current research
Research Interests
Formal semantics and pragmatics, evidentials, modality, anaphora, information structure; Cheyenne, fieldwork, field methods, Algonquian languages; OT; cognitive science; philosophy of language
Current Research Projects
Evidentiality and Questions in Cheyenne
The interaction of evidentiality and questions in Cheyenne is, to my knowledge, typologically unique, and bears on the issue of the `multi-dimensionality' of evidentials. I'm currently in the process of writing up the data, some of which comes from my own fieldwork, and developing a theory which accounts for both evidentials in isolation as well as the interaction with questions. Please email me if you are interested in a draft of this work.
Reportative Evidentials
This project is a formal semantic investigation into the cross-linguistic properties of reportative evidentials. The languages studied are Quechua, Kalaallisut, and Cheyenne. I am formulating cross-linguistic generalizations, studying current formal analyses, and developing an account of my own.
Reflexive/Reciprocal Underspecification
In this project, I analyze reflexives and reciprocals in English and Cheyenne as dependent pronouns. In Cheyenne, reflexivity and reciprocity are expressed by a single verbal affix, one which I argue is underspecified, not ambiguous. The English anaphors share the requirement of the Cheyenne reflexive/reciprocal affix, but have further specifications. The analysis is phrased in a fragment of van den Berg's 1996 Dynamic Plural Logic.
Materials on these and other topics can be found on my handouts page or my papers page.
