about me

background

I am a fourth-year grad student 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. As a budding academic, I can't give a straight answer to that question! I am a fluent French speaker, and show varying competency in Latin, Spanish, Turkish, Basque, and 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 foreign languages helps, and is sometimes required, but more important to linguists are analytical thought capacities and scientific methodology. Language is the object of our study.

research interests

As far as linguistics is concerned, I'm into theoretical fields, rather than applied. My favorite sub-field is syntax, especially at its interface with semantics. I'm also very interested in "re-uncovering" languages besides English, Icelandic, or Japanese. Deep study of a small cadre of languages tells us a lot, but we risk painting ourselves into corners with them.

I am also interested in getting the word out about what linguistics actually is and what linguists actually do. It is tiring to have to explain to everyone what you do. Psychologists, archaeologists, and physicists don't have to. Why do linguists? I don't expect the public to all become little linguists, but 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.

besides linguistics...

I am married to the best French lady ever put on the planet--at least out of those that I've met! ;) We live together in Amherst in a nice, quiet complex surrounded by woods. It looks like a ski resort. (A cheap one, anyways!) We are raising our little baby girl, who is too adorable for words in any language (picture). Also, we have a wonderful little guinea pig who doesn't know what to make of the new arrival

My activities these days largely revolve around our daughter, but it's easy to adapt. For instance, I'll play guitar or bass for her, or take her on walks when it's nice out. She can't catch a frisbee yet, or kick a ball, but that's okay!