Introduction
I am a new Assistant Professor
of Linguistics at
the University of Pittsburgh,
having just finished a PhD
in linguistics at
the University of California,
Berkeley. My dissertation was entitled Logical and
Substantive Scales in Phonology
[PDF]. My
research is centered around the diachronic and synchronic phonology
and morphology of human languages, especially languages of So utheast
Asia.
My curriculum vitae is
available here
Teaching
In Fall 2006, I will be teaching the following courses:
- Linguistics 10151
- Phonetics and Phonemics (graduate)
| Class Number: | 2578 |
| Date and Time: | MWF 12:00-12:50pm |
| Location: | CL 00312 |
- Linguistics 1773
- Morphology
| Class Number: | 18427 |
| Date and Time: | TTh 1:00-2:15pm |
| Location: | BELLH 00314 |
Research Interests
I work primarily on languages of East and Southeast
Asia. The specific languages and groups in which I am
interested and which I have worked on are as follows:
Separate from specific languages, I am interested in a
variety of linguistic subfields and issues. Here is a
representative outline of my theoretical interests:
- Phonology
- Tone
- Phonation type/register
- Chain shifts and other counterfeeding opacity
- Abstractness of phonological relationships
- Phonology-Morphology interface
- Morphology
- Compounding
- Process morphology
- Reduplication
- Phonological constraints on morphotactics
- Historical Linguistics
- Comparative reconstruction
- Reconstructing phonological grammars
- Speaker misunderstanding and misinterpretation as a source
of linguistic innovation
- Language contact
- Language Description
Dissertation
My recently completed dissertation is called Logical and
Substantive Scales in Phonology
[PDF]. It argues
that an adequate theory of phonology must include a
representational mechanism that is both abstract (purely logical
in form, potentially lacking a phonetic correlate)
and n-ary (hierarchical or scalar rather than
plus/minus or present/absent).
Recent Papers
- (2006). “Diachronic universals and synchronic
parochialisms: explaining tone-vowel interactions.”
ms. University of California, Berkeley/University of
Pittsburgh. In preparation for
submission. [PDF]
- (2006). “Tonally conditioned vowel raising in
Shuijingping Hmong.” Handout from the LSA 80th Annual
Meeting, Albuquerque, New Mexico. January 6,
2006. [PDF]
- (2005). “The emergence of obstruents after high
vowels: a maladaptive sound change.” ms. University of
California, Berkeley. To be
submitted. [PDF]
- (2005). “The phonology of coordinate
compounds.” ms. University of California, Berkeley. In
revision for publication.
- (2004). “Abstract scales in phonology.”
[ROA-667-0604]. In revision for publication.
[PDF]
- (2004). “The emergence
of dorsal stops after high vowels in Huishu” To appear in
Proceedings of the 30th Annual Meeting of the Berkeley
Linguistics Society.
[PDF]
- (2004). “Preliminaries to Mong Leng (Hmong Njua)
Phonology” Unpublished, UC Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2004). “The Development of Tone Sandhi in Western
Hmongic: A New Hypothesis” Unpublished, UC Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2004). “Two Types of Variable Elements in Hmong
Anaphora.” Submitted: Rose-Marie Déchaine & Martina
Wiltschko (eds.), Pronouns as Epiphenomena, Oxford University
Press (pre-review version).
[PDF]
- (2004). “The emergence of dorsal stops after high vowels
in Huishu” Handout from BLS 30, Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2004). “Semper Infidelis: Anti-identity in A-Hmao
and Jingpho tone sandhi chains” Handout from LSA Annual
Meeting, Boston.
[PDF]
- (2003). “Comparative Tangkhul” Unpublished
Qualifying Paper, UC Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2003). “Hmong Elaborate Expressions are Coordinate
Compounds” Unpublished, UC Berkeley. [PDF]
- (2003). “Two Types of Variable Elements in Hmong
Anaphora.” Handout from UBC Pronouns Workshop. [PDF]
- (2003). “Two Types of Variable Elements in Hmong
Anaphora.” Unpublished, UC Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2003). “Post-Verbal Modifiers in Tangkhul.”
Unpublished, UC Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2003). “Chain-shift, schmain-shift: Anti-Identity
and Tone Sandhi in Hmong, A-Hmao, and Jingpho.” Handout from
TREND 2003. [PDF]
- (2002). “Semper Infidelis: Theoretical
dimensions of tone sandhi chains in Jingpho and A-Hmao”.
Unpublished, UC Berkeley.
[PDF]
- (2002). “The morph is a hard mistress: on the
convoluted life and origins of Mong Leng
quas”. Unpublished, UC Berkeley.
[PS] [PDF]
- (2000). “Sinitic loanwords in two Hmong dialects of
Southeast Asia”. Unpublished Honors Thesis, Utah State
University. [PDF]