Marie-Lucie Tarpent

Marie-Lucie Tarpent (born November 9, 1941) is a French-born Canadian linguist, formerly an associate professor of linguistics and French at Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She is known for her descriptive work on the Nisga'a language, a member of the Tsimshianic language family, and for her proof of the affiliation of the Tsimshianic languages to the Penutian language group.

Early life and education Marie-Lucie Tarpent was born on November 9, 1941, in Tonnerre, France. The following year, she attended the University of Vermont before earning a master's degree in linguistics in 1965 from Cornell University. She was on a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council doctoral fellowship in from 1981–1983. While at the University of Victoria, she published an analysis of the counting systems of the Nishga and Gitskan languages.

In 1998, Tarpent, with linguist Daythal Kendall, presented a paper on the lack of evidence for a close relationship between the Oregon Penutian languages Takelma and Kalapuyan, and therefore for the previously hypothesized "Takelman". In 1999, Tarpent authored a chapter titled ""On the eve of a new paradigm: The current challenges to comparative linguistics in a Kuhnian perspective." She has contributed significantly to the knowledge on Nisga'a and Southern Tsimshianic languages at Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation, particularly in regard to the importance of morphemes.

Starting in September 2007, Tarpent was one of ten senior scholars in the field of linguistics to participate in the International Polar Year project "Documenting Alaskan and Neighboring Languages."

Works