Linguistics Research

Faculty in the Department of Languages, Linguistics, Literatures, and Cultures are active in their areas of specialization. LLLC is committed to fostering an environment where research and creative activity thrive; research takes our students and faculty across the globe in the pursuit of scholarly engagement.

Linguistics labs

Our department is home to several research labs, directed by faculty members who specialize in experimental approaches to linguistics and language acquisition. Each with a unique focus, all of our labs are interdisciplinary in nature and use cutting-edge experimental methods and quantitative analyses to address the fundamental questions of linguistics. Our linguistics labs promote collaboration among faculty and students and provide hands-on research opportunities for graduate students as part of their professional training.

Multilingual Syntax Lab Voice Lab

Linguistics research areas

Syntax

The curriculum in syntax includes the dual emphases of empirical and theoretical perspectives through a variety of foundational courses that build analytic and argumentation skills, as well as more specialized course work on current issues in syntactic theory. The courses consist of intensive work in problem solving, and combine discovery and description of new linguistic data with exploration of the implications of such facts in testing and constructing syntactic theories.

Second Language Acquisition

The SLA curriculum includes courses for students interested in first and second language acquisition. Courses provide an overview and analysis of current SLA research conducted within the generative framework, with emphasis on explaining the linguistic competence of second language learners in terms of Universal Grammar, the innate language acquisition device. Work focuses on experimental research investigating the influence of the first language, theories of UG access, and related topics.

Phonology

The phonology curriculum emphasizes current theoretical perspectives, including Optimality Theory, along with the collection, description, and interpretation of novel phonological and phonetic data. Courses feature extensive work in data analysis and problem solving, focusing on the construction and evaluation of phonological theories, particularly in light of new empirical data.

Articles

Becky Gonzalez

Gonzalez, B. (2024, Online-first). The role of the lexicon. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.23053.gon
Gonzalez, B. (2023). A lexical semantic approach to the L2 acquisition of Spanish psych verbs. Second Language Research, 39 (3), 731-758. https://doi.org/10.1177/026765832110662
Gonzalez, B. (2023). Syntactic licensing in heritage Spanish: psych verbs and the middle voice. International Journal of Bilingualism, 27(5), 776-794. https://doi.org/10.1177/13670069221121750

Ethan Kutlu

Feng, R., Tiv., M., Kutlu, E., Gullifer, J., Palma, P., O’Regan, E., Vingron, N., Doucerain, M., &Titone, D. (2022). The Impact of Individual Differences and Social Networks on Language Attitudes in Montréal. International Journal of Bilingualism.
Tiv, M., Kutlu, E., O'Regan, E., & Titone, D. (2022). Bridging people and perspectives: General and language-specific social network structure predict mentalizing across diverse sociolinguistic contexts. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale.
Figueira, J.S.B., Kutlu, E., Scott, L., & Keil, A. (2022). The FreqTag toolbox: A principled approach to analyzing electrophysiological time series in frequency tagging paradigms. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience: EEG Methods for Developmental Cognitive Neuroscientists: A Tutorial Approach.
Tiv, M., Kutlu, E., Gullifer, J., Feng, R.Y., Doucerain, M., & Titone, D. (2022). Bridging Personal and Ecological Language Dynamics: A Systems Framework of Bilingualism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
Kutlu, E., Tiv, M., Wulff, S., & Titone, D. (2022). Does Race Impact Sentence Predictability? An Account of Accented Speech in Two Different Multilingual Locales. Cognitive Research: Principles & Implications Special Issue (Systemic Racism: Cognitive Consequences and Interventions)
Kutlu, E., Tiv, M., Wulff, S., & Titone, D. (2022). The impact of race on speech perception and accentedness judgments in racially diverse and non-diverse groups. Applied Linguistics.

Bob McMurray

Sarrett, M. E., Shea, C., & McMurray, B. (2021). Within-and between-language competition in adult second language learners: implications for language proficiency. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1-17.

Christine Shea

Shea, C. (2021). Spanish speakers’ English schwar production: Does orthography play a role? Applied Psycholinguistics, 42(6), 1377-1401. doi:10.1017/S0142716421000266 (2021).
Sarrett, M. E., Shea, C., & McMurray, B. (2021). Within-and between-language competition in adult second language learners: implications for language proficiency. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience, 1-17.

Presentations

Sarah Fagan

Fagan, S., Whitehead, C., Davis, J., Johnson, M. (2022). Moving forward: The development of a discourse marker. Paper presented at Studies in the History of the English Language (SHEL-12). University of Washington, Seattle, WA, May 19, 2022.

Ethan Kutlu

Kutlu, E., Fell, A., Apfelbaum, K.S., & McMurray, B. (2022). Effects of multilingual and monolingual social networks on speech perception. 183^rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Nashville, Tennessee, December 5-9, 2022.
Kircher, R., Kutlu, E., & Vellinga, M. (2022). New speakers’ attitudes towards West Frisian and its varieties: Lessons for language planning. 2^nd Conference on Frisian Humanities, Leeuwarden, The Netherlands, September 14-16, 2022.
Kutlu, E. (2022). Socially-gated speech perception. Symposium on Diversity in Language and Cognition, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, July 15-16, 2022.
Kutlu, E. & Kircher, R. (2022). Multilingual reality, monolingual ideology: Twitter representations of Spanish as a heritage language in the U.S. Sociolinguistics Symposium 24, Ghent, Belgium, July 13-16, 2022.
Kutlu, E. (2022). Bilingual networks, language dynamics, and speech perception, HaBilNet2 (The Second HaBilNet Colloquium), Frankfurt, Germany, May 2022.
Kutlu, E. (2022). Perception in Context: How racialized identities impact speech perception. 182^nd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Denver, Colorado, May 23-26, 2022.
Kutlu, E., Fell, A., Apfelbaum, K., & McMurray, B. (2022). Development of speech perception in multilingual and monolingual social networks. 2022 Cognitive Development Society Bi-ennial Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, April 21-23, 2022.
Kutlu, E. (2022). Perception in Context: How Multilingualism is a Door to New Horizons but a Gatekeeper for Some. Invited speaker, UC Davis Cluster on Language Research, February 23, 2022. (virtual)

Bob McMurray

Kutlu, E., Fell, A., Apfelbaum, K.S., & McMurray, B. (2022). Effects of multilingual and monolingual social networks on speech perception. 183^rd Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America, Nashville, Tennessee, December 5-9, 2022.
Kutlu, E., Fell, A., Apfelbaum, K., & McMurray, B. (2022). Development of speech perception in multilingual and monolingual social networks. 2022 Cognitive Development Society Bi-ennial Conference, Madison, Wisconsin, April 21-23, 2022.

Christine Shea

Ramos, J., Shea, C. (2022). Who Lateralizes Matters. Georgetown University Roundtable (virtual), Georgetown University, March 10-13, 2022.
Shea, C., Johnson, D., Carbine, M., Camberos, D. (2022). Language Policy in Iowa and Spanish Heritage Speakers. National Symposium on Spanish as a Heritage Language (virtual). Florida State University, February 24-26th.
Shea, C. (2021). La competición léxica en aprendientes del español como segunda lengua: implicaciones para la competencia lingüística. Jornadas Lingüísticas (virtual). Universidad Autónoma de Queretaro, November 11-13th.