Athulya Aravind

Athulya Aravind is an Associate Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Yale University, holding the Alfred Henry (1929) and Jean Morrison Hayes Career Development Professorship at MIT previously. Her research focuses on child language acquisition, syntax, semantics, and cognitive development. She directs the Child Language Development Lab, investigating how children acquire first languages through behavioral experiments. Prior to Yale, she was a faculty member in MIT’s Department of Linguistics & Philosophy, where she also earned her PhD. Her work bridges theoretical linguistics and experimental approaches, with a focus on presupposition projection, quantifier acquisition, and syntactic-pragmatic interactions.

Education: PhD in Linguistics from MIT. She has taught courses including Language Acquisition (undergraduate/graduate), Advanced Syntax, and Topics in Semantics, often collaborating with institutions like Harvard and CreteLing. She serves as an Associate Editor for Language Acquisition and Linguistics and Philosophy. Her research explores developmental trajectories in syntax and semantics, with recent studies on mutual exclusivity in word learning, presupposition processing in children, and AI communication ethics.

Key contributions include redefining the study of presupposition projection in conditionals and conjunctions, and experimental work on Malayalam syntax and semantics. Her lab emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches, combining linguistic theory with cognitive science methodologies. Collaborations with scholars like Gabor Brody and Martin Hackl highlight her network within the field.