Broadly, I am interested in the syntax and semantics of underresearched languages, which I think have the most potential to inform the accuracy and range of our current models. I want to apply our (currently English-based) analytical tools to data from other languages: which of our findings so far are properties of Language cross-linguistically, and which are non-generalizable findings about individual languages?
The topics I have investigated in Nukuoro include:
Mass nouns and number agreement
Possessor raising to subject position
Tense, aspect, and futurity semantics
Free and super free relative clauses
As a Nukuoro language researcher and a long-term community collaborator, I want to see the Nukuoro language and culture continue to enjoy a robust existence. I've been a consulting member of the Nukuoro Documentation Initiative since 2024, which aims to protect and document past and present Nukuoro cultural knowledge. I've involved UC Berkeley students in this work through the Linguistics Research Apprenticeship Program (LRAP), which allows linguistics undergraduates to become members of graduate student research teams.
Current NDI projects I'm involved in:
Transcribing and translating Nukuoro stories, a collection of tales told to researchers Vern and Raymonde Carroll pre-1980
Republishing Nukuoro children's books, in collaboration with the Island Research Education Initiative (iREI)
Creating an indigenous Nukuoro school curriculum
At Berkeley, I've been a graduate student instructor for LINGUIS100 for two semesters. This semester (Fall 2026), I'll be a GSI for LINGUIS120, our upper division syntax class for undergraduates.