A punctuated shift. (M. Troberg and H. Burnett) In E. Mathieu and R. Truswell (eds), Micro-change and Macro-change in Diachronic Syntax, 104-124. Oxford University Press.

2016. Les facteurs de choix de l’auxiliaire en ancien français: étude quantitative. (P. Caudal, H. Burnett and M. Troberg). In S. Prévost and B. Fagard (eds), Le français en diachronie: dépendances syntaxiques, morphosyntaxe verbale, grammaticalisation, 218-237. Bern: Peter Lang. 

Refereed articles

2021. On the unified change of directional/aspectual verb particles in French. (M. Troberg and J. Leung) Journal of Historical Syntax 5(40): 1-79.

2020. Les prépositions orphelines : un réexamen à la lumière du SP étendu. In M. Troberg and S. Tailleur (eds), Hommages à Yves Roberge : clitiques, éléments nuls, et autres problèmes de syntaxe et d’acquisition, special issue of Arborescences vol. 10. Érudit.  

2017. Mobilizing Practitioner Action Research to Foster Critical Pedagogy in a Large Online Undergrad University Course. (A. Kalan and M. Troberg) Selected papers from the Annual Meeting of the American Educational Research Association: Knowledge in Action: Achieving the Promise of Equal Educational Opportunity, San Antonio, Texas, April 27-May 1, 2016. 

2014. The diachronic semantics of resultative secondary predication in French. (H. Burnett and M. Troberg) In Christopher Piñón (ed), Empirical Issues in Syntax and Semantics 10: 37-54. 

2014. Le prédicat résultatif adjectival en français médiéval. (M. Troberg and H. Burnett) Linguisticae Investigationes 37(1) : 152-176. 

2011. Directed motion in Medieval French. In  J. Herschensohn (ed),  Romance Linguistics 2010: Selected Papers from the 40th Linguistics Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL), Seattle, Washington March 2010, 117-136. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

2011. From indirect to direct object: Systematic change in 15th century French. Diachronica 28(3): 382-422.

2010. Les objets indirects en français: sens, représentations, évolution. (S. Cummins, Y. Roberge and M. Troberg). In C. LeBlanc, F. Martineau & Y. Frenette (eds), Vues sur les français d’ici, 77-113. Québec: Presses de l'Université Laval.

2009. The high applicative syntax of the dativus commodi/incommodi in Romance. (Y. Roberge and M. Troberg) Probus 21(2) : 247-287.

2008. Une étude diachronique des verbes datifs en français. In B. Fagard, S. Prévost, B. Combettes, and O. Bertrand (eds), Evolutions en français: études de linguistique diachronique, 385-403. Bern: Peter Lang.

2007. Thematic indirect arguments in French. (Y. Roberge and M. Troberg)  Journal of French Language Studies 17(3): 297-321.

2005. La persistance du complémenteur nul chez les apprenants anglophones du français langue seconde. In K. Karenova, C. Lebrec, C. Morgan & M. Pillet (eds), De l’autre côté du miroir : translations, déplacements, adaptations., 21 pages.

Refereed conference papers

2022. "Le datif possessif en français québécois : une distribution etendue” (M. Troberg, M. C. Cuervo, and J-F Juneau). Les français d'ici 8. June 15-17, l’Université du Québec Chicoutimi.

2022. "Pushing the limits of argument structure: (Spanish) tritransitives”. (M. C. Cuervo and M. Troberg). 52nd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. April 21-23, University of Wisconsin-Madison (online).

2021. "The role of analytic vagueness in the loss of Old French directional particles". Workshop on Cognitive Mechanisms Driving Language Change at the 54th Annual Meeting of the Societas  Linguistica Europaea. August 30 - September 2, Athens, Greece.

2021. “Toward a syntactic typology of prepositions in French”. Annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association. June 4-7, online.

2020. “On the uniform loss of Medieval French verb particles”. (M. Troberg and J. Leung) Annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association. May 30-June 1, Western University, London, Ontario.

2019. “From derived to lexically specified Result: Change in the French verb phrase”. Workshop on Variation and Change in the VP. December 5-6, University of Oslo, Norway.

2019. “Verb particles in Medieval French: a syntactic account”. Going Romance 33. November 28-29, University of Leiden, Netherlands.

2019. “Le français médiéval : période charnière entre une grammaire à cadrage satellitaire et une grammaire à cadrage verbal”. Le français en diachronie (Diachro IX), March 28-30, Universidad de Salamanca.

2019. “Fostering Critical Pedagogy in a Large Online Undergrad University Course”. (A. Kalan and M. Troberg) Ethnography in Education Research Forum, February 22-23, University of Pennsylvania.

2018. “Predictive Learning Analytics in Large Online and Hybrid Course Delivery”. (M. Troberg and E. Suh) Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE) Annual Conference.  June 19-22, Sherbrooke, Quebec.

2018. “Diachronic reanalysis and the satellite versus verb-framed distinction”. 48th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL). Special Workshop on Romance Diachrony at the Interfaces. April 25, York University, Toronto.

2017. “Adpositions of Result in Medieval French”. Morphosyntactic Variation in Adpositions. Queen’s College, Cambridge. May 8-9.

2017. “Result-to-v Raising in Medieval French”. 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, April 20-23, University of Delaware.

2016. “Mobilizing Practitioner Action Research to Foster Critical Pedagogy in a Large Online Undergrad University Course”. (A. Kalan and M. Troberg) ARNA (Action Research Network Association) Conference Proceedings. June 16-18, 2016. University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee.

2015. “Les facteurs de choix de l’auxiliaire en ancien français: étude quantitative et comparative ”. (H. Burnett, P. Caudal, and M. Troberg) Diachro-VII, February 5-7, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 and Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris, France.

2014. “L’intransitivité scindée et la sélection variable d’auxiliaire en ancien français”. (H. Burnett and M. Troberg) Atelier international sur l’exploitation du corpus parsé d’ancien et de moyen français. October 3-4, Université du Québec à Montréal.

2013. “Changes at the syntax-semantics interface: from Latin to Modern French”. (H. Burnett and M. Troberg) 15th Conference on Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGSXV), August 2-4, University of Ottawa.

2012. “Changement typologique en français: du cadrage satellitaire au cadrage verbal”. (H. Burnett and M. Troberg) Diachro VI, October 17-19, 2012, University of Leuven, Belgium.

2011. “Typological shift: From satellite- to verb-framed in French. Workshop on verbal elasticity: Framing the verb/satellite distinction from a biolinguistic perspective”. (H. Burnett and M. Troberg) October 3-5, Centre de Lingüística Teòrica, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Spain.

2011. “On the non-uniformity of secondary predication: Evidence from the history of French”. (H. Burnett, M. Tremblay, and M. Troberg) 41st Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 41), May 5-7, 2011, University of Ottawa.

2010. “Directionality and the loss of PathP in Medieval French”. 40th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 40), March 26-28, University of Washington.

2010. “The dative benefactive/adversative in Romance”. (Y. Roberge and M. Troberg) LSRL 40, March 26-28, University of Washington.

2009. “The double object construction in Old French: a preliminary assessment of change”. 13th annual Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics, December 4-5, McGill University.

2009. “From indirect to direct object: Change of complementation in 15th century” French. 19th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Aug. 10-15, Radboud University, Nijmegen.

2009. “Goal of motion, particles, and datives in Medieval French”. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association, May 23-25, Carleton University.

2009. “Syntaxe et sémantique des verbes à relation”. (S. Cummins and Y. Roberge). Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association, May 23-25, Carleton University.

2008. “Réanalyse et EPP”. (Y. Roberge and M. Troberg) 12th annual Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics, December 5-6, University of Ottawa.

2008. “Diachronic change as evidence of event structure: Two-place dative verbs in French”. NORMS Workshop on Argument Structure, Feb. 5-6, Center of Language and Literature, Lund University.

2007. “Les objets indirects non thématiques en français”. (Y. Roberge and M. Troberg) Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association, May 26-29, University of Saskatchewan.

2007. “Transitivity as coercion”. (D. Fournier, Y. Roberge, and M. Troberg) Workshop on Polysemy and Conceptual Representation, February 28- May 2, Siegen, Germany.

2006. “Accounting for optional implicit objects – without additional primitives”. (D. Fournier and M. Troberg) 10th annual Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics, December 10, Queens University.

2006. “Une étude diachronique des verbes bivalents datifs en français”. Diachro-III : évolutions en français, September 20-22, Paris.

2006. “Valency change in French interaction verbs: A preliminary study”. Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association, May 27-30, York University.

2006. “Arguments indirects et modes d’association”. (Y. Roberge and M. Troberg) Annual Meeting of the Canadian Linguistics Association, May 27-30, York University.

2005. “La Persistance du complémenteur nul chez les apprenants anglophones du français langue seconde. 10e Colloque de la SESDEF. De l’autre côté du miroir : translations, déplacements, adaptations, April 8-9, University of Toronto.

2004. “L’Alternance causative-inchoative : de la variation au changement valentiel. 8th annual Bilingual Workshop in Theoretical Linguistics, December 10, York University.

Refereed poster presentations

2022. “At the edge of valence”. Poster presented at the Annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association. June 1-4 (with M. C. Cuervo, N.Takhtaganova, and L. Donohue).

2019. “Lessons learned: Learning analytics in a high-enrollment online course”. Poster presented at the 13th annual University of Toronto Teaching and Learning Symposium, May 28, 2019 (with Eugenia Suh).

2019. “Romance verb particles through time and space: A new contribution from Old French”. Poster presented at the 49th LSRL, May 1-4, 2019, University of Georgia, Athens.

2018. “Change and loss of P-elements: A case study of fors and hors in the history of French”. Annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association. May 30-June 1, University of Regina (with Maya Krol and Meena Ahmad).

2018. “The diachrony of the particle fors/hors in the history of French”. 48th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. April 26-28, York University, Toronto (with Maya Krol and Meena Ahmad).

2017. “Jus: A portrait of a verb particle in Medieval French”. Annual conference of the Canadian Linguistics Association. May 27-29, Ryerson University (with Patricia Wysblocka).

Non-refereed articles

2007. Les objets indirects non thématiques en français. In Proceedings of the 2007 Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Conference, ed. M. Rasidic, 14 pages (with Y. Roberge). Available at: http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cla-acl/actes2007/Roberge_Troberg.pdf

2006. Arguments indirects et modes d'association. In Proceedings of the 2006 Canadian Linguistics Association Annual Conference, ed. C. Gurski & M. Radisic, 15 pages (with Y. Roberge). Available at: http://ling.uwo.ca/publications/CLA2006/Roberge_Troberg.pdf

2004. Topic-comment resumptive pronouns in Modern French and Old and Middle French. Toronto Working Papers in Linguistics 23(1): 133-156.

2004. Vers une nouvelle édition du glossaire latin-français l’Aalma. In Pour acquérir honneur et pris: mélanges de moyen français en hommage à Giuseppe Di Stefano, ed. M. Colombo Timelli & C. Galderisi, 287-292. Montreal: CERES (third author with Brian Merrilees and William Edwards).

Invited talks

2021. “Resultative secondary predication in Medieval French: Diachronic change and typological implications”. June 30, Institut für Linguistik/Romanistik, Universität Stuttgart.

2020. “NCTVs: from dative to accusative in the history of French”. February 25, Department of French (FRE 1136S), University of Toronto.

2018. “Determiner strength and the development of determiners from two sources”. (J. Whitman, R. Winarto, and M. Troberg). June 28-29, 2018, INALCO, Paris, for the 31st Paris Meeting on East Asian Linguistics.

2015. “Results of fine-grained variation in Path: From Latin to Modern French”. (H. Burnett and M. Troberg). October 16, Ulster University, Belfast.

2010. “Relation verbs”. (S. Cummins, Y. Roberge, and M. Troberg). Centre d'Études de Linguistique Anglaise, Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier.

2009. “Particles, datives, and path: Three changes in verb complementation, one cause”. Département de linguistique et de traduction, Université de Montréal, Québec.

2008. “Les objets indirects en français : sens, représentations, évolution”. (S. Cummins, Y. Roberge, and M. Troberg). Les Français d’ici, May 22-25, University of Ottawa.

2007. “Case for change: From Marie aide à Jean to Marie aide Jean”. Department of French, University of California, Berkeley.

2006. “Internal forces of change in French: The Germanic syntax of Old French”. Department of French, University of Toronto.

Book reviews

Heidi Harley. 2006. English words: A linguistic introduction. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 54(1): 186-188.

Manuscripts

Under review (March 15, 2022): "A diachronic consequence of intransitivity: structural underspecification and processing biases in Old French". Linguistics Vanguard. Special Issue on the cognitive mechanisms of linguistic change, edited by Y. Schawecker, A. Stein & M. Percillier. (10 pages)

COURSES TAUGHT

  • LIN100H5 Introduction to General Linguistics 
  • LIN101H5 Introduction to General Linguistics: The Sounds of Language
  • LIN102H5 Introduction to General Linguistics: Words, Sentences, their Structure and Meaning
  • LIN200H Introduction to Language
  • LIN204H5 English Grammar I
  • LIN231H5 Morphological Patterns
  • LIN232H5 Syntactic Patterns
  • LIN237H5 Semantics and Pragmatics
  • LIN360H5 Historical Linguistics
  • LIN366H5 Contact Languages: Pidgins, Creoles, and Mixed Languages
  • LIN369H5 Romance Linguistics
  • LIN399Y5 ROP: Resultative Secondary Predication in Medieval French
  • LIN460H5 Topics in Language Change
  • LIN410H5 Critical Reading and Writing in English Linguistics
  • LIN476H5 Language Diversity and Language Universals
  • LIN496Y5 Independent Study: Tonogenesis in Korean
  • LIN495H5 Independent Study: Peer-led study groups in LIN101/2 (FSG)
  • LIN498H5 Independent Study: Sarikoli-Uyghur language contact and historical phonology 
  • FRE172H1 French Grammar, Within Reason 
  • FRE272H1&5 Structure du français modern 
  • FSL6000H1 Reading French 
  • FRE491H5 Independent Study: La prédication résultative adjectivale en français médiéval I : Théorie
  • FRE492H5 Independent Study: La prédication résultative adjectivale en français médiéval I : Application

Administrative positions

  • 2022              UTM: Search committee (Chinese Linguistics)
  • 2021              UTSG: Continuing status committee (Linguistics/CIS)
  • 2021              UTM: Promotions Committee (DLS)
  • 2021-22         UTM: Program Coordinator: Linguistics
  • 2021              UTM: Search committee (L1 Acquisition)
  • 2020              UTSG: Promotion committee (Linguistics)
  • 2019 (July)     UTM: Interim Chair, Department of Language Studies                                 
  • 2019               UTM: Promotion committee (DLS, French)                             
  • 2019               UTM: Workload Policy and Procedures committee (DLS)                      
  • 2016-20          UTM: Advisory Committee for the Robert Gillespie Academic Centre       
  • 2018-19          UTM: SoTL Fellowship committee (through the RGASC)                          
  • 2017-19          UTM: ELLI committee (through the RGASC)                                              
  • 2017-18          UTM: Advisory Committee to the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean        
    • Temporary (acting) appointments: Vice-Dean Faculty; Vice-Dean Teaching and Learning; V-P Academic and Dean                             
  • 2016                UTM: Advisory Committee to the Vice-Principal Academic and Dean      
    • Full term appointments: Vice-Dean Faculty; Vice-Dean Academic Experience; Vice-Dean Teaching and Learning; Associate Dean, Graduate;            Associate Dean, Undergraduate
  • 2016               UTM: Search committee (Sociolinguistics)                
  • 2015-16          UTM: Search committee (Phonology/Phonetics)       
  • 2015-16          UTM: Working group for Undergraduate Degree Level Expectations          
  • 2015               UTM: Advisory Search Committee: Vice-Principal Academic and Dean
  • 2013-18          UTM: Program Coordinator: Linguistics
  • 2013               UTM: Member of sessional lecturer promotions committee            
  • 2012-13          UTM: Member of Curriculum Committee