My research broadly aims to understand how conversation-level information is encoded in the semantics of natural languages, and, conversely, how semantic information is utilized by speakers during conversation, with the goal of developing more substantive theories about the interface of semantics and pragmatics.
Parentheticals and Conversational Dynamics
Parenthetical expressions, like illocutionary modifiers and appositives, lie at the boundary of grammar and conversational dynamics. How much of their interpretive behavior can be explained via a more articulated theory of conversational dynamics? And what can they tell us about how natural language conceptualizes conversation?
Parenthetical say as a window into sincerity and commitment (2024). Sinn und Bedeutung 29. Consorzio Universitario Mediterraneo Orientale. [proceedings] [handout].
Speaker Reference
Reference is a core building block of linguistic meaning. But establishing reference is also a core part of communication. What grammatical and cognitive mechanisms do speakers use to establish reference for themselves, and for their conversational partners? What do these mechanisms tell us about the semantics of referential expressions?
What appositives can tell us about names and definite descriptions (2024). Amsterdam Colloquium 2024. University of Amsterdam. [proceedings].
Restrictive modifiers in parenthetical positions (2024). North East Linguistics Society 54, MIT. [proceedings] [poster].
Psycholinguistics of pronoun comprehension (2024). Ran two experiments (probe recognition, Maze task) to uncover the conceptual information cognitively activated during pronoun comprehension.
Aspect and Information Structure
One strand of my research, with Emily Knick, is on the perfect aspect, which famously has a multiplicity of readings (universal, experiential, resultative, "hot news"). How do these readings arise, and what is the role of information structure in shaping them?
On focus and the perfect aspect (2025). Co-first authored talk with Emily Knick at Sinn und Bedeutung 30. Goethe University Frankfurt. [handout]
Fieldwork
Throughout graduate school, I have been involved in the Zapotec Language Project, working with speakers of a particular variety of Zapotec spoken in Santiago Laxopa, a village in the Mexican state of Oaxaca. I have worked both as a researcher in Santa Cruz and Santiago Laxopa, helping run experiments and performing elicitations. As part of this work, I have also been involved in Nido de Lenguas, a collaboration between the UCSC Linguistics Department and Senderos, a local nonprofit dedicated to advocating for the Oaxacan diaspora community.
In my undergraduate days, I worked on Q'anjob'al, a Mayan language spoken in Guatamala, under the supervision of Scott AnderBois. This work culminated in my thesis on personal pronouns, linked here.