research interests
|| research interests || current research || past projects ||
formal semantics and pragmatics
My primary interests are the semantics and pragmatics of natural language, specifically what sorts of formal representations are needed to analyze a variety of linguistic structures across grammatically diverse languages.
I currently do fieldwork on Cheyenne over the summers on the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation in Southeastern Montana. (see my Cheyenne pages and my current research pages for more information).
In addition, I'm interested in fieldwork and field methods in general, especially the methodology of semantic fieldwork (here is an excellent paper on the topic by Lisa Matthewson). This interest was sparked by a field methods course I took at Wayne State University, where we studied Ottawa, an Algonquian language (like Cheyenne). It was actually my field methods professor, Laura Buszard-Welcher, who introduced me to Wayne Leman, a linguist who has extensively studied and documented Cheyenne. Wayne has been invaluable in helping me learn about Cheyenne and get involved with the Cheyenne community.
cognitive science & philosophy of language
I'm currently working on my Cognitive Science Certificate with Rutgers Philosophy professor Jason Stanley. My project is an in-depth investigation of the relationship between evidentials and epistemic modals. The project involves studying the philosophical literature on epistemic modals and using the distinctions and debates developed therein to probe the meaning of evidentials. The project is also aimed at constructing more fine-grained questions for my fieldwork on evidentials in Cheyenne.
Materials on these and other topics can be found on my handouts page or my papers page. A personal `about' page can be found here.
