معرفی
Erik W. Willis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Indiana University Bloomington, where he also serves as Director of Graduate Studies and Director of the Hispanic Linguistics Program. His work focuses on Spanish phonetics, phonology, and dialectal variation, particularly in Caribbean and Mexican Spanish varieties. He employs acoustic analysis and laboratory methods to study rhotic contrasts, intonational patterns, and sociolinguistic phenomena.
- Ph.D., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (2003)
- M.A., Brigham Young University (1997)
- B.A., Brigham Young University (1994)
His research spans multiple subfields including:
- Acoustic characterization of Spanish rhotics
- Intonational system analysis using Sp_ToBI
- Second language phonology acquisition
- Web-based language assessment tools
- Vowel system variations in Spanish dialects
- Contextual phonetic realizations in Caribbean Spanish
Recent publications demonstrate systematic variation in coda liquids, tap-trill contrasts, and intonational patterns across Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican Spanish. His work combines empirical acoustic analysis with sociolinguistic frameworks to document both phonetic realizations and their pragmatic functions in spoken language.
