Tania Ionin

Tania Ionin is a Professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, affiliated with the Department of Slavic Languages & Literatures, the Department of Linguistics, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese. She serves as Head of Linguistics and leads the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab. Her work spans multiple centers, including the Russian, East European and Eurasian Center, the Center for Latin American & Caribbean Studies, and the Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies.

Ionin’s research focuses on experimental semantics, syntax/semantics interface, and second language acquisition. Her studies examine quantifier scope, determiner interpretation, genericity, and plural marking across languages like Russian, English, Spanish, and Brazilian Portuguese. She employs experimental methodologies to analyze cross-linguistic transfer, bilingual processing, and formal linguistic theory.

Her recent publications (2024-2025) include investigations on multiple grammars, contrastive focus in bilinguals, and pedagogical applications for heritage Russian learners. Earlier work explores count/mass distinctions, plural NP interpretation, and genericity expression in multilingual contexts. Her research frequently bridges theoretical linguistics with empirical language acquisition studies.

Ionin actively collaborates with scholars like Silvina Montrul, Tatiana Luchkina, and Ralitsa Slabakova. She contributes to handbooks and journals such as Linguistic Inquiry and Second Language Research, emphasizing methodological rigor and classroom applications.

She leads the Second Language Acquisition and Bilingualism Lab, fostering interdisciplinary research on multilingualism and linguistic theory.