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Surface Correspondence & Consonant Co-Occurrence Relations
Long-distance consonant assimilaton/dissimilation processes have a different constellation of properties than their adjacency-based counterparts. Surface correspondence has been a valuable tool for explaining long-distance consonant assimilation. I'm investigating how it connects to long-distance dissimilatory phenomena. This is what my dissertation is about, and you can read it here.
Defaka & Nkoroo
I'm currently working on a project (led by Akin Akinlabi & Bruce Connell) to document two endangered Nigerian languages, Defaka & Nkoroo. Defaka is critically endangered, with speakers shifting to Nkoroo as their primary language (though Nkoroo is itself in significant long-term danger as well). Both languages are interesting in a myriad of ways, and we are currently working on a grammar and dictionary of each. (Click on the language names for more information about the project.)
Phonology of Clicks
Click consonants raise a lot of interesting questions, many of which are still unanswered. My research on clicks revolves around how they pattern cross-linguistically and typologically - what constraints there are on their distribution (both universally and on a language-specific basis), and how those constraints can be explained.
Syntax of Ijoid languages
Ijoid languages are unusual in a number of ways, both cross-linguistically, and in comparison with other languages spoken in the same area. Working on the documentation of Defaka and Nkoroo has turned up a number of interesting syntactic patterns. I'm currently analyzing an interaction between focus movement and subject marking in Defaka, and its analogs in various Ijo languages.
Last Modified: Sun, 01 Sep 2013 13:19:40 SAST