Research

My research focuses on phonology and its interfaces with phonetics and morphology. Some recent projects include the following.

Bantu (morph)phonology, phonetics, and experimental linguistics

Bantu languages have a rich (morpho)phonology which holds potentially important insights for linguistic theory, however the basic description of these language is often underdeveloped. My work in Bantu examines phonotactic generalizations about noun class morphology, the phonetic details of uncommon sounds (like Xitsonga's 'whistled' fricative <sw> and Xhosa's velar ejective affricate [k͡xʼ]), and incomplete neutralization in Xhosa labial palatalization.

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Incomplete neutralization

Incomplete neutralization has been a sticking point in phonological theory because a phonetic contrast is maintained even in the absence of any phonological distinction. I approach incomplete neutralization from both experimental/labphon and theoretical perspectives in order to uncover new cases of the phenomenon, and to provide a model of the phonetics/phonology interface that captures the major generalizations.

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Emphatic lengthening

While vowel length contrasts are common cross-linguistically, this contrast is usually binary: long vs. short. Many languages also employ a different sort of length contrast to express varying degrees of emphasis (e.g., "that lecture was so boring" vs. "that lecture was sooo boring"). My work on emphatic lengthening in English and Japanese shows that at least some speakers can make a six-level duration distinction—much more fine grained than the traditional lexical binary contrast.

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Gesture in computer-based phonological learning

Computer-based second language learning is becoming more and more popular, however many insights from research into language pedagogy have not yet made their way into these types of programs. This project aims to test the transferability of a known pedagocial aid—gesture—to computer-based phonological learning. This interdisciplinary project brings together researchers from theoretical and applied linguistics, psychology, and computer science to test whether gesturing avatars in computer-based language learning programs provide the same benefits as gesturing (human) instructors.

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