Professor Emeritus
Phone: (901) 678-4760
Email: cbernstn@memphis.edu
Office: Patterson 407

Education

B.A., 1969, Cornell University
M.A., 1972, Texas A & M
Ph.D., 1987, Texas A & M

Academic Summary

After ten years at Auburn University, Cynthia Bernstein joined the University of Memphis  to teach linguistics in the M.A. and Ph.D. programs. Her research and teaching areas include the study of dialect variation, methods of gathering and interpreting linguistic data, and the use of linguistic tools to analyze literary and popular genres. Although born and raised in New York, she is particularly interested in language varieties of the Southern United States.

Select Publications

• Bernstein, Cynthia. "Labov and Waletzky in Context." Journal of Narrative and Life History 7 (1997): 45–52.
• Bernstein, Cynthia, Thomas Nunnally, and Robin Sabino, eds. Language Variety in the South Revisited. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997.
• Bernstein, Cynthia. "Misunderstanding the American South." American Speech (2000): 339-42.
• Bernstein, Cynthia, and Robert Bernstein. "Phonological Innovation in East Texas: Different Samples, Similar Explanations." American Speech 73 (1998): 44–56.
• Bernstein, Cynthia, ed. The Text and Beyond: Essays in Literary Linguistics. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1994.