My areas of academic interest are, from most general to most specific: cognitive science >linguistics > phonology and morphology. I also once studied Anglo-Saxon poetry.
The word ‘linguist’ has many meanings. I am the kind of linguist who is a scientist. I study how humans produce and perceive language. The objects I study are the parts of the human brain related to speech, and the parts of the body those parts use and control (ears, larynx, tongue, and so on).
‘Phonology’ refers to one of the parts of the brain that manipulates structures that are ultimately realized as speech sounds. ‘Morphology’ refers to the parts of the brain that deal with word structure.
Research
You can read more about my research here.
The biggest strand in my research is about cognitive asymmetries. It seems that the brain favours some linguistic structures over others. The brain’s favouritism is often called ‘markedness’ (though, like most other terms in linguistics, I think the term ‘markedness’ is ambiguous and confusing). Here’s a book I wrote about it:
Education
I studied linguistics and English literature for my BA, and then linguistics for my MA(Hons) at the University of Auckland. I then went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst for my PhD in linguistics.
Positions
Like all grad students, I taught courses at UMass. My first tenure-track job was at the University of Cambridge, and then I went to Rutgers. I retired from Rutgers in 2018 (‘Professor emeritus’ means ‘retired professor’).
Students
I feel very lucky to have supervised and advised many doctoral, masters, and undergraduate thesis students. Many have gone on to become professors and work for tech companies. You can read about their research here.