My work embodies the intersection of usage-based perspectives, experimental psycholinguistic approaches, traditional field research and computational methods to explore how multilinguals in under-researched language contact areas navigate usage of multiple languages.
Currently, my research focuses on morphosyntactic variation in a broad cross section of language contact environments (including creoles, mixed languages as well as code-switched discourse). I have collected speech data in the Ecuadorian Highlands, where the Quichua-Spanish mixed language Media Lengua is spoken, and the Colombian Caribbean coast, where speakers are bilingual in Caribbean Spanish and the Spanish-based creole Palenquero. In my 2015 Master's Thesis, I analyzed Spanish-English code-switching in Radio discourse from a morphosyntactic perspective.
Psycholinguistic Tasks I have employed in the field include translation, speeded acceptability judgements, memory-loaded repetition and the cued-language switching paradigm.
At all stages of my work, I make extensive use of computational methods with scripting languages such as PRAAT, R and Python to create and manipulate stimuli, reliably extract patterns from structured and unstructured data and statistically analyze the results. My knowledge of these methods includes mixed effects regression modelling, machine learning techniques (e.g., principal component analysis and topic modelling) and natural language processing.
Currently, my research focuses on morphosyntactic variation in a broad cross section of language contact environments (including creoles, mixed languages as well as code-switched discourse). I have collected speech data in the Ecuadorian Highlands, where the Quichua-Spanish mixed language Media Lengua is spoken, and the Colombian Caribbean coast, where speakers are bilingual in Caribbean Spanish and the Spanish-based creole Palenquero. In my 2015 Master's Thesis, I analyzed Spanish-English code-switching in Radio discourse from a morphosyntactic perspective.
Psycholinguistic Tasks I have employed in the field include translation, speeded acceptability judgements, memory-loaded repetition and the cued-language switching paradigm.
At all stages of my work, I make extensive use of computational methods with scripting languages such as PRAAT, R and Python to create and manipulate stimuli, reliably extract patterns from structured and unstructured data and statistically analyze the results. My knowledge of these methods includes mixed effects regression modelling, machine learning techniques (e.g., principal component analysis and topic modelling) and natural language processing.
Data collection and analyses were supported by the following awards:
- Penn State Center for Humanities and Information Digital Humanities Training Grant (2019)
- Penn State Research and Graduate Studies Office (RGSO) Dissertation Support (2019)
- Penn State Center for Global Studies Fellow Award (2018/2019)
- LeClair (Lee) B. Watts Endowed Scholarship in Romance Languages (received in 2016 & 2017)
- Penn State Liberal Arts Superior Teaching and Research Award (2017)
- Penn State External Funding Incentive Award (2016)
Dissertation
Title: Language representations in the presence of a lexical-functional split: An experimental approach targeting the
Quichua-Media Lengua-Spanish interface
Abstract: Mixed languages like Media Lengua incorporate grammar from one source language (here, Quichua) but lexicon from another (here, Spanish). Due to their linguistic profile, they provide a unique window into bilingual language usage and language representation. Drawing on sociolinguistic, structural and psycholinguistic perspectives, the current dissertation examines syntactic processes in Media Lengua on the basis of word order variation in order to gain a deeper understanding of the representations of grammar and lexicon in the bilingual mind. In particular, I investigate whether Media Lengua’s syntactic processes have been impacted by Spanish, the language that supplies Media Lengua’s lexical items.
Data from a corpus, from within and between-language structural priming and from a language switching task suggest that Media Lengua is robustly framed by Quichua morphosyntax. The corpus analysis revealed that different word order patterns correspond to discourse-related factors such as persistence of the object referent and its animacy rather than factors directly related to language contact with Spanish. The structural priming analysis showed that, even when participants have the chance to repeat a prime practically verbatim, it was only the inclusion of the primed Spanish verb in responses that significantly led to the incorporation of primed Spanish word order; in all other cases, participants default to the Quichua patrimonial word order. Lastly, data from a language switching task provided evidence that Media Lengua and Quichua employ identical morphosyntactic frames while the co-activation of (head-final) Media Lengua and (head-initial) Spanish morphosyntactic frames led to competition and increased language switching costs.
In sum, the results establish Media Lengua as a separate language with clearly defined and robust structural and lexical characteristics and suggest that Media Lengua’s lexical items are not identical to their Spanish cognate counterparts – a finding that challenges the widely held view that contact-induced languages are likely to show effects of convergence with the European language that provided their lexical material. These considerations refine our theories of how languages interact and are represented in the minds of bilinguals, particularly in the presence of large numbers of form-similar lexical items.
Quichua-Media Lengua-Spanish interface
Abstract: Mixed languages like Media Lengua incorporate grammar from one source language (here, Quichua) but lexicon from another (here, Spanish). Due to their linguistic profile, they provide a unique window into bilingual language usage and language representation. Drawing on sociolinguistic, structural and psycholinguistic perspectives, the current dissertation examines syntactic processes in Media Lengua on the basis of word order variation in order to gain a deeper understanding of the representations of grammar and lexicon in the bilingual mind. In particular, I investigate whether Media Lengua’s syntactic processes have been impacted by Spanish, the language that supplies Media Lengua’s lexical items.
Data from a corpus, from within and between-language structural priming and from a language switching task suggest that Media Lengua is robustly framed by Quichua morphosyntax. The corpus analysis revealed that different word order patterns correspond to discourse-related factors such as persistence of the object referent and its animacy rather than factors directly related to language contact with Spanish. The structural priming analysis showed that, even when participants have the chance to repeat a prime practically verbatim, it was only the inclusion of the primed Spanish verb in responses that significantly led to the incorporation of primed Spanish word order; in all other cases, participants default to the Quichua patrimonial word order. Lastly, data from a language switching task provided evidence that Media Lengua and Quichua employ identical morphosyntactic frames while the co-activation of (head-final) Media Lengua and (head-initial) Spanish morphosyntactic frames led to competition and increased language switching costs.
In sum, the results establish Media Lengua as a separate language with clearly defined and robust structural and lexical characteristics and suggest that Media Lengua’s lexical items are not identical to their Spanish cognate counterparts – a finding that challenges the widely held view that contact-induced languages are likely to show effects of convergence with the European language that provided their lexical material. These considerations refine our theories of how languages interact and are represented in the minds of bilinguals, particularly in the presence of large numbers of form-similar lexical items.
Papers
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'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, and the mome raths outgrabe.