Tonia Bleam

Tonia Bleam is a Senior Lecturer and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Maryland, College of Arts & Humanities. She is affiliated with the Maryland Language Science Center and contributes to interdisciplinary research in language science. Her primary research expertise focuses on syntax, with additional interests in semantics, language acquisition, psycholinguistics, computational linguistics, and neurolinguistics.

Her work explores syntactic structures across languages, including studies on object constructions, clitic climbing, and differential object marking in Spanish. Recent research involves preschoolers' syntactic parsing using phrasal prosody and properties of double object constructions in Spanish. She also collaborates on computational linguistics projects such as the SPUD system for communicative intent-based sentence planning.

Bleam’s publications span syntax-theoretic analyses, cross-linguistic comparisons, and computational models of linguistic structure. Her studies often bridge formal syntax with semantic and psycholinguistic considerations, reflecting a commitment to integrative approaches in language science. She is involved in laboratory research through affiliations with the EEG/ERP Lab, KIT-Maryland MEG Lab, and Maryland Neuroimaging Center, advancing neuroimaging studies of language processes.