Research interests and current projects
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Phonological theory, particularly within the framework of
Optimality Theory (a
formalism in which sound patterns are characterized in terms of conflicts
between universal constraints, Prince & Smolensky 1993), and other frameworks
which employ soft constraints.
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Understanding the relation between these constraints and functional imperatives,
such as minimization of articulatory effort and minimization of perceptual
confusion.
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Lenition typology.
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A unified formal treatment of categorical ("phonological") and gradient ("phonetic")
patterns of variation.
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Analogical models of language, particularly "instance-" or "exemplar-based"
models. My current thinking on this is sketched in the following paper:
Preliminary thoughts on "phonologization" within an exemplar-based speech
processing model
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Fieldwork on Dene Soulhine
(Chipewyan) (with Sally Rice) and on Upper Necaxa Totonac (with
David Beck
).
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Analysis of the phonotactics of Totonac (with Eleni Varelas), in terms of
perceptual phonetic factors.
Click here
for a draft of our paper.