About

I am a linguist and cognitive scientist currently working as a postdoctoral associate in the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science. 

My research focuses on the intersection of syntax and semantics, with particular interest in what the structure of language reveals about human cognition—both the faculty of language, narrowly construed, and the non-linguistic domains with which language interfaces. I use a mix of behavioral experiments and cross-linguistic comparison to uncover how the rules of grammar and broader cognitive architecture work together to give rise to patterns we observe. Specific topics of interest include the expression of event roles in natural language, investigated within the theoretical domains of binding and control, and the composition of complex event representations and attitudes, studied through the lens clausal embedding. 

I am especially excited by experimental methods in syntax/semantics and the insights they provide into fuzzier corners of human language. Here at Rutgers, I am a faculty associate in the Meaning Across Languages Lab. As a graduate student, I was a member of the Harvard Meaning & Modality Lab. 

I received my PhD from the Department of Linguistics at Harvard University. You can find my dissertation on binding in English locative prepositional phrases here.