Research
My primary research program investigates the mechanisms through which we understand what speakers mean beyond what is said. I am mainly concerned about how interlocutors derive meanings when taking into account various sources of information such as the speaker's affective state (e.g., through tone of voice). My research takes as a starting point theoretical frameworks in pragmatics (Gricean pragmatics, Speech Act Theory, Im/Politeness theories, theories of Facework) and incorporates insights from research on the psychology of social and moral emotions, and social cognition (Theory of Mind and empathy) (see my dissertation).
An additional area of interest is the role of perspective taking in the generation of inferences regarding speaker meaning. I am also interested in the sociolinguistics of gender and the acquisition of Modern Greek as a heritage language.
See my CV.
Publications
Popular press articles
Vergis, N. (October 2021). Language and ideology in school textbooks: Some comments (in Greek). Efimerida ton Syntakton. Available at https://www.efsyn.gr/stiles/apopseis/316505_glossa-kai-ideologia-sta-sholika-biblia-merika-sholia
Scholarly articles
Pragmatics
Vergis, N. (2023). How affect modulates conversational meanings: A review of experimental research. Cognition & Emotion. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/02699931.2023.2270197
Vergis, N., Jiang, X., & Pell, M. D. (2020). Neural responses to interpersonal requests: Effects of imposition and vocally-expressed stance. Brain Research 1740. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brainres.2020.146855
Rigoulot, S., Jiang, X., Vergis, N., & Pell, M. D. (2020). Neurophysiological correlates of sexually evocative speech. Biological Psychology 107909. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsycho.2020.107909
Vergis, N. & M.D. Pell (2020). Factors in the perception of speaker politeness: the effect of linguistic structure, imposition and prosody. Journal of Politeness Research. Language, Behaviour, Culture 16(1), 45-84. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/pr-2017-0008
Vergis, N. (2019). How to put yourself in someone else’s shoes: The role of point-of-view in the interpretation of mixed messages. Intercultural Pragmatics, 16(2), 219-238. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/ip-2019-0010
Mauchand, M., Vergis, N., & Pell, M. D. (2019). Irony, prosody, and social impressions of affective stance. Discourse Processes. DOI: 10.1080/0163853X.2019.1581588
Caballero, J., Vergis, N., Jiang, X., & Pell, M. D. (2018). The sound of im/politeness. Speech Communication, 102, 39-53.
Vergis, N. (2017). The interaction of the Maxim of Quality and face concerns: An experimental approach using the vignette technique. Journal of Pragmatics 118, 38-50.
Vergis, N. & M. Terkourafi (2015). The role of the speaker’s emotional state in im/politeness assessments. Journal of Language and Social Psychology 34 (3), 316-342. doi: 10.1177/0261927X14556817
Raisen, A., N. Vergis & K. Christianson (2015). “Using eye-tracking to examine the reading of texts containing taboo words.” In: Interdisciplinary perspectives on im/politeness (pp. 213-238). Ed. by M. Terkourafi. AILA Applied Linguistics Series. John Benjamins.
Vergis, N. & M. Terkourafi (2015). “The M-word: A Greek collocation between solidarity and insult.” In: Interdisciplinary perspectives on im/politeness (pp. 41-70). Ed. by M. Terkourafi. AILA Applied Linguistics Series. John Benjamins.
Refereed Papers in Conference Proceedings
Mauchand, M., Vergis, N., & Pell, M. (2018). Ironic tones of voices. In Proc. 9th International Conference on Speech Prosody 2018 (pp. 443-447).
Sociolinguistics
Vergis, N. (2012). “Women, language and stereotypes: Evidence from a rural community of Greece.” In: Current Trends in Greek Linguistics. Ed. by G. Fragaki, T. Georgakopoulos & C. Themistocleous. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 148-176.
Kappa, I., & N. Vergis (2011). “Delateralization and Retroflexion in the Cretan Dialect: a Case Study”. In: Studies in Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory. Ed. by M. Janse, B. Joseph, P. Pavlou & A. Ralli. Nicosia: University of Cyprus, pp. 47-57.
Refereed Papers in Conference Proceedings
Vergis, N. & M. Terkourafi (2013). “Rhoticization and gender stereotyping in a rural community in Crete.” In: Online proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Modern Greek Dialects and Linguistic Theory. Ed. by Mark Janse, Brian D. Joseph, Angela Ralli and Metin Bagriacik. Patras, Greece.
Unpublished papers
Vergis, N. (2011). Gender agreement in Heritage Language Acquisition: Evidence from Modern Greek. Unpublished manuscript. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Web-based experiments
I am interested in the web-based design and implementation of cognitive experiments involving pragmatic reasoning. Several types of software give the researcher the opportunity to conduct linguistic research remotely. Here is a list of some tools I have used and found useful in my research:
Survey Monkey (a survey tool with lots of features for building sophisticated experiments. Ideal for written materials.)
PsyToolkit (a Java-based software for programming and running surveys and cognitive experiments with reaction times). I have used it to build a series of prosody experiments for the investigation of question intonation in Greek. See an example here.
Collaborators
I have collaborated with colleagues on various projects including prosody and interpersonal attitudes, pragmatics and emotion, taboo words, and Greek intonation.
Marc D. Pell (McGill University)
Xiaoming Jiang (Tongji University)
Jonathan Caballero (McGill University)
Marina Terkourafi (Leiden University)
Kiel Christianson (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Adina Raizen
Stavroula Tsiplakou (Open University of Cyprus)
Amalia Arvaniti (University of Kent)
Maria Baltazani (University of Oxford)
Evangelia Adamou (CNRS)
Stella Gryllia (Leiden University)
Charalambos Themistocleous (Johns Hopkins University)