Research Groups and Labs

Directed by Jason Riggle, has three primary goals:

1. To computationally implement linguistic models
2. To discover and implement learning algorithms for those models
3. To test the predictions of the models by simulating language learning, use, and change among populations of interacting language-using agents

Research in the Breiss Lab addresses questions about how phonological knowledge is represented and learned, how phonology interacts with morphosyntax and the lexicon, how overlapping and interacting phonological processes are structured, and how experimental and computational data can be brought to bear on all these questions.

Directed by Alan Yu, is dedicated to the teaching and investigation of phonological typology as well as the variation and change of sound systems. It also functions as the center for language documentation research within the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. The lab, which houses a double-walled sound-attenuated IAC recording booth, is fully equipped to gather and analyze physiological, acoustic, and perceptual data.

Directed by Diane Brentari, is designed to analyze linguistic data from sign languages and gestures pertinent to Dr. Brentari's ongoing research projects, which include two NSF-funded projects and a third award by the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society. These projects concern the linguistic structure of sign languages and their expression in conversation, narrative and performance, as well as the gestures of hearing people and homesign systems. Motion capture, as well as a variety of tools for video analysis and transcription, are employed in this work.

The Speech Perception and Production Lab studies how people perceive and produce speech, with a particular focus on communication across diverse language backgrounds. We use psycholinguistic experiments and acoustic-phonetic analysis to ask how perception and production interact, including in second-language learning.

Directed by Lenore Grenoble, conducts research organized within the following broad areas:

1. Synchronic Slavic linguistics
2. Diachronic and comparative Slavic and Indo-European linguistics
3. Balkan linguistics
4. Language contact between Slavic and languages of the Balkans, Caucasus, and Siberia