Curriculum Vitae

Education

  • University of Alberta (2022-2024)
    • MSc in Linguistics
      • Thesis Title: Woods Cree (nîhithawîwin): A Grammatical Description and Computational Modelling
      • Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Antti Arppe
  • University of Alberta (2018-2022)
    • B.A. Honours in Linguistics, minoring in Anthropology.
      • Thesis Title: Lexical Semantic Classification in Plains Cree (nêhiyawêwin): Manual and Computational Approaches
      • Thesis Supervisor: Dr. Antti Arppe

Select Occupational Experience

  • Dictionary Keeper, Tłı̨chǫ Government (2024-)
    • Headed the creation, expansion, and maintenance of an online dictionary of Tłı̨chǫ Yatıı̀, as well as various other language documentation projects.
  • Graduate Research Assistant, Alberta Language Technology Lab (2022-2024)
    • Headed lexicographic documentation projects and corpus development for Plains Cree, developed morphological models for several Indigenous languages, assisted in conference organisation, and produced academic publications representing the lab.
  • Undergraduate Research Assistant, Alberta Language Technology Lab (2019-2022)
    • Performed various linguistic data-related tasks, including semantic classification, translation, interlinearisation, audio annotation, and vocabulary elicitation
  • Tutor-Mentor, Tutorbright (2019-2023)
    • Taught both English and French as second languages to students of various ages, typically on an individual level

Publications

Papers

Dacanay, D., Harrigan, A., & Arppe, A. (2021). Computational analysis versus human intuition: a critical comparison of vector semantics with manual semantic classification in the context of Plains Cree. In Silfverberg, M., & Desjardins, J.  (eds.), Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Computational Methods for Endangered Languages, 1, 33-43. doi:10.33011/computel.v1i.971 

 

Dacanay, D., Harrigan, A., Wolvengrey, A. & Arppe, A. (2021). The more detail, the better? – Investigating the effects of semantic ontology specificity on vector semantic classification with a Plains Cree / nêhiyawêwin dictionary. In Mager, M., Oncevay, A., Rios, A., Meza Ruiz, I.V., Palmer, A., Neubig, G., Kann, K.  (eds.), Proceedings of the 1st Workshop on NLP for Indigenous Languages of the Americas, 1, 143-52. doi:10.18653/v1/2021.americasnlp-1.15

 

Dacanay, D., Poulin, J., & Arppe, A. (2022). kêtiski-kotahâskwâtam: The effectiveness of various hypernymic levels of WordNet synsets as vector semantic classification categories. In McCaulay, M. & Noodin, M. (eds.), Papers of the Fifty-Third Algonquian Conference (PAC53), 53. 

 

Dacanay, D. (2022). Lexical Semantic Classification in Plains Cree (nêhiyawêwin): Manual and Computational Approaches (Honours thesis, University of Alberta).

 

Dacanay, D. & Arppe, A. (2023a, forthcoming). Digitizing, translating, and standardizing Pr. Albert Lacombe’s Dictionnaire de la langue des Cris (1874). In McCaulay, M. & Noodin, M. (eds.), Papers of the Fifty-Fourth Algonquian Conference (PAC54), 54.

 

Poulin, J., Dacanay, D., & Arppe, A. (2023b, forthcoming). Speech Database (Speech-DB) – An on-line platform for recording, storing, validating, and searching spoken language data. In the Proceedings of 1st Workshop on NLP applications to Field Linguistics (Field Matters). 

 

Arppe, A., Neitsch, A., Dacanay, D., Poulin, J., Hieber, D., & Harrigan, A. (2023c, forthcoming) Finding words that aren’t there: Using word embeddings to improve dictionary search for low-resource languages. In Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on NLP for Indigenous Languages of the Americas.

 

Arppe, A., Harrigan, A., Schmirler, K., Dacanay, D., Makinaw, R. (2023d) nêhiyawi-pîkiskwêwin maskwacîsihk: Spoken Dictionary of Maskwacîs Cree. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 44(2), 127-42

 

Dacanay, D., & Arppe, A. (2024, forthcoming). misi-mîkiwâhp pêsêkinosa ohci – A corpus of miscellaneous Plains Cree texts. In Papers of the Fifty-Fifth Algonquian Conference (PAC55), 55.

Presentations

Arppe, A., Poulin, J., Harrigan, A., Schmirler, K., Dacanay, D., & Makinaw, R. (2022). êkosi ê-nêhiyawi-pîkiskwêcik maskwacîsihk – Towards a Spoken Dictionary of Maskwacîs Cree. Presentation conducted at the Fifth Workshop on the Use of Computational Methods in the Study of Endangered Languages (ComputEL-5). 

 

Dacanay, D. & Schmirler, K. (2022). An Analogy-Based Alternative to “Counter-Intuitive” Grammatical Animacy in Plains Cree/nêhiyawêwin. Presentation conducted at the Fifty-Fourth Algonquian Conference (PAC54).

Awards

  • International Baccalaureate Diploma Scholarship (2018)
    • $1000CAD
  • Roger S. Smith Undergraduate Researcher Award (2020)
    • $5000CAD
  • Undergraduate Researcher Initiative Stipend (2021)
    • $6000CAD

Workshops

Volunteer

  • Alberta Conference on Linguistics 2023, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta, November 25 2023
    • Presenter
  •  Fifty-Fifth Algonquian Conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, October 19-22 2023
    • Organiser
  • Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute Summer Program, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, July 10-28 2023
    • Volunteer Teaching Assistant (VeSPA)
  • Alberta Conference on Linguistics 2022, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, October 29 2022
    • Presenter

Attendee

  • Spring Training in Experimental Psycholinguistics, Centre for Comparative Psycholinguistics, Edmonton, Alberta, June 12-17 2023 
  • The Minimal Course approach for teaching/learning Algonquian Languages, Carleton University, Online, October 17 2021
  • First Workshop on Natural Language Processing for Indigenous Languages of the Americas, Association for Computational Linguistics, Online, June 11 2021
  • Organization of Alberta Students in Speech (OASIS) Conference, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, September 28 2019