Research

The UO Linguistics Department faculty research addresses three broad themes: linguistic diversity & society; language learning & technology; language processing & human health. Our vision is to embrace individual and community language behavior and change as objects of linguistic study, with attention to how this study can benefit society.


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Approximately three-quarters of faculty research is sponsored, including by the following federal entities: NSF, NIH, NEH, DOE.
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Nearly half the faculty have been recognized by the UO with Faculty Excellence Awards, Teaching Excellence Awards, and Innovation Awards.
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Roughly a third of the faculty have been recognized with major awards from the Linguistics Society of America

Our Research Labs

Our faculty includes fieldworkers, psycholinguists, and corpus linguists. Faculty research ranges from documenting understudied languages in far-flung reaches of the world to working with typically developing, English-speaking children who live right here in Eugene. Students who are interested in getting involved in research are encouraged to talk with faculty members who inspire them.


The Department of Linguistics is also affiliated with two major research centers.


Rachel Weissler, Assistant Professor of Linguistics

I am a sociolinguist and African American English scholar. I have done extensive research with experimental methods looking at how different intersecting identities, communities, and environments influence people’s linguistic perceptions of one another. I've published in journals such as the Annual Review of Linguistics, Journal of Applied Psycholinguistics, Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, and the Dædalus Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. I am also a Black Studies affiliate faculty member, a faculty director of the Umoja Black Scholars Program, and a director of the Black Strategies Group for faculty and staff.”

-Rachel Weissler, Assistant Professor of Linguistics


Don Daniels

“My research focuses on endangered languages in Papua New Guinea, where I’ve been conducting fieldwork since 2006. I’m interested in language change, both from a theoretical perspective and from a methodological one. I work primarily with languages of the Madang branch of Trans New Guinea, and I’m currently involved in a long-term documentation project of the Sgi Bara (or Jilim) language.”

-Don Daniels, Associate Professor of Linguistics


Kris Kyle

“The Linguistics department is an excellent place to learn how to apply data science techniques to theories of language use, variation, and development. In my lab, we use cutting-edge NLP techniques to investigate how language use varies across language use domains (e.g., genres) and how the words and phrases individuals use affect our perceptions of language proficiency. My students have gotten jobs both in industry (e.g., Amazon) and academia."

-Kris Kyle, Associate Professor of Linguistics

 


Interdisciplinary Opportunities

Research Across Disciplines

Linguistics faculty members work on languages from virtually all over the world. We have a wide variety of interests:

  • Descriptive/typological work on lesser-known languages and language revitalization
  • Historical work in syntax, semantics, and phonology
  • Work on the intersection of language, society, and culture

Interdisciplinary Opportunities 


Sabrina Piccolo

Linguistics Prepared Me for the Next Steps in My Career

“Even though I am not working directly in linguistics at the moment, the UO Department of Linguistics could not have prepared me better for working in a research environment. The Speech Perception and Production Lab provided me with an avenue and the resources to develop my honors thesis; it was also one of my main places for academic (and emotional) support when I was an undergraduate student. Working at this lab showed me what it looks like to do good science and encouraged me to not be intimidated by tackling concepts or skills that I had little experience with. Now, as a research assistant at the Saxe Lab (a social cognitive neuroscience lab at MIT) in a field that is fairly new to me, I am not too intimidated by taking on new challenges – rather, I'm excited about learning new things!”

–Sabrina Piccolo, BA in Linguistics, ‘21


News

LINGUISTICS - Professor Melissa Redford is one of three faculty members to receive a Fulbright US Scholar Program award. Redford will study how bilingualism affects childhood development of speech sound production, thanks to a joint award from Fulbright Canada and the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation.
LINGUISTICS - The College of Arts and Sciences is investing in its Latinx studies courses by hiring nine new tenure-track faculty members. Meet Guillem Belmar Viernes, who is joining the Department of Linguistics. After working as a foreign language teacher in Catalonia, Guillem Belmar Viernes was inspired by language revitalization efforts to pursue a PhD at University of California, Santa Barbara.
GLOBAL STUDIES AND LANGUAGES, LINGUISTICS, SPANISH - U.S. Latinx students studying Spanish while studying abroad can encounter discrimination and condescending attitudes from their instructors. For students who grew up speaking Spanish, known as heritage speakers, this can lead to missed learning opportunities, according to Devin Grammon and Sergio Loza, both assistant professors of Spanish sociolinguistics in the College of Arts and Sciences.