AP Spanish students and members of the One World Club were treated to a presentation during Activity Period last Friday on the topic of linguistics by Danny Erker ’97, an Associate Professor of Linguistics at Boston University.

        A 2002 graduate of Marquette University with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish, Erker has since earned a master’s degree from the City University of New York and a doctorate in linguistics fromNew York University. Since graduating from NYU, Erker has worked at BU, first as an Assistant Professor of Spanish and Linguistics and then as an Associate Professor of Linguistics beginning in 2019.

In addition to teaching a number of college courses, Erker also serves as the director of the Spanish in Boston Project, which examines the social and linguistic tendencies of Spanish-speaking residents of the Boston area. Throughout his tenure in Boston, Erker has also had work published in leading academic journals dedicated to linguistics, and some of his work has been featured by publications such as the Boston Globe and NPR.

        Discussion of Erker coming to present on his field of study at SLUH began recently, after he updated his alumni profile in preparation for attending his 25-year class reunion this past weekend. Director of Advancement Sean Agniel took note of Erker’s job position and experience in higher education. He invited Erker to give a talk to interested students while in town for the reunion.

        In his talk, Erker focused primarily on highlighting some common misconceptions about the field of linguistics, as well as providing students with a general background into the subject as a whole.

        “Linguists are not necessarily speakers of many languages, nor are we the grammar police,” wrote Erker in an email to the Prep News. “Instead we study language from a scientific perspective, trying to answer questions like ‘How do babies acquire language?’, ‘How is language stored in the mind?’, ‘How did language evolve in the human species?’, ‘How and why do languages change over time?’ That last question is one that I tried to give at least a partial answer to during my talk, highlighting how the interaction of speakers of different languages or different varieties of the same language can trigger innovation.”

        Many attendees of Erker’s talk were seniors taking AP Spanish who were offered extra credit for their attendance. Members of One World Club were also invited, and they too made up a sizable portion of the crowd of roughly 20 students. Students were overall impressed with the talk, which helped provide them with a perspective on the study of languages and their development.

        “Prior to attending the meeting, I had not known the difference between linguistics and the study of language,” said junior Leo Fitzmaurice. “It was fascinating to watch Dr. Erker dissect the distinct patterns of the ways people talk throughout the world, especially when he discussed gap fillers in different languages.”

        Overall, Erker enjoyed the opportunity to return to his alma mater and expressed an interest in returning sometime for other linguistics-based programs.

        “It was terrific,” said Erker. “I had a ton of fun and was really impressed with the questions that the students asked. It was also great to see some people who were teachers of mine when I was at SLUH. I’d be happy to come back and talk linguistics again sometime.”