Faculty
Dr. Yen-Hwei Lin
My research has focused on phonological representations and constraints in the theoretical context of Non-linear Phonology/Morphology and Optimality Theory, with particular interests in feature theory, moraic and syllabic structures, the phonology morphology interface, and phonetically-based phonology. More generally, I am also interested in sociolinguistics, phonetics, and cognitive science.
Most of my publications are articles and books on (i) Chinese phonology and phonetics, the segmental phonologies of various Chinese dialects, (ii) segmental features, moraic and syllabic structures, loanword phonology, and (iii) Piro (Arawakan) phonology and morphophonology.
My research has focused on phonological representations and constraints in the theoretical context of Non-linear Phonology/Morphology and Optimality Theory, with particular interests in feature theory, moraic and syllabic structures, the phonology morphology interface, and phonetically-based phonology. More generally, I am also interested in sociolinguistics, phonetics, and cognitive science.
Most of my publications are articles and books on (i) Chinese phonology and phonetics, the segmental phonologies of various Chinese dialects, (ii) segmental features, moraic and syllabic structures, loanword phonology, and (iii) Piro (Arawakan) phonology and morphophonology.
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Dr. Karthik Durvasula
The central questions my research seeks to answer are related to the nature of phonological representations, especially phonological features, and the techniques linguists can use to probe them. Phonological research over the last 20 years or so has greatly benefited from its emphasis on experimental work, and in my more recent work, I have adopted this strategy by employing a variety of experimental techniques to get at questions related to speakers’ knowledge of phonological representations and generalizations. |
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Dr. Silvina Bongiovanni
My research employs fine-tuned phonetic analysis to investigate variation in sound systems and connects these analyses to issues in sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. In my primary line of research, I examine within- and across-regional patters of variation in nasality, both in consonants and vowels. My dissertation work investigated anticipatory vowel nasalization and word-final nasal consonant weakening in two dialects of Spanish at different stages of sound change. I have also conducted experimental work examining the production and perception of near mergers (i.e. huraño 'unsociable' vs. uranio 'uranium'). In my L2 research, I have examined the impact of learning context (study abroad vs. at-home) on the development of the second language sound system and I am now looking at L2 production. |
Students
Cara Feldscher (graduate student)
Broadly, my research interests include phonology, phonetics, and semantics. My current project in phonetics/phonology focuses on domain-final lengthening: what are the phonetic details, and what actually triggers it? To this end, I am putting together a production experiment, and collecting corpus data. I have also been investigating excrescent stops recently, with the goal of distinguishing articulatory overlap from phonological epenthesis.
Broadly, my research interests include phonology, phonetics, and semantics. My current project in phonetics/phonology focuses on domain-final lengthening: what are the phonetic details, and what actually triggers it? To this end, I am putting together a production experiment, and collecting corpus data. I have also been investigating excrescent stops recently, with the goal of distinguishing articulatory overlap from phonological epenthesis.
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Naiyan Du (graduate student)
I am interested in developing technology that can help pick up singers and voice actors with distinguished sound-making abilities. I believe in order to achieve this goal, I need experimental skills to find among current successful voice artists what sound features and performance skills guarantee their success. And I need phonological and sociolinguistic knowledge to explain why these features and skills make sense in broad scientific and social scales. |
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Ho-Hsin Huang (graduate student)
My research focus is on phonology, phonetics, phonology-phonetics interface, speech perception, speech production and loanword phonology. My current work is mainly on Chinese loanword phonology. I am specifically interested in what loanword input representations are. With the identified loanword patterns and possible explanations, I am running several perception experiments to test whether the explanations are valid. |
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Mohammed Ruthan (graduate student)
My interest is phonology in general and particularly Arabic phonology. I have worked on the production of English Loanword phonology in Arabic between EFL and ESL. I take an advantage of being Arabic speaker learning linguistic in English, involving both languages in my work. I would like to do more work on Arabic phonology, to learn more about my native language and also to enrich the literature of Arabic phonology. I am also interested in sociolinguistics and language acquisition. |
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Kaylin Smith (graduate student)
Hiya! My current research is focused on utilizing acoustic and descriptive data from elicited speech productions to contribute to the phonology of Scottish English (Scottish Standard English-Broad Scots continuum) and the phonetics-phonology interface. Specifically, I deal with a non-underlying vowel which surfaces in liquid+liquid and liquid+nasal coda clusters in Scottish English that hasn't been analyzed before (neither in its distribution across varying phonological environments within and across speakers or its phonetic realization(s)). My prior work was concerned with how we process ambiguous and/or ungrammatical visual/auditory language in real time, as evidenced by event-related potentials (ERPs) in electroencephalogram (EEG). Utilizing atypical split-head compounds in Icelandic, as well as compound prosody and thematic role reversals in General American English, my research was concerned with how the parser makes millisecond-to-millisecond predictions and revisions, and whether there are separate cognitive mechanisms for parsing syntactic versus semantic anomalies. |
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Xiaomei Wang (graduate student)
My primary research areas are phonology, phonetics and sociolinguistics, with particular interest in the phonological and sociolinguistic study on Chinese. I am also interested in language change and variation, and language contact. |
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Chenchen Xu (graduate student)
My research is mainly on phonology and phonetics of Chinese, especially on syllable contraction of Chinese. I have done an analysis on syllable contraction of Jianghuai Chinese and will conduct theoretical and experimental analyses on such phenomenon. I am also interested in indexicality and language attitudes. My current research is a sociolinguistic study on syllable contraction in Chinese, in which perceptual maps and judgment test are used. |
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Yongqing Ye (graduate student)
My research interests broadly includes sociolinguistics and phonetics. I am also interested in language change and variation, language attitude, speech community and place. I am working on developing research projects on the acquisition of social linguistic varieties and on language and community identity. |
Jason Smith (graduate student)
My research is primarily in phonetics and phonology. I am currently working on research related to vowel length and tone patterns in the Mende language, spoken in Sierra Leone and Liberia. I am also looking at consonant mutation in Mende - the pattern of mutation, its triggers, and the domain in which it occurs.
My research is primarily in phonetics and phonology. I am currently working on research related to vowel length and tone patterns in the Mende language, spoken in Sierra Leone and Liberia. I am also looking at consonant mutation in Mende - the pattern of mutation, its triggers, and the domain in which it occurs.
Alumni
Bethany Dickerson (undergraduate student; now a graduate student at University of Massachusetts Amherst)
As an undergrad, my research interests are still developing. I am currently working on my senior thesis, which looks at Canadian Raising in pre-flap contexts. I am also interested in L2 phonology.
As an undergrad, my research interests are still developing. I am currently working on my senior thesis, which looks at Canadian Raising in pre-flap contexts. I am also interested in L2 phonology.
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Zachary Kernick (undergraduate student)
I am a MSU undergraduate who is double majoring in linguistics and psychology. I am currently developing my research interests as well as learning more about phonetics & phonology research methodology through participation in the MSU Phonogroup. |
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Qian Luo (graduate student; now a Lecturer at Queen Mary University of London)
I’m currently a Lecturer in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London. I am working on the interaction between consonants and F0 across tonal languages. This study will eventually provide us a better understanding of the evolution of tones. Please visit my website for more details: https://msu.edu/~luoqian/ |
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Monica Nesbitt (graduate student; now a Postdoctoral Researcher at Dartmouth College)
Hi! My research focuses on the intersection between speech perception, phonological representations and the influence of social factors on these things using experimental methods. I have been enthralled in probing syllabic representations in American English as of late. My first comprehensive exam examined the syllabic representation of so-called ambisyllabic consonants in American English through the use of a syllable tracking task (they're codas, maybe). Currently, I am investigating the acoustic cues to syllabic representations and I hope these results will shed light on how ambisyllabic consonants are syllabically represented for American English speakers. I am also an active member of the MSU Sociolinguistics Lab. Feel free to meander over to that page to see what other shenanigans I am up to. |
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Scott Nelson (graduate student; now a PhD student at Stony Brook University)
I am interested in the phonetics-phonology interface and the relationship between speech perception and higher level representations. At the intersection of both of these topics are questions related to representation in phonology. Experimental work allows for a nice way to pursue these questions. In my research I have focused on an experimental technique called lexical retuning (LR). For my undergraduate thesis I explored whether LR operated over segments (e.g. — [f] and [s]) or features (e.g. - place feature). The feature analysis was best supported by the results. Since then, I have continued to use LR to pursue questions related to representation. For my MA thesis I have been looking at whether or not LR allows for generalization to new environments and if type variation or token frequency have any effect on the generalization. |
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Sayako Uehara (graduate student; now a professor at University of Notre Dame)
My research interests include phonetics, phonology, and sociophonetics. Most recently, I have been studying the effect of phonological universal and language specific phonotactics on word segmentation. I am also involved in another research, investigating the effect of vocalic outliers on perception. |
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Mingzhe Zheng (graduate student; now a professor at University of California Berkeley)
I am interested in loanword phonology and speech perception. Currently, I am working on a series of experiments on the topic of the tonal adaptation of English loanwords into Mandarin Chinese phonology. I am also interested in language attitude, the relationship between language and ethnicity, especially the construction of ethnic identity through language use in Chinese-American community of south-east Michigan. |
Junior alumna
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Sophia Williams (Linguist in training; now a kindergartener near Dartmouth College)
7 months at time of photo. Her interests include discovering the wide range of articulations possible in human language, first language acquisition, and carrots. |
