Aaron Kaplan

Aaron Kaplan is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Utah, a position he has held since 1 July 2024 after earlier serving as Assistant Professor (2010–2018) and then Associate Professor. A theoretical phonologist specializing in prominence-driven processes and optionality, he employs Optimality Theory and Harmonic Grammar frameworks to investigate positional licensing, vowel harmony, and gradient grammaticality.

Education

• BA, Linguistics – University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2002
• MA, Linguistics – University of California, Santa Cruz, 2004
• PhD, Linguistics – University of California, Santa Cruz, 2008

Research Focus

Kaplan’s work is organized around two central themes: prominence-driven phonological processes—especially positional licensing—and optionality. His studies explore how certain positions (stressed syllables, word edges, etc.) become privileged targets or triggers for harmony, reduction, or epenthesis. Complementarily, he investigates how grammars permit variation, modeling categorical versus gradient ungrammaticality within Optimality Theory, Harmonic Grammar, and their stochastic variants.

Publications

Across more than thirty refereed papers and proceedings (2005–2025), Kaplan has examined phenomena ranging from Chamorro umlaut and Lango vowel harmony to Eastern Andalusian and Bolognese dialect data. A recurring thread is the integration of theoretical insights with computational modeling, yielding predictions about typological frequency, learnability, and speaker variation.

Scientific Awards

No specific awards are mentioned in the supplied materials.

Advising & Grants

No lists of advisees or funded grants are supplied.

Labs & Teams

Kaplan conducts research within the Linguistics Department at the University of Utah and maintains an active GitHub presence under username afkaplan, where he hosts supplementary materials for his articles and collaborates on computational phonology projects.