I am a professor at the Department of Linguistics, The University of Texas, Austin. I study the syntax and semantics of human language. Here is some recent work on usage-based, evolutionary and information theoretic approaches to grammar:
Stephen Wechsler, James W. Shearer, and Katrin Erk 2026. The evolution of blocking: a reinforcement learning account. Paper to be presented at EVOLANG XVI, International Conference on the Evolution of Language, 7-10 April 2026 · Plovdiv, Bulgaria Abstract.
James W. Shearer and Stephen Wechsler 2026. Modeling Language Emergence with Coordination Games and Learning. Paper to be presented at EVOLANG XVI, International Conference on the Evolution of Language, 7-10 April 2026 · Plovdiv, Bulgaria.
Stephen Wechsler, James Shearer, and Katrin Erk 2025. The emergence of grammar through reinforcement learning. arXiv preprint arXiv:2503.01635.
Sasha Boguraev, Katrin Erk, Kyle Mahowald, James Shearer, and Stephen Wechsler 2025.. Reinforcement Learning Produces Efficient Case-Marking Systems. Proceedings of CogSci 2025.
Stephen Wechsler 2025. A Usage-Based Program for Syntax and Semantics. In D. Bradley, K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, C. Hamans, I. H. Lee, and F. Steurs (eds.) Contemporary Linguistics: Integrating Languages, Communities, and Technologies. Netherlands: Brill, ISBN: 9789004715608, pp. 339-348.
Kristie Denlinger, Stephen Wechsler, and Kyle Mahowald 2024. Participle-Prepended Nominals Have Lower Entropy Than Nominals Appended After the Participle. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 46.
My other main research areas are:
Self-reference
Syntactic theory: lexicalism, HPSG, LFG
See the pull-down menus above for publications and other stuff.
Contact:
email: wechsler at austin dot utexas dot edu
Postal address: 305 E. 23rd St. STOP B5100 / Austin, TX 78712 / USA
Department phone: (512) 471-1701 Fax: (512) 471-4340
Office: RLP 4.702, The University of Texas, Austin