Research & funding

My preferred theoretical framework is usage-based/experience-based linguistics. My research interests all broadly fall within the remit of variationist linguistics and variation studies, including their interfaces with typology, geolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. I view linguistic variation as a window into the hidden structure of human language and the nature of linguistic knowledge. My research interests specifically include:

• variation studies (synchronic & diachronic)

• probabilistic grammar

• sociolinguistics and register analysis

• language complexity

• geolinguistics, dialectology & dialectometry, and dialect typology

• learner language

Grants funded

• Relatively complex or relatively simple? Toward new ways of analyzing language variation
  Applicant and PI
  Funded by a C1 grant awarded by the KU Leuven Research Council (grant # 3H220293, budget: €233,000)
  2022-2026

• How much does meaning matter? A fresh look at grammatical alternations
  Applicant and PI, with Hubert Cuyckens, Stefania Marzo & Dirk Speelman (Co-PIs)
  Funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) (grant # G044721N, budget: €224,000)
  2021-2025

• Dialectsyntaxis herbekeken
  Co-PI, with Dirk Speelman, Stefan Grondelaers & Antal van den Bosch
  Funded by a "Letteren, Nijmegen en Leuven" (LN&L) grant (grant # 3H200064, budget: € 62,500)
  2020-2024

• The register-specificity of probabilistic grammatical knowledge in English and Dutch
  Applicant and PI, with Jason Grafmiller and Freek Van de Velde (Co-PIs)
  Funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) (grant # G0D4618N, budget: €229,000)
  2018-2022
  project website

• Nephological Semantics: using token clouds for meaning detection in variationist linguistics
  Co-PI with Dirk Geeraerts, Stefania Marzo & Dirk Speelman
  Funded by a C1 grant awarded by the KU Leuven Research Council (grant # 3H150305, budget: €1,271,200)
  2015-2021
  project website

• Exploring probabilistic grammar(s) in varieties of English around the world
  Applicant and PI
  Funded by a Type II Odysseus grant awarded by the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) (grant # G0C5913N, budget: €856,260)
  2013-2018
  project website

Network grants

• Broadening the theoretical and methodological scope of translation and interpreting studies: towards an interdisciplinary language-contact framework
  FWO scientific research network member (coordinator: Gert De Sutter)
  Funded by the Research Foundation Flanders (budget: € 60.000)
  2020-2024

• Linguistic variation in postcolonial contexts (LiVaPoCo): historical, social and contact linguistic perspectives
  Scientific research network member (coordinator: Pekka Posio)
  Funded by the Una Europa seed funding scheme (funding number: SF2009, budget: €15,000)
  2020-2022

• Frontiers of Language Variety
  Scientific research network member (coordinator: John Nerbonne)
  Funded by an internationalization grant of the NWO (budget: €  22,500)
  2014-2016