Assistant Teaching Professor
Program in Linguistics
School of Global Languages, Literatures, & Cultures
The Pennsylvania State University
442 Burrowes Building
230 Old Coaly Way
University Park, PA 16801

tpt5331 [at] psu.edu
(syllabi & handouts available upon request)

Curriculum Vitæ

Tran Truong

I received my PhD in Linguistics from the University of Chicago. I am broadly interested in syntax, morphology, and Distributed Morphology. My dissertation, supervised by Karlos Arregi, is a crosslinguistic, crossmodular, and cross-theoretic study of morphological contiguity, elsewhere called *ABA effects. Phenomena within the scope of my investigation include allomorphy, suppletion, syncretism, and dialectal/idiolectal morphosyntactic microvariation, especially as these occur within Japanese honorifics and Arrernte kintax.

At Penn State, I teach undergraduate-level courses in the linguistics major as well as graduate-level courses for students pursuing the dual-title degree in Language Science. I am also a co-facilitator of the Faculty Writing Program and a member of the Morphology Circle. Outside of Penn State, I am active in the Linguistics in Higher Education Committee and as a founding member of the First-Generation Access & Equity Subcommittee.

Biography

Teaching

LING 512: Linguistics & Language Science. Fall '25, '26.
LING 410: Morphology. Fall '24, '26.
LING 001: Language, Life, & Society. Fall '24, Spring '25, Fall '25, Spring '26, Fall '26.

LNGSC 521: Proseminar in the Language Science of Bilingualism. Spring '26.
LING 497: Structure of Signed Languages. Spring '26.
LING 596: Practicum in Linguistics Pedagogy. Spring '25.
LING 402: Syntax I. Spring '24, '26.
LING 405: Introduction to Historical Linguistics. Spring '23, '25.
LING 100: Foundations of Linguistics. Fall '22, Spring '23, Fall '23, Spring '24.
LING 001: The Study of Language. Spring '23, Fall '23.
LING 493: Field Methods (Twi). Fall '22.

Updates

[6 Jul 2026] I will be presenting `Analogical desuppletion in Old Frisian' at the International Medieval Congress in Leeds.

[1 May 2026] I will be presenting `Discrepant mouthing as cross-registral compounding' at the Boston Morphology Workshop at Boston University.

[13 Mar 2026] I presented `Umlautoid categoriser intervention in Japanese bare & covered forms' at Ablautapalooza.

[9 Mar 2026] My book note on Alleesaib & Lefort 2025 will be published in Language in Society.

[8 Jan 2026] I hosted a linguistics & New Orleans trivia game as a way to welcome first-timers to the 100th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America.