Staff
Sentence Processing
I am primarily interested in the relation between the grammar and the parser. This means I often work in parallel on the syntax-semantics (and more recently prosody) of a phenomenon and on its processing. I have a secondary interest in sentence processing in language acquisition and impairment.
Sentence Processing
I work on syntax and the interaction of grammatical knowledge and sentence comprehension. This work uses linguistic theory to better inform psycholinguistic models (and vice versa), using a range of methods from acceptability rating tasks, to eye-tracking while reading.
Language Development
I work on syntactic and phonological learning. In syntax, I study the facilitative effects of early verbs on later ones, as well as what makes new learning easy or hard. In phonology, I'm interested in the role of sound production to infants' and toddlers' perception of and memory for new words.
Language Development
I work on early language development, particularly on the transition from babble to speech. I’m also interested in the role of iconicity in early word learning. This work utilises insights from both production and perception, focusing phonological learning.
Second Language Acquisition
My work is primarily in second language (L2) acquisition, focussing on the L2 acquisition of various phenomena at the syntax–semantics interface. In particular, I'm interested in the L2 acquisition of Japanese and other East Asian languages.
Language Change
My research focuses on language change over time, and what this can tell us about linguistic structure more generally. My past work has focused on syntactic change in Germanic, but I also like phonology, other language families, and to look at language in the wide context of the evolution of complex animal cognition and behaviours.