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Rakesh Mohan Bhatt

Profile picture for Rakesh Mohan Bhatt

Contact Information

Linguistics
4088 Foreign Lang Bl
707 S Mathews
M/C 168
Urbana, IL 61801

Professor

Biography

Rakesh M. Bhatt received his Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Illinois. He is now Professor of Linguistics and SLATE (Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education) at the University of Illinois. He is a former director of the Program in SLATE and associate director of the Program in South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Illinois. He specializes in sociolinguistics of language contact, in particular, issues of migration, minorities and multilingualism, code-switching, language ideology, and world Englishes. The empirical focus of his work has been on South Asian languages; particularly, Kashmiri, Hindi, and Indian English. His study, Verb Movement and the Syntax of Kashmiri (1999, Kluwer Academic Press), was published in the prestigious series, Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory. He has also co-authored another book, World Englishes (2008, Cambridge University Press). He is the author of essays in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, Annual Review of Anthropology, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, International Journal of Applied Linguistics, Lingua, World Englishes, Studies in Second Language Acquisition, Second Language Research, English Language and Linguistics and other venues. Heis working on a book-length manuscript, under contract with CambridgeUniversity Press, on the sociolinguistic patterns of subordination ofKashmiri language in Diaspora.

Research Interests

Applied Linguistics: Migration, Minorities, and Multilingualism
Language Ideology, Planning, Maintenance and Shift
World Englishes; Language Learning, Teaching, and Use of Second/Non-native Languages
Heritage Language Acquisition and Use
Formal Linguistics: Indo-Aryan Syntax, Syntax of Language Contact and Language Variation

Research Description

Applied Linguistics:

•  Migration, Minorities, and Multilingualism
•  Language Contact and Code-switching
•  Language Ideology, Planning, Maintenance and Shift
•  World Englishes
•  Heritage Language Acquisition and Use

Formal Linguistics:

  • Indo-Aryan Syntax
  • Syntax of Language Contact and Language Variation

Current Projects

  • Language Contact in Diaspora
  • Sociolinguistic Grammars of Bilingual Language Use

Education

Ph.D. Linguistics, specialization in Syntax, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign 1994
M.A. Linguistics; specialization in Sociolinguistics, University of Pittsburgh, 1987

Grants

NSF 3-year grant on Heritage Language grammars

Courses Taught

Introduction to Sopciolinguistics (Ling 450)
Language in Globalization (Ling 111)
Ling 400: Introduction to Linguistics
Ling 560: Seminar on Bilingualism
Ling 587: Code-switching: Form and Function
Ling 555: Sociolinguistics of World Englishes

Additional Campus Affiliations

Associate Head, Linguistics
Professor, Linguistics
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Professor, Global Studies Programs and Courses
Professor, Center for Global Studies

Honors & Awards

NSF Grant # 0917593 Differential Object Marking in Spanish, Hindi and Romanian Heritage Speakers (co-PI with Silvina Montrul [PI], Roxana Girju [Co-PI])
Center for Advanced Study Associate Award, AY 2010/2011
American Institute of Indian Studies' Senior Short Term Research Fellowship 2004

Highlighted Publications

Mesthrie, R., & Bhatt, R. M. (2008). World Englishes: The study of new linguistic varieties. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791321

Bhatt, R. M. (1999). Verb Movement and the Syntax of Kashmiri. (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory; Vol. 46). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9279-6

View all publications on Illinois Experts

Recent Publications

Bhatt, R. M., & Bolonyai, A. (2022). Codeswitching and its Terminological Other – Translanguaging. In J. MacSwan (Ed.), Multilingual Perspectives on Translanguaging (pp. 154-180). (Language, Education and Diversity; Vol. 1). Multilingual Matters. https://doi.org/10.21832/9781800415690-008

Bhatt, R., & Bolonyai, A. (2022). Multilingualism as an Object of Sociolinguistic Description. Languages, 7(4), Article 277. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7040277

Bhatt, R. M., & Bolonyai, A. (2019). Code-switching and translanguaging. In J-O. Östman, & J. Verschueren (Eds.), Handbook of Pragmatics: 22nd Annual Installment (pp. 59-78). (Handbook of Pragmatics). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/hop.22.cod2

Bhatt, R. M. (2019). The poetics and politics of Englishes in late modernity. World Englishes, 38(1-2), 41-52. https://doi.org/10.1111/weng.12392

Montrul, S., Bhatia, A., Bhatt, R., & Puri, V. (2019). Case marking in Hindi as the weaker language. Frontiers in Psychology, 10(MAR), Article 461. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00461

View all publications on Illinois Experts