about me

background

I am a doctoral candidate in Linguistics at the University of Massachusetts, in Amherst, MA. I'm an Okie, though, and spent my undergrad days at the University of Oklahoma, with a stint at Université Blaise Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand, France. Language plays an important part in my life. When someone finds out I study lingusitics, they often ask me how many languages I speak.

Of course, the answer depends on what it means to speak a language. I am a fluent French speaker, and show varying competency in Latin, Spanish, Turkish, Basque, and the language of my own ancestors, Kiowa. Plus, I know bits of a dozen or so others, and my share of interesting tidbits that linguists find cool. Having said that, though, I must say that an knack for foreign languages is not the most important skill for successful linguistic study. Being able to speak a foreign language helps, and is usually required, but more important to linguists are analytical thought capacities and scientific methodology. Language is the object of our study.

research interests

Linguistic research draws upon a wide variety of data collection and analytic methods, each of which complements the others. The best conclusions are made after a mix of direct elicitation, patient consultation of texts, and experimental work.

My research interests are largely theoretical, rather than applied. Linguistic theory attempts to answer questions like: What does it mean to know a language? How do children acquire it so easily and so completely? The specific questions I am most interested in involve semantics (the grammar of meaning) and the semantics-syntax interface (the interactions between meaning and structure). My long-term goal is the full understanding of the functional and discourse layers, especially in understudied languages. How do grammars encode meaningful relations? What kinds of mental objects do these relations relate? What can the grammars of indigenous languages tell us about the representation of the discourse in sentences?

outreach

I am also interested in linguistics outreach. As a field researcher, I am always getting to know new people, and everywhere I go I meet people fascinated by language, but lacking the tools to follow their fascination. Getting the word out about what linguistics actually is and what linguists actually do will increase the profile of our field, its goals, and its methods. Think about it: Psychologists, archaeologists, and physicists don't have to explain what they do, but why do linguists, when our field is decades old? Hopefully one day linguistics will be well enough known that people will understand (if only vaguely) what we do, and maybe the occasional kid will dream of one day being a linguist.

Field research in indigenous communities also provides unique opportunities to lend a hand in grassroots and tribal projects to maintain and revitalize a language. More and more communities are fighting the fatalism that has driven people to break away from the traditions they cherish.