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Pritty Patel-GroszView profile

Professor

• Formal semantics
• Formal pragmatics
• Animal communication
• +6 more

Pritty Patel-Grosz is Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Oslo's Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, where she directs the Super Linguistics Research Group. She holds a PhD from MIT (2012) and completed habilitation at the University of Tübingen (2015). Her research bridges linguistics with non-verbal communication systems through the emerging field of Super Linguistics. Professor Patel-Grosz investigates the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface across human and animal communication, with particular focus on gesture semantics, dance cognition, and primate linguistics. Her interdisciplinary approach combines formal linguistic theory with empirical studies of body movement in gibbons, chimpanzees, and human dancers to understand the evolutionary foundations of meaning construction. Publications demonstrate consistent exploration of cross-modal semantic transfer, with recent work analyzing narrative structures in electronic dance music, intentionality in primate gestures, and embodied reference systems in choreography. Her theoretical contributions advance understanding of anaphora resolution, pronominal typology, and comparative semantics across verbal and non-verbal domains. She leads research teams in Pragmatics: Theory & Experiments and Super Linguistics, mentoring emerging scholars in experimental methodologies. Courses taught include Morphology & Syntax, Semantic Theory, and specialized seminars applying linguistic frameworks to non-standard communication systems.

Heike WieseView profile

Professor

• Multilingualism
• Urban Contact Dialects
• Heritage Speakers
• +4 more

Prof. Dr. Heike Wiese is a Professor of German in Multilingual Contexts at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and founder of the Centre “Language in Urban Diversity”. Her research focuses on the dynamics of multilingual settings, including urban contact dialects like Kiezdeutsch and Namdeutsch, linguistic discrimination, and the intersection of grammar and information structure. She leads projects on German in multilingual environments and has authored influential works such as Kiezdeutsch: A New Dialect Emerges (2012), which challenged monolingual ideologies through its analysis of urban youth language. Her work integrates sociolinguistic and structural linguistic perspectives, emphasizing communicative situations as foundational to linguistic systems. Notable contributions include studies on heritage speakers, register differentiation in Namibian German, and the cognitive underpinnings of numerical language. Wiese collaborates with educational institutions and museums, advocating for linguistic pluralism and combating stigmatization of non-standard dialects. Her research spans theoretical linguistics, sociolinguistics, and applied linguistics, with a focus on language contact, multilingualism, and the societal impact of linguistic diversity. Awards include the Susanne K. Langer Award (2005) for Numbers, Language, and the Human Mind . She is a member of the Academia Europaea and actively contributes to policy discussions on language education and migration.

• Natural Language Processing
• Semantic Relations
• Knowledge Graphs
• +3 more

Vivi Nastase is a senior researcher affiliated with Fondazione Bruno Kessler and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies . Her work focuses on Natural Language Processing , Knowledge Graphs , and Machine Learning , with particular emphasis on multilingual semantic analysis and linguistic structure extraction. Key research areas: Semantic relations between nominals Transformer-based sentence embeddings Cross-lingual knowledge alignment Linguistic generalization in neural models Knowledge graph construction from Wikipedia Recent publications analyze syntactic information in sentence embeddings and develop structured synthetic datasets like Blackbird Language Matrices for Italian/French benchmarks. She contributes to advancing FAIR digital objects and scholarly knowledge graph integration.

Kamil DeenView profile

Professor

• Language Acquisition
• Linguistics
• Syntax
• +6 more

Kamil Ud Deen is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Hawai`i at Manoa. His research focuses on first language acquisition, emphasizing the interplay between innate linguistic principles and environmental input. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics from UCLA, an Ed.M. from Harvard University, and a B.A. in Linguistics from UCLA. His key research interests include the acquisition of inflectional morphemes, syntactic structures (e.g., agreement, tense), and reference binding in languages such as Thai, Swahili, Tagalog, and Samoan. He investigates cross-linguistic diversity, particularly in understudied languages of the Pacific and Bantu languages. Notably, he explores violations of Universal Grammar principles in Thai and the role of empathy in Japanese child language. Current projects include studies on subject prominence, empathy in Japanese, passive voice acquisition, and the acquisition of ergativity in Samoan. He collaborates extensively with students and colleagues on projects like the Tagalog voice system and the development of tools to measure language vitality (TITA). Education: 2002: Ph.D., UCLA, Applied Linguistics 1995: Ed.M., Harvard University 1994: B.A., UCLA, Linguistics Dr. Deen has advised over a dozen students, many of whom now hold academic positions. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with empirical research, addressing foundational questions about language universals and language-specific variation.

Laurent DekydtspotterView profile

Professor

• Second Language Acquisition
• Psycholinguistics
• Syntax-Semantics Interface
• +4 more

Laurent Dekydtspotter serves as Professor and Chair of Second Language Studies at Indiana University Bloomington's College of Arts and Sciences, with additional appointments in French and Italian, Linguistics, and Germanic Studies. His leadership spans departmental administration and cross-disciplinary research initiatives focused on neural mechanisms in language acquisition. His academic foundation includes a Ph.D. in Linguistics from Cornell University (1995), an M.A. in TESOL/Linguistics from Washington State University (1989), and English degrees from Université Catholique de l'Ouest (M.A. 1987, B.A. 1985). Dekydtspotter's research pioneers the development of interpretive knowledge in L2 learners, examining how phrasal semantics, lexical semantics, and pragmatic inferences interact during sentence processing. His groundbreaking work demonstrates that second language learners engage in deep structural processing —contradicting theories of superficial lexical/contextual reliance—through meticulous experiments on context-syntactic integration in French acquisition. Current investigations leverage gamma oscillation analysis to map neural operational workspaces for syntax across L1/L2 processing. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications reveals an evolutionary trajectory from syntactic processing studies toward integrated neurolinguistic frameworks, consistently emphasizing a unified epistemology for native and nonnative language comprehension. This progression highlights methodological sophistication through time-frequency analyses of wh-movement, anaphora resolution, and agreement phenomena. His scholarly recognition includes: Teaching Excellence Recognition Award (TERA), 1999 Dekydtspotter actively mentors graduate researchers through co-authored publications while securing research support for his neurocognitive investigations. His teaching portfolio spans advanced French syntax, semantics, and pedagogy courses including Introduction to French Semantics and Topics in French Acquisition. Departmental leadership as Chair positions him at the forefront of shaping second language studies curricula and research directions. Through the Early African Cinemas Lab and cross-departmental collaborations, he contributes to IU's linguistic research ecosystem while advancing theoretical models of language faculty development through parsing-to-learn acquisition frameworks.

Joanna A MorrisView profile

Associate Professor

• Psycholinguistics
• Morphological Processing
• Neurophysiology
• +4 more

Joanna A Morris is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Providence College. She holds a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania (1998). Her research focuses on morphological processing, ERP-based neurophysiological methods, and the intersection of language acquisition and clinical populations. Key areas include the neural mechanisms of morphosyntax, semantic processing, and computational models of linguistic analysis. Education Ph.D. in Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, 1998 Research Interests Morris investigates how human brains process morphological structures in language, combining experimental psycholinguistics with neuroimaging techniques. Her work explores questions such as: How do ERP components like the P600 and N400 reflect syntactic and semantic processing? How do clinical populations (e.g., those with language disorders) differ in morphological development compared to typical learners? Recent projects apply deep learning models to study morphological decomposition and semantic mapping. Recent Scholarship Trends Her 2018–2019 studies emphasize ERP correlates of metaphor interpretation and singular 'they' usage, while earlier work (2013–2017) focused on morpho-orthographic decomposition and bilingual priming effects. The 2011 series on semantic incongruity in children highlights developmental trajectories in semantic processing. Advising & Grants No formal advisee list is provided. Grants and institutional support details are unspecified in the provided texts. Labs/Teams No specific lab affiliations are mentioned, though collaborative projects with computational linguists and clinical psychologists are implied through ERP and neural network research themes.

• Computational Linguistics
• Natural Language Processing
• Machine Translation
• +7 more

Jan Hajič is a Professor at Charles University in Prague , where he serves as Deputy Director of the Institute of Formal and Applied Linguistics. Since 2016, he holds an Adjunct Professor position at the University of Colorado Boulder. His leadership extends to directing the LINDAT/CLARIN infrastructure, a key part of the EU Clarin network, and chairing the META-NET executive board. PhD in Computational Linguistics from Charles University (1995) Over 180 publications and a book on computational morphology Principal Investigator for major NSF, EU, and Czech grants His research focuses on computational linguistics , natural language processing , machine translation , and semantic annotation . He pioneered the Uniform Meaning Representation (UMR) project and contributed to foundational resources like the Prague Dependency Treebank . His work spans multilingual NLP , language technology infrastructure , and digital language equality initiatives. Recent publications highlight advancements in semantic role labeling , event-type ontologies , and interoperable language technology platforms . He has led projects such as Humane-AI-Net and European Language Grid , emphasizing cross-cultural communication and open science. Scientific Awards: Donatio Prize of Charles University (2022) Silver Medal of Charles University (2020) Silver Medal I of Faculty of Mathematics and Physics (2012) Award of Czech Academy of Sciences for best 'Information Society' project (2009) Co-author of Best Student Paper at EMNLP (2005) Silver Medal of Charles University (2001)

Troy MessickView profile

Assistant Professor

• Syntax
• Morphology
• Linguistic Agreement
• +2 more

Troy Messick serves as Assistant Professor and Undergraduate Program Director in the Department of Linguistics within Rutgers University's School of Arts and Sciences. His primary academic appointment focuses on theoretical syntax and morphological phenomena. Research interests center on syntactic theory with specialized expertise in syntax , morphology , pronouns , agreement phenomena , and ellipsis . His work demonstrates particular depth in Dravidian languages (especially Telugu), exploring case-copying reflexives, shifty agreement patterns, and cross-clausal dependencies. Recent publications reveal a trajectory examining morphosyntactic interfaces through both theoretical and experimental approaches. Analysis of his 15 most recent publications (2012-2025) shows consistent focus on agreement anomalies, ellipsis mechanisms, and syntactic locality. Key trends include: investigation of hybrid noun phenomena in English and Telugu, experimental validation of gender asymmetries in ellipsis, and theoretical reevaluations of E-raising and case-matching reciprocals. His work bridges formal theory with cross-linguistic data, particularly from South Asian languages. No scientific awards or fellowships are documented in available sources. As Undergraduate Program Director, Messick oversees linguistics curriculum and student advising. Office hours are held Thursdays 9:00-11:00am (in-person) and 2:00-4:00pm (via Zoom), with primary contact through departmental email channels. No specific research grants or laboratory affiliations are mentioned in current materials.

Kristen SyrettView profile

Professor

• Language acquisition
• Experimental semantics
• Pragmatics
• +2 more

Kristen Syrett is a Professor and Department Chair at Rutgers University's Department of Linguistics, with affiliations to the Center for Cognitive Science. Her primary research focuses on language acquisition, experimental semantics, pragmatics, psycholinguistics, and syntax/semantics interface. She maintains active leadership roles and office hours for student engagement. Her research spans experimental investigations into semantic structures, with particular emphasis on adjective learning, count nouns, and developmental language disorders. Syrett's work often intersects with cognitive science, examining how syntax and semantics inform linguistic development across diverse populations, including bilingual speakers. Kristen Syrett's recent publications demonstrate a sustained exploration of quantification, gradable adjectives, and syntactic bootstrapping. These works contribute to understanding the interplay between linguistic diversity, cognitive processing, and developmental trajectories in language acquisition. She is contactable via kristen.syrett@rutgers.edu or through the Department of Linguistics at 18 Seminary Place, New Brunswick, NJ 08901.

Bhuvana NarasimhanView profile

Professor

• Language Acquisition
• Linguistics
• Cognitive Science
• +4 more

Bhuvana Narasimhan is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Colorado, Boulder, and Director of the Language, Development & Cognition Lab. She is also a Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Science. Her research focuses on semantics-pragmatics, first language acquisition, and the crosslinguistic study of language-cognition interactions, with a particular emphasis on Hindi and Tamil. Narasimhan holds a PhD in Linguistics from Boston University (1998) and has conducted postdoctoral research at Bell Labs (Hindi text-to-speech synthesis) and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Netherlands). Her work includes corpus-based and experimental studies on child language development, verb semantics, and information structure. Key contributions include longitudinal corpora of caregiver-child interactions in Hindi and Tamil, and edited volumes on event encoding and information structure. Recent research explores ergative case marking in Hindi, differential object marking in Tamil, and computational models of language acquisition. Narasimhan has contributed to special journal issues on topics such as 'Embodied Cognition and Language' and 'The Acquisition of Information Structure.' Her awards include Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute and her current role as Institute of Cognitive Science Fellow. Her lab focuses on interdisciplinary projects combining linguistic theory, experimental methods, and computational modeling. Ongoing research investigates crosslinguistic patterns in motion events, prosodic cues in child language, and cognitive factors shaping syntactic choices.

Alexander WilliamsView profile

Associate Professor

• Philosophy of Language
• Semantics
• Syntax
• +7 more

Alexander Williams is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is also a member of the Maryland Language Science Center. His research focuses on the intersection of semantics, syntax, and philosophy of language, with special attention to event structures, argument relations, and their acquisition and processing in human cognition. Key areas include syntactic bootstrapping in child language, event perception, and formal semantic analysis of quantifiers and control structures. Williams’ work spans theoretical linguistics and empirical psycholinguistics. He has explored how children infer word meanings through syntactic cues, the cognitive limits of visual event representation (e.g., 4-participant trade events), and the psychological reality of syntactic theories like restricted quantification. He co-leads the NSF-funded project Transitivity of Sentences and Scenes in Early Language Development , involving collaborations with students and researchers like Laurel Perkins and Tyler Knowlton. His teaching includes graduate courses on semantics and syntax, and undergraduate philosophy of language. He has advised over 20 graduate students and served on numerous dissertation committees, fostering a vibrant research community in language sciences. Key contributions include redefining event semantics, challenging traditional views of thematic relations, and advancing methodologies for studying implicit control in sentence processing. His work bridges formal analysis with experimental rigor, influencing both linguistic theory and cognitive science.

• Turkish Languages and Literatures
• Declension and Modality in General Linguistics
• The verb system of the Turkic languages
• +6 more

Gulshen Sakhatova serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Turkish and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cyprus, with prior academic appointments spanning eight institutions across Germany, Greece, and Turkmenistan. Her international career includes professorships at Georg-August University Göttingen (2017-2020), Aristotle University Thessaloniki (2015), and multiple German universities, alongside repeated visiting positions at the University of Cyprus since 2007. Her academic foundation includes an MA in Philology (German, English and World Literature) from Magtymguly Turkmen State University and a PhD in Turkology/Linguistics from Friedrich Wilhelm University Bonn (2004). This dual expertise enables sophisticated cross-linguistic analysis between Germanic and Turkic language families. Sakhatova's research centers on the structural intricacies of Turkic languages, particularly verb systems and modality phenomena in Turkish, Turkmen, and Cypriot Turkish variants. She investigates linguistic contact effects in multilingual environments, Turkmen's status as a 'degraded' Turkic language, and pedagogical challenges in teaching Turkish to Greek speakers. Her work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical language acquisition frameworks, emphasizing semantic-pragmatic interfaces and historical development pathways. Current research demonstrates strong productivity with 15+ publications since 2021, primarily in specialized linguistics journals and the Societas Uralo-Altaica series. Her output reveals consistent focus on modality systems (35%), dialectology (25%), and language pedagogy (20%), with growing emphasis on Greek-Turkish language contact phenomena through her two active research projects. She currently leads two major funded initiatives: 'A Manual for Language Instructors of Turkish to Greek L1 Learners' (2023-2025) and 'Teaching/Learning Turkish as SL/FL in Greek language classrooms' (2024-2025). These projects address critical gaps in pedagogical resources for Greek-speaking Turkish learners, examining interference patterns and developing context-specific teaching methodologies. Her international collaborations span institutions in Germany, Greece, Russia, and Turkey through co-authored publications and scholarly networks. Students benefit from engagement with active fieldwork projects, corpus development for endangered Turkic varieties, and participation in international academic exchanges. Her supervision emphasizes empirical research in Turkic linguistics with applications to language preservation and pedagogy, particularly relevant for scholars interested in Mediterranean language contact zones.

Mena LafkiouiView profile

Professor

• Berber linguistics
• Geolinguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• +6 more

Mena Lafkioui is a Full Professor (Directeur d'études) in Berber linguistics at the Ecole des hautes études en sciences sociales (EHESS) in Paris, holding a concurrent position as Research Director at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS). She has been affiliated with these institutions since 2018 and 2014 respectively, following previous academic positions at Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, Università della Calabria, and Ghent University. Her educational background includes a Habilitation in 'Sciences du langage' from EHESS (2010), a Ph.D. in Linguistics from INALCO, Paris (1999), a Postgraduate degree in Linguistics from INALCO (1995), and a Master's in Oriental Languages and Cultures from Ghent University (1994). Lafkioui's research spans Berber linguistics, geolinguistics, sociolinguistics, Afroasiatic linguistics, Arabic dialectology, and negation typology. Her work integrates structural linguistic analysis with sociocultural contexts, particularly focusing on the Rif Berber language continuum, language contact phenomena, and the impact of digital communication on Amazigh identity construction. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on Berber language structures, particularly examining negation patterns, topicalization mechanisms, geolinguistic variation, and the impact of language contact with Arabic. Her methodological approaches blend traditional linguistic analysis with computational and algorithmic perspectives, reflecting an innovative approach to language documentation and analysis. Elected as Academician, Accademia Ambrosiana, Milan (2014) Elected as founding member of the 'Classe Africa' of the Accademia Ambrosiana, Milan (2014) Elected as founding member of the 'Section Berbero' of the Accademia Ambrosiana, Milan (2014) Lafkioui has supervised 10 PhD students and 55 Master's dissertations while securing competitive research grants across Europe. She serves on multiple editorial boards including the International Journal Dialectologia et Geolinguistica and Afrika Focus. Her institutional roles include membership on the Scientific Council of the Laboratoire d'excellence Empirical Foundations of Linguistics in Paris and participation in numerous academic committees overseeing PhD programs in African languages and cultures. She has organized 17 international scientific meetings and is an active member of 10 scientific societies, including the Société de Linguistique de Paris, demonstrating her significant contribution to the academic community in linguistics and African studies.

• Pragmatics
• Semantics
• Information Structure
• +4 more

Laia Mayol is an Associate Professor in the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona, Spain. She teaches undergraduate and master's level courses in linguistics, semantics, pragmatics, and English grammar. Her academic journey includes postdoctoral research at UPF through the 'Juan de la Cierva' program and at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), following the completion of her PhD at the University of Pennsylvania in 2009. Professor Mayol's research focuses on pragmatics and semantics, both theoretical and experimental. Her work particularly centers on information structure and discourse structure, examining how meaning is constructed beyond truth-conditional content. She investigates the interpretation and production of anaphoric forms across languages, with special attention to Romance languages like Catalan and Spanish. Her approach combines formal linguistic theory with empirical methodology, reflecting the growing integration of theoretical and experimental paradigms in contemporary linguistics. Analysis of her recent publications reveals a consistent focus on the syntax-pragmatics interface, particularly how information structure (especially focus) interacts with syntactic realization in Romance languages. Her work spans theoretical syntax, experimental pragmatics, and cross-linguistic comparison, demonstrating methodological diversity while maintaining thematic coherence. A significant portion of her research examines Catalan specifically, contributing to our understanding of this understudied Romance language, while also situating Catalan findings within broader Romance and theoretical linguistic frameworks. Professor Mayol is actively involved in research projects, currently working on the EXPEDIS project funded by Agencia Estatal de Investigación (grant number PID2021-122779NB-I00) and the European Regional Development Fund. She is a member of the consolidated research group Grup de Lingüística Formal (GLIF) and the Unitat de Recerca en Lingüística (UR-LING), which provide collaborative frameworks for her linguistic investigations.

Stephen LucekView profile

Assistant Professor

• Linguistics
• Sociolinguistics
• Irish English
• +12 more

Dr. Stephen Lucek is an Assistant Professor in Linguistics at University College Dublin, School of Languages, Cultures and Linguistics. He holds a PhD from Trinity College Dublin and a Professional Certificate in University Teaching & Learning from UCD. His research focuses on linguistic variation and multilingualism in Ireland, particularly in educational contexts. PhD in Linguistics, Trinity College Dublin Professional Certificate in University Teaching & Learning, University College Dublin Stephen's research interests include sociolinguistics, Irish English, multilingualism, register variation, polydialectalism, and language ideologies. He employs cognitive and perceptual approaches, especially Conceptual Metaphor Theory and perceptual dialectology, to study how language reflects identity and social structure. His work often examines the impact of standard language ideology and accent discrimination in Irish secondary schools. The recent publications reflect a strong trend in raciolinguistics, language policy, and cognitive linguistics. His work analyzes public discourse on Twitter, media representations of Irish dialects, and presidential rhetoric, showing a broad methodological range from corpus analysis to qualitative interviews. Stephen has been a co-editor of Teanga: The Journal of the Irish Association for Applied Linguistics , contributing to the advancement of applied linguistics in Ireland. He has secured competitive research grants, including from the Irish Research Council, to study adolescents' language use and discrimination in schools. He actively supervises MA and PhD students and teaches modules such as Multilingualism, World Englishes, and Research Skills. He also coordinates several key courses and has been involved in public engagement through media appearances on topics like accentism, AI in grading, and language change among youth. Stephen has been involved in significant interdisciplinary collaborations, including with Vicky Garnett on dialect mapping and Garrett Phelan on the Free Thought FM art project, which explored class inequality and access to education in Dublin.