I am a PhD candidate in the Department of Linguistics at the Ohio State University. My research focuses on pragmatics—the relationship between linguistic meaning and context.

Phenomena I am interested in include some that are traditionally considered to be in the scope of formal semantics and pragmatics (discourse structure, questions, imperatives, gradability, vagueness, negative polarity items, implicature, anaphora, deixis) and others that fall within the domain of sociolinguistics (indexicality, social perception, en-/contextualization, style construction, enregisterment, politeness). I think that formal semantics has a lot to learn from sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, and I am interested in developing more integrated theories of meaning through interdisciplinary dialogue.

I have a particular interest in discourse particles—small words that structure conversation in multifarious ways. My dissertation research concerns additive particles such as English too, also, either, and as well. It includes both a probabilistic pragmatic analysis of how various uses of additives structure the exchange of information in discourse and an experimental investigation of how listeners form social judgments based on how speakers use additives. I have also examined the particle just in joint work with my advisor, Ashwini Deo.

My research:

Journal articles:

A probabilistic, question-based approach to additivity. Accepted pending revisions at Semantics & Pragmatics.

Addressing the widest answerable question: English “just” as a domain widening strategy (as second author with Ashwini Deo). In press at Journal of Semantics.

Conference papers:

Just as a scale widener with maximum-standard adjectives: emphatic/precisifying effects (with Ashwini Deo). Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 28. (2024).

English does too have a [REVERSE,+] polarity particle! Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 27. (2023).

Toward a unified semantics for English either. Proceedings of SALT 31. (2021).

Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 6(1). (2021).

The interaction of just with modified scalar predicates (with Ashwini Deo). Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 24. (2020).

Other Presentations:

Too builds arguments, too: A probabilistic, question-based approach to additivity. Poster presented at Sinn und Bedeutung 29. (2024).

Taking stock of theories of the imperative: Evidence from just. Talk delivered at CLS 57. (2021).

The discourse effect of just in imperative and interrogative utterances. Poster presented at the WeSSLLI Virtual Student Session. (2020). (One of two awarded Best Poster.)