Research

Papers 

(If only published version is linked, it's because it is freely available)

Metalinguistic Gradability (with Alexander Kocurek)
Accepted pending revisions at Semantics and Pragmatics
Metalinguistic gradable constructions express speakers' relative commitments to different linguistic interpretations

Contested Metalinguistic Negotiation
Synthese  (2023)
published version | preprint | Using public discussion about the 1619 Project as a case study, I explore how to account for disagreements about the status of a dispute as metalinguistic or factual

Acquaintance and evidence in appearance language
Linguistics and Philosophy (2023)
published version | preprint | Appearance sentences look like they have two different types of acquaintance inferences; an expressivist approach can predict both without building perception into the semantics

Differences of Taste: An Investigation of Phenomenal and Non-phenomenal Appearance Sentences
Perspectives on Taste (2022), edited by Jeremy Wyatt, Julia Zakkou and Dan Zeman. Routledge.
published version | preprint | Is the apparent ambiguity with 'taste good' (and similar sensory-evaluative predicates) due to features of 'taste' or 'good'? The latter answer has more going for it than previously recognized

Conceptual Exploration
Inquiry (2021)
published version | preprint | We explore our concepts in lots of ways, including supposing alternative concepts and comparing conceptual choices; recognizing this gives a new perspective on conceptual engineering and how to respond to its skeptics

Comparing Conventions (with Alexander W. Kocurek)
Proceedings of Semantics and Linguistic Theory 30 (2020)
published version | Metalinguistic comparatives are more expressions of comparative linguistic commitments than anything else

Against Conventional Wisdom (with Alexander W. Kocurek and Ethan Jerzak)
Philosophers' Imprint  (2020)
published version | We argue against the conventional wisdom that truth is always evaluated using our actual linguistic conventions

Talking about appearances: the roles of evaluation and experience in disagreement
Philosophical Studies (2020)
published version | preprint | I illustrate relativists effects, like faultless disagreement, in discourse about appearances and argue that such disagreement about matters of taste is due to experiential rather than evaluative language

A closer look at the perceptual source in copy raising constructions
Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 23 (2019)
published version | Experimental work shows that perceptual requirements on appearance sentences depend on the verb, predicate, and context; this leads to theoretical reevaluation and comparison of appearance reports and evidentials

The acquaintance inference with seem-reports
Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (2019)
preprint | Not all copy raising 'seem'-reports (e.g., "Tom seems like he's cooking") require perception of the subject; experimental work suggests this requirement depends on whether the predicate is stage-level or individual-level

Miscellaneous

Analytic Entailment (with Alexander W. Kocurek and Ethan Jerzak)
Task contributed to: A. Srivastava, et al. Beyond the Imitation Game: Quantifying and extrapolating the capabilities of language models  (2022)
arXiv preprint | our task

Review of Wylie Breckenridge's Visual Experience: A Semantic Approach
The Philosophical Review (2021)
published version | preprint

Manuscripts

[Redacted] (with Elay Shech and Mike Tamir; under review)
Philosophers have worried a lot about the feasibility of conceptual engineering; machine learning can help, especially thanks to de-biasing tools

Social Generics in Context
When are generics about social groups problematic? I argue that QUD gives us the answer

Engineering Conceptual Prototypes
Conceptual engineering that targets prototypes has many advantages over more traditional conceptual engineering, including opening up fruitful connections with machine learning

(Drafts available upon request)