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When learning to speak a language like Passamaquoddy, there are many grammatical patterns that one must be able to identify before a dialogue can be understood. In Passamaquoddy, it is extremely important to have a sense ...

This dissertation examines the predictions of two computational models of grammar within the domain of loanword phonology. These models, formulated within a Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) framework, have been shown to be successful ...

In this dissertation, I identify and analyze several new generalizations about how phrasal displacement and discontinuity are constrained in natural language. These patterns reveal, I argue, that many limitations of syntactic ...

Our world is populated not just by things, such as bombs, matches, and people, but also by events, like explosions, ignitions, and decisions. Part I, "Doings", is centered around my attempt to capture the nature of events. ...

Are metaphysical debates relevant to ordinary empirical inquiry? This dissertation collects a series of papers which answers in the affirmative. The first part of the dissertation is concerned with inductive inference. I ...

Semantic change is of interest in its own right in the philosophy of language. For instance, it sheds light on the relationship between the meaning of a word and its use. It also plays a role in ideology critique. Philosophy ...

The particles still and already are commonly thought of and analyzed as particles that mirror each other. The particle still has been robustly argued to have an additive presupposition in the same vein as particles like ...

Kun8seeh is aWôpanaô̂t8âôk teaching and learning website. The primary objective for the website is to increase language access to all Wôpanâak language learners through the use online learning materials that accompany ...

This dissertation argues for a view of grammar that encodes certain facts about the discourse context in the narrow syntax. In particular, the recurring claim that there are clause peripheral elements that correspond to a ...

This dissertation lays out the groundwork for building a theory of radical consent and autonomy. Chapter 1, "Framing Consent," argues for a context-sensitive account of the semantic content of consent claims, and presents ...