I started the Spoken Syntax
Laboratory at CSLI to provide resources for collaborative work on
syntax using multiple sources of evidence and modern statistical
models.
Linguistic Typology
I am interested in theoretical models of
typological variation of languages. I have served as an Associate Editor
of the journal Linguistic Typology.
Dynamics of Probabilistic Grammar
I am working with other
linguists, psychologists, and computer scientists to develop and test
probabilistic models of how grammar varies in the individual and in
speaker groups across space and time.
Lexical-Functional Grammar
I am one of the original designers and
developers of LFG,
the formal
grammar system which allows flexible, typologically diverse linguistic
description and has been embedded in explicit theoretical models of
exemplar-based syntax, optimality-theoretic syntax, and stochastic
grammar.
Spoken Syntax
Analyses of recorded speech corpora reveal that adults'
and childrens' grammar depends on both the usage probabilities of
multiword sequences and their prosodic and rhythmic patterns
reflecting the syntactic context.
My current work includes
auxiliary contraction in
adults' and
childrens'
speech
and English
object pronoun enclisis.
