Projects
Organization and processing of lexical and semantic respresentaties in bilinguals: word recognition, sentence processing and computational modeling. Ghent University
How extension works: Determinants of the extension of grammatical and lexical items in English and Dutch. KU Leuven
Extension is the process whereby a linguistic item spreads to new lexical or grammatical environments. This research plan lays out a model of extension, explaining why an item can extend to a given environment at a given time. It formulates three interrelated hypotheses on the starting point, course and end point of extension. The hypotheses are tested on four corpus−based case studies covering different domains of grammar. The focus is on ...
Genericity: Variation in syntax, interpretation and lexical aspects Ghent University
The project focusses on the semantics and syntax of generic sentences. A number of corpus- and questionnairestudies are carried out to shed light on the variation in Dutch with regard to the use and interpretation of different types of nominal constituents in a number of syntactic positions in generic sentences.
The Influence of Naming Patterns in Child-Directed Speech on Lexical Development KU Leuven
This project consists of two studies both related to link between intension (semantic features) and extension (naming). In the first study, the question will be addressed whether featural models can account for the gradual convergence to an adult naming pattern. In this context of lexical development I aim to explore how different feature sets can account for the developmental pattern of different subsets of objects: language specific versus ...
Understanding the Multi-Modal World: Towards Multi-Modal Semantics, Information Search and Retrieval. KU Leuven
NEPHOLOGICAL SEMANTICS: Using token clouds for meaning detection in variation linguistics KU Leuven
Language productivity at work Ghent University
Language patterns are more or less ‘productive’, depending on their lexical scope. An interdisciplinary approach is needed to compare attested productivity, in present-day language use as well as through history, to on-line and off-line language processing, and to measure the impact of
personal variables. Only in this way can one arrive at a better understanding of what productivity is.
Lexical-semantic and syntactic processing in bilinguals Ghent University
The current project investigates bilingual word and sentence processing. A first study examines whether the top-down influence of a sentence context modulates the activation of phonological representations in both languages. A second study investigates whether semantic representations of the nontarget language become activated during word processing. A third study examines bilingual syntactic processing.
The interaction between information structure, syntax and semantics: a comparative linguistic and interdisciplinary analysis. KU Leuven
One of the major functions of language is to convey information between speakers and hearers. Speakers have several linguistic means at their disposal to structure the information they want to communicate, e.g. active (Nous avons pris la décision) vs passive sentences (La décision a été prise) refer to the same referential content but the way in which the information is structured differs. Information Structure (IS) is a basic ingredient of ...