Linguistics Research
My Ph.D. research at the University of Southern California (2016) looked at how the structure of human language lines up with meaning, focusing on quantification and ambiguity. I studied it with formal models and psycholinguistic experiments.
With Ellen O’Connor
Humans have two systems of numerosity: one estimates differences in quantity, and the other marks and counts distinct individuals through time and space. This dual mode of measurement creates ambiguity in all measure constructions, and Bangla marks it overtly in its cardinality system. Our formal semantic model accounts for this ambiguity and has implications for how people process quantity expressions. The findings bear on the interface between semantics and extralinguistic cognition, and are supported by work in the cognitive sciences.
With Andrew Simpson
Cross-linguistic research suggests there are two types of definiteness. Languages represent definite objects differently depending on how speakers perceive the entity in context. My research provides evidence for underlying structural differences, and shows that mental activation of the perceived object interacts directly with how definiteness is construed.
Languages that morphologically mark numerals for counting lack a systematic plural-marking mechanism. My work on Bangla shows that a more nuanced syntactic structure exists and is needed to explain this generalization, with implications for cross-linguistic and typological research.
With Elsi Kaiser
How salient an object is depends on how it is referred to, and pronouns and demonstratives have different contextual effects on reference resolution. Our experimental work draws on how people use pronouns and demonstratives in context, and shows that cognitive coherence has a significant effect on reference resolution.