Dr. Renée Lambert-Brétière is Associate Professor of Linguistics, French, and Intercultural Communication at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Her research focus is on the relationship between language and culture, and on fieldwork-based documentation and description of lesser-known languages, from a typological discourse-based functional and cognitive linguistics perspective. She works on languages exhibiting very different typological profile, ranging from a mildly agglutinative language where meaning plays a large role in the grammar (Kwoma, East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea), to a polysynthetic language exhibiting an intricate morphological system (Innu, Northeastern Quebec and Labrador in Canada), to an isolating language making use of complex syntactic constructions (Fon, Republic of Benin), and to languages formed by the contact between West-African languages and European languages (Caribbean Creoles).
Her most recent research project, Documentation linguistique de l’innu, was featured on the The Academic Minute hosted by NPR.
RECENT COURSES TAUGHT
The World of Language: Social and Cultural Aspects
World Language Communities
Introduction to Language Structures
Syntax
Linguistic Typology
Language Planning
Language and Cognition
Contact Languages: Pidgins, Creoles and Mixed Languages
Sociolinguistics and Dialectology
Sociopolitical History of French (in French)
The Ethnography of Communication
PUBLICATIONS
BOOKS
Cottier, Jean-François and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2017. À la recherche d’un signe perdu: Jean-Baptiste de La Brosse, S.J., Éléments de la langue montagnaise (1768), Aix-en-Provence: Chemins de tr@verse.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2010. Les constructions sérielles en fon: approche typologique, Leuven & Paris: Peeters.
Floricic, Frank and Renée Lambert-Brétière (Eds). 2010. La négation et les énoncés non susceptibles d’être niés. Paris: Éditions du CNRS.
JOURNAL ARTICLES/CHAPTERS
Lambert-Brétière, Renée & Yvette Mollen. 2024. “Patrimoine, commémoration et instrumentalisation sociopolitique des langues autochtones.” Patrimoines. Les carnets du RéPUQ, No. 1, pp. 13-16.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2021. “How to Smell without a Verb “To Smell” in Fon.” In Łukasz Jędrzejowski and Przemysław Staniewski (Eds), The Linguistics of Olfaction. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2019. “The Bloomfieldian Heritage in Algonquian Linguistics: The verbal complex in Innu.” Faits de langue/Journal of Language Diversity, Vol. 50, No. 2, pp. 95-112.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2018. “Jean-Baptiste de La Brosse, Montanicæ linguæ Elementa: Une grammaire innue du XVIIIe siècle.” Littoral, No. 13, pp. 79-85.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2018 “Savoir culturel et langue en danger: l’exemple du rituel de l’igname chez les Kwoma.” Journal de la société des Océanistes, Vol. 146.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2018. “Les paroles s’envolent, les écrits restent: l’archivage du patrimoine oral autochtone.” In Luc Vaillancourt and Sandrine Tailleur (Eds), Voix autochtones dans les écrits de la Nouvelle-France. Paris, Éditions Hermann.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2018. “Landmarks and Kwoma Identity.” In Sebastian Drude, Nicholas Ostler and Marielle Moser (Eds), Endangered Languages and the Land: Mapping Landscapes of Multilingualism. Proceedings of the 22nd Annual Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL), pp. 19-25. London: FEL & EL Publishing.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2017. “La multifonctionalité des conjonctions bó et bɔ̀ en fon.” Linguistique et langues africaines, Vol. 3, pp. 55-84.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière*. 2016. “Insubordination in Innu.” In Monica Macaulay, Margaret Noodin, and J. Randolph Valentine (Eds.), Papers of the Forty-fourth Algonquian Conference, pp. 197-210. New York: SUNY Press.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée and Claire Lefebvre. 2015. “Relabeling in Two Different Theories of the Lexicon.” In Claire Lefebvre, Relabeling in Language Genesis. Chapter 4, pp. 103-138. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lefebvre, Claire and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2015. “Relabeling and Word Order: A Construction Grammar Perspective.” In Claire Lefebvre, Relabeling in Language Genesis. Chapter 5, pp. 139-163. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lefebvre, Claire and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2014. “A Note on the Haitian Double-object Constructions and the Relabelling-based Account of Creole Genesis.” Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 142-156.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2013. “Ethical dilemmas in documenting the Kwoma language.” In Nicholas Ostler and Mary Jane Norris (Eds), Proceedings of the Seventeenth Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL), pp. 178-185. Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2013. “The Innu Language Documentation Project.” In Nicholas Ostler and Mary Jane Norris (Eds), Proceedings of the Seventeenth Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages (FEL), pp. 191-192. Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2012. “Verbal Classifiers in Innu.” Anthropological Linguistics, Vol. 53, No. 4, pp. 293-322
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2011. “La documentation linguistique au service de la préservation et conservation des langues autochtones du Québec.” In Lynn Drapeau (Ed.) Les langues autochtones du Québec: un patrimoine en danger, pp. 195-218. Sainte-Foy: Presses de l’Université du Québec.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2010. “Séries verbales: le critère de la négation revisité.” In Frank Floricic and Renée Lambert-Brétière (Eds), La négation et les énoncés non susceptibles d’être niés, pp. 211-223. Paris: Éditions du CNRS.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2010. “L’expression de la séquentialité en fon.” In Frank Floricic (Ed), Essais de Linguistique Générale et de Typologie Linguistique offerts à Denis Creissels, pp. 167-186. Paris: Presses de l’École Normale Supérieure.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2009. “Serializing languages as satellite-framed: the case of Fon.” Annual Review of Cognitive Linguistics, Vol. 7, pp. 1-29.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2009. “Faut-il reconnaître une classe d’adjectifs en fon?” Faits de langues – Les cahiers, Vol. 1, pp. 205-228.
CONFERENCES (Selection)
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2020. The grammar of smelling in Fon.” 50th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics (CALL), Department of African Languages and Cultures, Leiden University, Netherlands, August 31-September 2, 2020.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2019. “Task-based language revitalization of Kwoma, an endangered language of Papua New Guinea.” PRELA 2019: Professionals and Research in Applied Linguistics: methodological challenges, social implications and perspectives for action, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon, June 24-26th, 2019.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée and Tania Lizarazo. 2019. “Digital Storytelling and Documentary Linguistics: Transforming Engaged Scholarship into Public Knowledge.” PRELA 2019: Professionals and Research in Applied Linguistics: methodological challenges, social implications and perspectives for action, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Lyon, June 24-26th, 2019.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2018. “Landmarks and Kwoma Identity.” FEL XXII – Endangered Languages and the Land, The University of Iceland, Reykjavík, August 25-27, 2018.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2017. “Why Write When No One Wants to Read? New Methods in the Revitalization of Kwoma,” Arizona Linguistics Circle 11, University of Arizona, October 21-22, 2017.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2017. “Comitative Constructions in Fon.” 48th Annual Conference on African Linguistics, University of Indiana, Bloomington, March 30-April 2, 2017.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2016. “Serial verb constructions in Caribbean Creoles.” Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics Conference, Washington DC, January 8-9, 2016.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2015. “Language Competence in the Field, and the Challenges of Documenting the Kwoma Language (Papua New Guinea),” MLLI Faculty and Student Annual Research Day, UMBC, November 6, 2015.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2015. “Non-standard transcription of Innu: an essential ingredient of its documentation.” The 4th International Conference on Language Documentation and Conservation (ICLDC), “Enriching Theory, Practice, & Application,” University of Hawaii, Honolulu, February 26-March 1, 2015.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2014. “Comitative constructions in Fon.” Syntax of the World’s Languages 6, University of Pavia, Italy, September 8-10, 2014.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2013. “Making the most out of the past: Retrieving and archiving old records of the Innu language.” Research, records and responsibility (RRR): Ten years of the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC), University of Melbourne, Australia, December 2-3, 2013.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2013. “Variation and change in conjunct third-person plural marking in Innu.” 45th Algonquian Conference, University of Ottawa, Canada, October 18-20, 2013.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2013. “Ethical dilemmas in documenting the Kwoma language.” FEL XVII – Endangered Languages beyond Boundaries, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, October 1-4, 2013
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2013. “The Innu Language Documentation Project.” FEL XVII – Endangered Languages beyond Boundaries, Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada, October 1-4, 2013. (Poster)
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2013. “Use of the Innu corpus to understand variation in third-person plural marking.” Change and Variation in Canada (CVC) 7, University of Toronto, May 4-5, 2013.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2012. “The Rise of Clause Chaining in Innu.” 44th Algonquian Conference, Gleacher Center, University of Chicago, October 25-28, 2012.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2012. “Clause Linking Devices in Kwoma.” Syntax of the World’s Languages 5, University of Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 1-4, 2012.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2012. “From Preverbs to Sequence Markers: Clause Chaining in Innu.” Syntax of the World’s Languages 5, University of Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Croatia, October 1-4, 2012.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée and Claire Lefebvre. 2012. “Relabeling in two different theories of the lexicon.” Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics Conference, Portland, Oregon, January 6-7, 2012.
Lefebvre, Claire and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2012. “A Construction Grammar perspective on how word order is established in creole genesis.” Society for Pidgin and Creole Linguistics Conference, Portland, Oregon, January 6-7, 2012.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2011. “Le conjonctif en innu : un cas d’insubordination.” 4th International Conference of the French Cognitive Linguistics Association (AFLiCo) – Cognitive linguistics and typology: Language diversity, variation and change, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France, May 24-27, 2011.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée and Claire Lefebvre. 2011. “Serial Verb Constructions in Caribbean Creoles: A Relabeling Account within the Framework of Construction Grammar.” 4th International Conference of the French Cognitive Linguistics Association (AFLiCo) – Cognitive linguistics and typology: Language diversity, variation and change, Université Lumière Lyon 2, Lyon, France, May 24-27, 2011.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2011. “Innu Verbal Classifiers: Classifiers or Incorporated Nouns?” 14th Annual Workshop on American Indigenous Languages (WAIL), University of California, Santa Barbara, April 15-16, 2011.
Drapeau, Lynn and Renée Lambert-Brétière. 2010. “Verbal Classifiers in Innu.” 9th Conference of the High Desert Linguistic Society, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, November 3-6, 2010.
Lambert-Brétière, Renée. 2010. “Discourse-based Transitivity in Kwoma.” Syntax of the World’s Languages 4, Laboratory Dynamique du Langage (DDL), Lyon, France, September 23-26, 2010.