Kate Bellamy
Postdoctoral Researcher
- Name
- Dr. K.R. Bellamy
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2125
- k.r.bellamy@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0001-5996-1736
Kate Bellamy is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Centre for Linguistics. Her research focuses on P’urhepecha, a language isolate spoken in Michoacán, Mexico. She is particularly interested in its lexical semantics and morphological composition, as well as how it is used – and varies – in language contact situations. From 2023-2026 she is working on the NWO-funded Veni project "Language Variation at home and abroad: the case of P'urhepecha in Mexico and its US diaspora". She also conducts research into code-switching and grammatical gender in multiple language combinations.
Fields of interest
- P’urhepecha
- Lexical semantics
- Code-switching
- Language contact
- Language variation and change
- Dialectology
- Grammatical gender
Research
My research focuses mainly on P’urhepecha, a language isolate spoken in Michoacán, Mexico. I am interested in how speakers of P’urhepecha talk about different domains, such as smell, texture, or the body, and how they package this information morphologically. In addition, I am interested in what happens to the language when it is in contact with Spanish, for example, and how speakers use both languages in the same sentence or even word (“code-switching”). I also investigate how grammatical gender is incorporated into code-switched utterances, using experimental and naturalistic data from a variety of language pairs.
My current NWO-funded Veni project investigates dialectal/geographic variation in P’urhepecha. By documenting lexical and morpho-syntactic patterns among speakers in Mexico and the US diaspora, I aim to identify the sources of any observed variation or change. It will be accompanied by an open-access dialect atlas which will serve as an online resource for speakers, learners and researchers of the language.
Grants and awards
- 2023: Newberry Library (Chicago) Short-Term residential Fellowship
- 2022: NWO Veni project “Language variation at home and abroad: the case of P’urhepecha in Mexico and its US diaspora”
- 2022: ELDP-MPI Glottobank fieldwork grant
- 2019: Marie Curie-Skłodowska Individual Fellowship (Europe)
- 2016: Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship, University of Chicago Libraries Special Collections
Curriculum vitae
| 2022-present | Postdoctoral Researcher, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, NWO Veni project “Language variation at home and abroad: the case of P’urhepecha in Mexico and its US diaspora” |
| 2021-2022 | Postdoctoral Researcher, KU Leuven |
| 2019-2021 | Postdoctoral Researcher, Langues et civilisations à tradition orale (Lacito), Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Villejuif, Marie Curie Individual Fellowship “Conflicting grammars: Gender among bilinguals in Mesoamerica and the Caucasus” |
| 2017-2019 | Research and Teaching Fellow, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics |
| 2013-2017 | PhD Candidate, Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Part of ERC project “The Linguistic Past of Mesoamerica and the Andes: A search for early migratory relations between North and South America” (supervisor Prof. dr. Willem Adelaar), defended 26/04/2018. |
| 2012-2013 | Research Assistant, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen |
| 2010-2012 | Student Assistant, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen |
| 2010-2012 | Research MA Linguistics, Leiden University (cum laude) |
Key publications
- Parafita Couto, M. Carmen, Kate Bellamy & Felix Ameka. 2023. Theoretical linguistic approaches to multilingual code-switching. In: Jennifer Cabrelli, Adel Chaouch-Orozco, Jorge González Alonso, Sergio M. Pereira Soares, Eloi Puig-Mayenco & Jason Rothman (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Third Language Acquisition and Processing. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 403-436.
- Bellamy, Kate. 2022. The numeral system of P’urhepecha: Historical and typological perspectives. STUF - Language Typology & Universals 75(2): 1-42.
- Bellamy, Kate & M. Carmen Parafita Couto. 2022. Gender assignment in mixed noun phrases: State of the art. In: Dalila Ayoun (Ed.), The Acquisition of Gender: Crosslinguistic perspectives, Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 14-48.
- Bellamy, Kate. 2021. Let me count the way it stinks: A typology of olfactory terms in Purepecha. In: Łukasz Jedrzejowski & Przemesław Staniewski (Eds.), The Linguistics of Olfaction: Typological and Diachronic Approaches to Synchronic Diversity, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 137-170.
- Bellamy, Kate & Martha Mendoza. 2021. Body-part terms and morphological complexity in P’urhepecha. Cahiers de lexicologie, 119: 51-71.
Postdoctoral Researcher
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL postdoc
- Dunn M. & Bellamy K. (2023), Evolution and spread of politeness systems in Indo‐European, Transactions of the Philological Society 121(1): 152-167.
- Cisneros M., Rodríguez-González E., Bellamy K. & Parafita Couto M. (2023), Gender strategies in the perception and production of mixed nominal constructions by New Mexico Spanish-English bilinguals, Isogloss 9(2): 1-30.
- Parafita Couto M., Bellamy K.R. & Ameka F.K. (2023), Theoretical linguistic approaches to multilingual code-switching. In: Cabrelli J., Chaouch-Orozco A., González Alonso J., Pereira Soares S.M., Puig-Mayenco E. & Rothman J. (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of third language acquisition and processing. Cambridge (UK): Cambridge University Press. 403-436.
- Baklanova E. & Bellamy K. (2023), Spanish suffixes in tagalog: the case of common nouns. In: Klamer M. & Moro F. (Eds.), Traces of contact in the lexicon: Austronesian and Papuan studies . Brill Studies in Language Contact and the Dynamics of Language no. 4. Leiden: Brill. 307-347.
- Bellamy K.R. & Parafita Couto M. (2022), Gender assignment in mixed noun phrases: State of the art. In: Ayoun D. (Ed.), The Acquisition of Gender. Crosslinguistic perspectives. Studies in Bilingualism no. 63: John Benjamins.
- Bellamy K.R. (2022), The numeral system of P’urhepecha: historical and typological perspectives, STUF – Language Typology and Universals 75(2): 199-238.
- Bellamy K.R., Stadthagen-Gonzalez H. & Parafita Couto M. (2022), Él code-switches more than tú y yo: new data for the subject pronoun-verb switch constraint, Languages 7(1): 22.
- Bellamy K.R. (2022), Prólogo. In: Marquez Trinidad J. (Ed.), Jiuatsï 2: Cuaderno de Enseñanza de la lengua P’urhepecha 2. México: Instituto Nacional de Pueblos Indígenas/Instituto de Enseñanza de Lenguas Originarias. i-iii.
- Wichers Schreur J.G., Allassonnière-Tang M., Bellamy K.R. & Rochant N. (2022), Predicting grammatical gender in Nakh languages: three methods compared, Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads 2(2): 93-126.
- Bellamy K.R. & J.G. (2021), When semantics and phonology collide: Gender assignment in mixed Tsova-Tush–Georgian nominal constructions, International Journal of Bilingualism 26(3): 257-285.
- Bellamy K.R. & Mendoza M. (2021), Body-part terms and morphological complexity in P’urhepecha, Cahiers de Lexicologie 119: 51-71.
- Bellamy K.R. (2021), Let me count the ways it stinks: A typology of olfactory terms in Purepecha (Mexico). In: Jędrzejowski Ł. & Staniewski P. (Eds.), The Linguistics of Olfaction: Typological and Diachronic Approaches to Synchronic Diversity. Typological Studies in Language no. 131: John Benjamins. 137-174.
- Groff C.D. & Bellamy K.R. (2020), Biliteracy development in Mexican primary education: analysing written expression in P'urhepecha and Spanish, The Language Learning Journal 48(3): 285–299.
- Bellamy K.R. & Groff C.D. (2019), Mother-tongue instruction and biliteracy development in P'urhepecha in Central Mexico. In: Sherris A. & Peyton J.K. (Eds.), Teaching writing to children in Indigenous languages: Beyond monolingual ideologies: Routledge. 202-217.
- Urban M., Reyes-Centeno H., Bellamy K.R. & Pache M. (2019), The areal typology of western Middle and South America: Towards a comprehensive view, Linguistics: an Interdisciplinary Journal of the Language Sciences 57(6): 1403-1463.
- Bellamy K.R. (2018), Re-evaluating the ‘numeral classifier’ system in Mochica, LIAMES: Línguas Indígenas Americanas 18(1): 81-98.
- Bellamy K.R. (2018), Investigating interaction between South America and West Mexico through the lexicon of metallurgy. In: Kroonen G. & Iversen R. (Eds.), Digging for Words: Archaeolinguistic case studies from the XV Nordic TAG Conference held at the University of Copenhagen, 16-18 April 2015 no. 2888: BAR. 1-20.
- Bellamy K.R. (2018), Languages of the world: Purepecha, Babel: The Language Magazine : .
- Bellamy K.R. (26 April 2018), On the external relations of Purepecha : an investigation into classification, contact and patterns of word formation (Dissertatie. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), Humanities, Leiden University) LOT dissertation series no. 498. Utrecht: LOT. Supervisor(s) and Co-supervisor(s): Adelaar W.F.H., Carlin E.B.
- Bellamy K.R., Parafita Couto M. & Stadthagen-González H. (2018), Investigating gender assignment strategies in mixed Purepecha-Spanish nominal constructions, Languages 3(3): .
- Bellamy K.R., Child M.W., Muntendam A. & Parafita Couto M.C. (2017), Introduction: Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone world. In: Bellamy K.R., Child M.W., González P., Muntendam A. & Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World no. 13. Amsterdarm: John Benjamins.
- Bellamy K., Child M.W., González González P., Muntendam A. & Parafita Couto M.C. (Eds.) (2017), Multidisciplinary Approaches to Bilingualism in the Hispanic and Lusophone World. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Bellamy K.R., Ionova A. & Saad G. (Eds.) (2017), ConSOLE XXV: Proceedings of the 25th Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (4-6 January 2017, Leipzig). Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.
- Bellamy K.R., Lena Karvovskaya, Kohlberger M. & Saad G. (Eds.) (2016), ConSOLE XXIII: Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (7-9 January 2015, Paris). ConSole. Proceedings. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.
- Bellamy K.R. (2016), The ‘X does Y’s head in’ construction. In: Reuneker A., Boogaart R. & Lensink S. (Eds.), Aries network: een constructicon 29-31.
- Bellamy K.R. (2016), Language as a mirror for social change, The Linguist @ NTNU : .
- Bellamy K.R., Karvovskaya E. & Saad G. (Eds.) (2016), ConSOLE XXIV: Proceedings of the 24th Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (6-8 January 2016, York). ConSole. Proceedings. Leiden.
- Kohlberger M., Bellamy K. & Dutton E. (Eds.) (2014), ConSOLE XXII: Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (8-10 January 2014, Lisbon). ConSole. Proceedings. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.
- Kohlberger M., Bellamy K. & Dutton E. (Eds.) (2014), ConSOLE XXI: Proceedings of the 21st Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (8-10 January 2013, Potsdam). ConSole. Proceedings. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.
- Metboki J. & Bellamy K.R. (2014), Expressions of quantity in the Amanuban dialect of Uab Meto. In: Klamer M. & Kratochvíl F. (Eds.), Number and quantity in East Nusantara, Papers from 12-ICAL, Volume 1. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics, The Australian National University. 60-78.