Lab/Research Groups:
Language Contact & AtTrition @ PSU
Syn-Sem @ PSU
Language Contact & AtTrition (LCA) @ pSU
Broadly speaking, the primary research focus of our lab group is the development of grammar systems in contact with another for a sustained period of time, with a particular focus on language attrition. Here we understand contact to loosely encompass a variety of environments and scenarios, which includes (but is certainly not limited to): the acquisition, maintenance, loss, and restructuring of heritage grammars, natural L2 acquisition and loss, trilingual (L3) language development and change, and steady contact between languages across the lifespan. We approach the study of language contact and change for a multitude of perspectives; engaging in synchronic as well as diachronic studies. Members of the lab are exposed to linguistically-oriented research from computational, experimental, formal, and functional perspectives, as we strongly feel that these multiple perspectives on investigating language contact and attrition significantly enrich our understanding of these complex phenomena. The languages and language families investigated by members of the lab are empirically diverse, thus aiding in providing a broad and encompassing view of various aspects of language contact and change. Collectively, many of the members of our group are interested in global varieties of German (i.e., Sprachinseln/Kontaktdeutsch) and how the individual and collective study of these groups can inform research on contact and attrition.
Syn-sem Research group @ PSU
Members of this research group share an interest in formal approaches to syntax and semantics. Together we explore and examine proposals that challenge aspects of theoretical analysis with an eye towards a more comprehensive understanding of the empirical coverage and explanatory power of said approaches. We particularly welcome theoretical approaches to syntax and semantics that are compatible with computational and experimental techniques.