Research summary
My postdoctoral research examines how pressures involved in situations of language learning and communication can give rise to typological patterns in phonology, such as the phonotactic tendency for similar place avoidance in co-occurring consonants. I use experimental tools to examine how language learning in both adult and infant populations is influenced by place co-occurrence, as well as how these patterns are shaped over time as a result of repeated communication and learning situations. My PhD work also examined how pressures in learning can give rise to typological tendencies, but focusing instead on word order phenomena in the noun phrase and how observed learning pressures interact and compete with pressures involved during innovation of new linguistic structures. Previously I have also conducted research on language development/acquisition, focusing mainly on phonological segmentation in relation to syllable patterns in infant directed speech (with the team at ELfLanD) as well as meta-science investigations of methodological practices in experimental work on language acquisition and language development (with Bran Papineau).
