Research Focus
My research focuses on the ways words and sentences combine (morphology and syntax) and how they end up meaning what they mean (semantics), particularly in endangered languages. I frequently focus on the parts of language that express notions of time (tense and aspect). In addition to formal research in these areas, I study and undertake documentation and description of endangered languages (to date, I have worked on Scottish Gaelic and St. Lawrence Island Yupik). A large percentage of the roughly 7000 languages spoken today are in danger of becoming extinct within the next hundred years. It is critical for both for language science and for the speakers of those languages that we work to create thorough records of endangered languages and support the continuance and revitalization efforts of language communities.
Current Projects
■ Documentation and formal analysis of temporal morphemes in St. Lawrence Island Yupik
■ Formal description of aspectual remoteness morphemes in Scottish Gaelic
■ Theoretical contributions to the framework of Distributed Morphology via evidence from Classical Greek perfect aspect
■ Researching and creating best practices in language documentation and revitalization
Select Publications