Research

Language Evolution

In my work on language evolution, I focus on the interactional and cognitive foundations of language and their evolution, especially from the perspective of usage-based approaches, construction grammar and cognitive linguistics. In particular, I apply methods from these frameworks to the description of the processes that influence the emergence of linguistic structure in interaction and the evolutionary foundations of communicative structures and the construal of meaning.

Language Acquisition

My work on language acquisition focusses on the acquisition and development of perspectivation and the negotiation of perspectives from the point of view of usage-based approaches, construction grammar, and developmental psychology. Specifically, I employ methods from corpus linguistics to investigate how children and caregivers negotiate perspectives in pretend play situations, using qualitative and quantitative measures and tools such as CLAN and R to analyse child language data.