Education

1965 — B.S., English, University of Wisconsin, Madison
1978 — Ph.D., English, University of Wisconsin, Madison

Academic Appointments

1973-1978	Instructor, Department of English, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa
1980-1981	Visiting Lecturer, Department of English Language and Literature, University of Manchester, England
1978-Present	Department of English, University of Missouri-Columbia

Courses Taught

1. Introductory courses in composition and literature
2.  Upper-level courses in the Structure of American English, History of the English Language, Regional and Social Dialects of American English, Principles of Teaching English as a Second Language, and General Linguistics
3.  Graduate seminars in The Language of Literature,  English Phonology, English Syntax

Dissertations Directed

1995	"Chaucer's meters," Xingzhong Li, Associate Professor of English, Western Washington University
1995	"Transformative language in the works of Toni Morrison and Derek Wallcott," Ann E. Harris, Associate Professor and Head, Department of English, Lincoln University, Jefferson City, Missouri
1996	"The literary language of William Dean Howells in theory and in practice: the evolution of a career," Gregory J. Stratman, Academic Coordinator, Department of English, University of Missouri, Rolla

Online Vocabulary Management Programs

(1)  Concordance - Output is a concordance plus a word frequency list.  The concordance can be printed either alphabetically or sequentially.

(2)  Type/Token Curve - Output is a concordance with type/token ratios computed for the first occurrence of each vocabulary word.  The program uses these statistics to generate a graph of the type/token ratios (y-axis) plotted against the number of tokens (x-axis).  For further discussion, see Youmans (1990): "Measuring Lexical Style and Competence: The Type-Token Vocabulary Curve."

(3)  "Classic" VMP - Output is a concordance with the moving averages of type/token ratios computed over adjustable intervals (of thirty-five words, fifty-five words, etc.)  These statistics are used to generative graphs of Vocabulary-Management Profiles such as those described in Youmans (1991): "A New Tool for Discourse Analysis: the Vocabulary-Management Profile"; and Youmans (1994): "The Vocabulary-Management Profile: Two Stories by William Faulkner."

(4)  Revised VMP - Output is a concordance with moving averages of a modified version of type token ratios.  Instead of treating all repeated vocabulary the same -- as contributing one new token but zero new types to a text -- this program calculates a ratio based upon the fraction of the text that has intervened between a repeated word and its most recent occurrence.  These ratios are used to generate a modified version of the VMP that is does not decline as rapidly over the length of a text and which correlates more successfully with structural boundaries in discourse.  For further discussion, see Youmans (forthcoming).

Publications

Vocabulary Management and Literary Analysis:

(1)  "Measuring Lexical Style and Competence: The Type-Token Vocabulary Curve."  Style, 24 (Winter 1990), 584-599.
(2)  "A New Tool for Discourse Analysis: the Vocabulary-Management Profile."  Language, 67.4 (1991), 763-789.
(3)  "The Vocabulary-Management-Profile: Two Stories by William Faulkner."  Empirical Studies of the Arts, 12.2 (1994), 113-130.

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Generative Metrics:

(1)  "Generative Tests for Generative Meter."  Language, 59.1 (1983), 67-92.
(2)  "Introduction: Rhythm and Meter."  Phonetics and Phonology, Volume I: Rhythm and Meter.  San Diego: Academic Press, 1989.  Pp. 1-14.
(3)  "Milton's Meter."  Phonetics and Phonology, Volume I: Rhythm and Meter.  San Diego: Academic Press, 1989.  Pp. 341-379.
(4)  "Reconsidering Chaucer's Prosody."  English Historical Metrics.  Eds. C. B. McCully and J. J. Anderson.  Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1995.

American Dialects:

(1)  "Any More on Anymore?: Evidence from a Missouri Dialect Survey."  American Speech, 66 (1986), 61-75.
(2)  "American English: The Transition from Colonialism to Independence."  Co-authored with Greg Stratman. The End of Anglo-America.  Ed. Robert V. Burchell.  Manchester, England: U of Manchester Press, 1991.  Pp. 137-159.
(3)  "Designing a Phonological Survey for Students."  Language Variation in North American English: Research and Teaching. Eds. A. Wayne Glowka and Donald Lance.  New York: Modern Language Association, 1993.  Pp. 125-35.