Post-doctoral Fellows

Acoustic phonetics Perception of music and speech Articulatory phonetics Cross-language lexical-tone systems

jennifer_alexander Office: RCB 9212 Personal website

Jennifer Alexander received her Ph.D. from Northwestern University (Evanston, IL, USA). Her primary research program examines acoustic, perceptual, and articulatory properties of lexical-tone systems (e.g., Mandarin and Thai). A second research program investigates perception and production of pitch by tone-language speakers and musicians. Her current project, which falls under the purview of her primary research program, is in collaboration with Dr. Yue Wang and is funded by the National Science Foundation (US). This project extends a model of second-language (L2) sound-structure perception - the Perceptual Assimilation Model (Best et al., 1988) - to lexical tone systems. Its aim is to evaluate whether and how experience with a tone language affects the organization of non-native tones in perceptual space and how perceptual proximity affects perception of L2 tones.

I recently completed PhD degree in Second Language Education at McGill University, and I am currently a visiting scholar in the Department of Linguistics at Simon Fraser University with the aid of the Government of Canada Post-Doctoral Research Fellowship. I work with Dr. Murray Munro to conduct several classroom studies. My ongoing research program is two-fold. First, I have studied which types of form-focused instruction can promote the rate and ultimate attainment of second language (L2) phonological development in the most effective and efficient manner. In addition, I have been also interested in designing and testing methodologies in experimental phonetics in order to measure gains resulting from instruction according to various levels of representational system (phonetic, phonological, lexical domains) and processing (perception, controlled production, spontaneous production).

Cognitive linguistics (subjectivity in grammar and discourse, mental Spaces, lexical semantics/natural semantic metalanguage), Anaphora resolution, Coherence relations, Information structure, Aspect and modality

radoslava_trnavac Office: RCB 8207

I am a theoretical cognitive linguist. I study subjectivity as it occurs across languages, with a special focus on how it relates to event structure, information structure and discourse relations. Building on my PhD research work that I carried out at the University of Leiden, and which addresses the interaction of subjectivity and aspect in modal constructions of Slavic and Germanic languages, I expand this line of research to examine the interplay between subjectivity and discourse relations. My research program, in its current, mid-term and long term perspectives, aims to research ways in which subjectivity is encoded and expressed at the structural level, interpretative level and cognitive level.

Currently, at SFU, I am working in the context of the NSERC project of Prof. Maite Taboada ("Discourse parsing for summarization and sentiment detection") to investigate aspects of subjectivity and coherence relations. Some of the aspects of coherence that we are examining include: (i) the way nonveridical and subjective (evaluative) markers influence coherence/rhetorical relations; and (ii) discourse relations and backwards anaphora.

Selected Publications:

• Trnavacr, R and M. Taboada. 'The contribution of nonveridical rhetorical relations to evaluation in discourse'. Manuscript. Simon Fraser University. January 2011.
• Boogaart, R. and R. Trnavac (to appear) 'Imperfective aspect and epistemic modality'. In Brisard F. and Patard A. (eds.) Cognitive Approaches to Tense, Aspect, and Epistemic Modality. Human Cognitive Processing Series. Amsterdam: John Benjamin.
• Dancygier, B. and Trnavac, R. (2007) 'Conjunctions, verb forms, and epistemic stance in Polish and Serbian predictive conditionals'. In Divjak, D. and Kochanska A. (eds.) Cognitive Paths into the Slavic Domain, 179-216. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
• Trnavac, R. (2006). Aspect and subjectivity in modal constructions. LOT Publications, Utrecht, Netherlands.
• Boogaart, R. and Trnavac, R. (2004) 'Conditional imperatives in Dutch and Russian'. In Cornips L. and Doetjes, J. (eds.) Linguistics in the Netherlands, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 25-35.