My research program is built on a theoretical approach to phonological analysis which generates experimentally testable questions concerning phonological knowledge.
My approach to phonological inquiry is internalist: what is the nature of phonological knowledge as it is instantiated in the minds and brains of human beings? I am interested in phonological theory as a means of developing a systematic classification of the abstract structures and processes which constitute this knowledge. My work focuses on two broad aspects of phonological knowledge. The first aspect is representational: what are the basic representational units of phonology, and how do they interact to build higher-order structure? The second is the computational processes that operate over those representations: what are possible phonological processes, and what makes a stateable phonological process impossible?
This theoretical backdrop serves as the starting point for experimental work on a related empirical question in cognitive neuroscience: how are these representations and computations instantiated in the brain? My goal is to test theoretical predictions against empirical data collected using neurolinguistic techniques that are sensitive to phonology. I characterize my work as an interdisciplinary exchange between cognitive science, linguistics, and experimental neurolinguistics.
JOURNAL ARTICLES
2023 Prosodic strength in Campidanese Sardinian as substance-free phonology. Phonology 40(3-4):197-228. doi:10.1017/S0952675724000137
2022 On substance and substance-free phonology: Where we are at and where we are going. The Canadian Journal of Linguistics, 67(4), 429-443.
2019 What’s wrong with being a rhotic? Glossa: a journal of general linguistics, 4(1), 38. 1-24.
BOOK CHAPTERS
To appear Substance free approaches to phonology. In Kuniya Nasukawa, Bridget Samuels, Geoff Schwartz & Miklós Törkenczy (eds.), Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Phonology (PhonCom2). Wiley-Blackwell.
To appear What phonology is and why it should be. In Gabe Dupre, Ryan Nefdt & Kate Stanton (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the Philosophy of Linguistics. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
2026 Markedness in phonology. In Nesi, Hilary & Petar Milin (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd edition. Amsterdam: Elsevier.
2013 L’accent tonique en français du Midi : Traces du substrat provençal. In Gudrun Ledgen, (ed.), La variation du français dans les espaces créolophones et francophones, 97-110. Paris: L’Harmattan.
EDITED VOLUMES
Features and phonetic substance: Implications for phonological theory. Special issue of The Canadian Journal of Linguistics 67(4).
DISCUSSION, INIVITED COMMENTS, & OTHER PAPERS
Chabot, Alex, Manzini, Rita, Nevins, Andrew, Newell, Heather, Roberts, Ian & Shanti Ulfsbjorninn. 2024. The Romance Inter-Views: Modularity. Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 10(1)/10, 1-9.
Discussion in: Lahrouchi, Mohamed (auth.) Minimality, weight and melodic content: The view from French and Berber hypocoristics. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 3, 36-44.
Discussion in: Volonec, Veno & Reiss, Charles (auth.) Formal Generative Phonology. Radical: A Journal of Phonology, 2, 90-112.
Successfully defended on December 17, 2021, at the Université Côte d'Azur in Nice, France
Jury: Joaquim Brandão de Carvalho, Silke Hamann, David Odden
Suprasegmental Structure in Meridional French and its Provençal Substrate
The University of Virginia, May, 2008
INVITED TALKS
2025 Title TBA. Talk at the Département de linguistique, Université du Québec à Montréal.
2024 Scientific Realism in phonology: What you get is not what you hear. Colloquium talk at the Department of Linguistics, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
2023 Sounding phonology: Correlational neurolinguistics and theories of representational and computational complexity. Twelfth North American Phonology Conference. NAPhCxii, Concordia University.
2023 Detecting additivity in neurocortical activity: Representational complexity in phonology and sound. CRISSP seminar, KU Leuven.
2021 Strength and weakness in Campidanese Sardinian. Linguistic identity of Corsica and Sardinia: areas, strata, systems in the insular and Romance space, Université Paris 8 and Université Lyon 3.
2021 Finding strength in Substance-Free Phonology. (SFP)2 at the North Atlantic Phonology Conference, Concordia University.
2021 What we get when we represent a theory of phonology. Bilbao Morpho-Phonology Circle, Universidad de Duesto.
2019 Phonologie : sens, perception, computation. Phonologie(s), Université de Orléans.
2018 Phonetic variation in a phonological class: rhotic unity. Rhotiques : l’invariant et ses avatars, Université Paris 8.
2017 A Few Words on Rhotics. l’Atelier de phonologie, Univeristé Paris 8.
REFEREED CONFERENCES
2025The laryngeal articulation continuum and phonological categories at the interface. Talk presented the 22nd Meeting of the French Phonology Network at Ibn Zohr University.
2025 Intensification via gemination: Support for indirect infixation. With Anna Grabovac and Malhaar Shah. Talk presented at the 2025 LSA Annual Meeting, Philadelphia.
2023 Factoring mismatch responses to phonetic differences. With Bill Idsardi and Ellen Lau. Talk presented at PhonolEEGy 2, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
2023 Vowel reduction in European Portuguese: Virtual length and Substance-Free Phonology. Talk presented at the 30th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
2022 Brazilian Portuguese coda allophony and vowel epenthesis are driven by melodic complexity in obstruents. Talk presented at the 19th Meeting of the French Phonology Network at Universidade do Porto.
2022 Fortition in Campidanese Sardinian can only be understood as Substance-Free Phonology. Talk presented at at the 29th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
2021 Strength and weakness in Campidanese Sardinian. Talk presented at Going Romance 2021 at the University of Amsterdam.
2021 How to represent positional strength in Campidanese Sardinian. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting on Phonology at the University of Toronto.
2021 Two kind of epenthesis in Brazilian Portuguese. Talk presented at the 18th Old-World Conference in Phonology at University of the Balearic Islands.
2020 A representational account of coda allophony in Brazilian Portuguese. Talk accepted for presentation at the 18th Meeting of the French Phonology Network at Université Clermont Auvergne.
2020 Velar softening is phonological: EEG-based evidence. With Mirjam de Jonge and Tobias Scheer. Virtual talk presented at GLOW 43 at Humboldt Universität zu Berlin.
2020 EEG-based evidence supporting the truly phonological character of velar softening. With Mirjam de Jonge and Tobias Scheer. Talk presented at the 17th Old-World Conference in Phonology at University of Warsaw.
2019 Blank slates: Where are features in ‘crazy’ phonologies? Talk presented at the 49th Poznań Linguistic Meeting at Adam Mickiewicz University.
2019 Epenthesis and codas in Brazilian Portuguese. Talk presented at the Government Phonology Round Table 2019 at the University of Vienna.
2019 Phonology is crazy in the real world. Poster presented at the 27th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
2018 Craziness: On phonetic substance and sets of phonological features. Talk presented at The 11th Conference on Syntax, Phonology and Language Analysis at Jagiellonian University in Kraków.
2018 What’s wrong with being a rhotic? Poster presented at the 26th Manchester Phonology Meeting, University of Manchester.
2015 Syllable Codas in Brazilian Portuguese; the Nature of Vexing /S/. Talk presented at the 2015 Spring Linguistics Colloquium at UNC Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
2009 L’accent tonique en français du Midi : Traces du substrat provençal. Talk presented at the 11th Conference on Contemporary French Phonology (Journées PFC 2009), Ile de la Réunion.
2008 Suprasegmental Structure in Meridional French and its Provençal Substrate. Talk presented at the 10th Conference on Contemporary French Phonology (Journées PFC 2008), New Orleans