I am a fourth year PhD candidate in linguistics at the University of Tübingen, Germany, and a researcher at the Collaborative Research Center 833 “The Construction of Meaning” funded by the German Science Foundation, in project C1 “Parametric Variation in the Semantic Component of the Grammar”
My research focuses on cross-linguistic variation in semantics: variation (and the lack thereof) across the grammars of different languages affecting how speakers construct sentence meanings from the parts that make them up. I’m currently investigating the interpretation of wh-pronouns and disjunction with an empirical focus on Yoruba, a Niger-Congo language spoken primarily in Nigeria, and Sāmoan, an Austronesian language. An important part of my research is collecting data on the grammar of these underrepresented languages via fieldwork with native speaker consultants.
Publications:
(to appear). A Hamblin Semantics for Alternative Questions in Yoruba. To appear in: N. Bade, P. Berezovskaya and A. Schöller (eds.) Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 20. [Draft Version]
(2015). Alternative Semantics for Focus and Questions: Evidence from Sāmoan. In A. Camp, Y. Otsuka, C. Stabile and N.Tanaka (eds.) Proceedings of the 21st Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association, Asia Pacific Linguistics, 69-86. (with Vera Hohaus) [Link]
(2013). Abstracting over Degrees in Yoruba Comparison Constructions. In: E. Chemla, V. Homer & G. Winterstein (eds.) Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 17, pp. 271-288. [Link]
Posters:
Sinn und Bedeutung 20, University of Tübingen
Selected Talks:
School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies Seminar, Victoria University, Wellington. (with Vera Hohaus)
2nd Workshop on the Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages (TripleA2), University of Potsdam (with V. Hohaus, V. Hehl, P. Berezovskaya, S. Erbektas, K. Greipel, K. Sachs)
Semantics Workshop, UMass Amherst
21st Meeting of the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association, University of Hawai’i at Mānoa (with Vera Hohaus)
African Linguistics Workshop, LSA Summer Institute, University of Michigan
Sinn und Bedeutung 17, École Normale Supérieure, Paris
Teaching:
Primary Instructor (co-taught with Prof. Andrea Weber and Dr. Andreas Konietzko)
English Department, University of Tübingen
Summer Semester 2015,
Summer Semester 2014
Primary Instructor
English Department, University of Tübingen
[Link to Course Description]
Summer Semester 2012
Primary Instructor
English Department, University of Tübingen
Service:
TripleA Workshop Series on the Formal Semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian Languages, July 5-8 (Tübingen), June 4-5 2015 (Potsdam), June 11-13 (Tübingen) [Link]
(Jointly organised by the SFB 833 and SFB 632)
PhD Students’ Colloquium of the SFB 833
DoKo Summer School (Summer School of the PhD Students’ Colloquium of the SFB 833), June 26-27 2014, Tübingen [Link]
Nauklerstraße 35, Newsletter of the SFB833
Society of Linguistics Undergraduates at McGill