Ph.D. Alumni

2019

Sean Gleason

Dissertation: The morpho-syntax and pragmatics of the Latin Accusativus cum Infinitivo
Advisor: Raffaella Zanuttini
Currently: Teacher, Notre-Dame High School, West Haven, CT

Alysia Harris

Dissertation: The non-aspectual meaning of African American English ‘aspectual’ markers
Advisors: Ashwini Deo and Claire Bowern
Position: Spoken work Poet and Editor Scalawag Magazine

Ryan Kasak

Dissertation: Affix ordering and templatic morphology in Mandan
Advisor: Stephen Anderson and Claire Bowern
Position: Adjunct Professor Elmhearst College, IL and Noble Network of Charter Schools

Luke Lindemann

Dissertation: A jewel inlaid: ergativity and markedness in Nepali
Advisor: Claire Bowern
Position: Fellow, Yale Center for Medical Informatics (New Haven, CT) and the Dept of Veterans Affairs (West Haven, CT)

2018

Natalie Schrimpf

Dissertation: Effects of topic structure on automatic summarization
Advisor: Robert Frank
Position: Research Associate, Tuck School of Business (Dartmouth)

Sara Sanchez-Alonso

Dissertation: The cognitive sources of language change and variation: connecting synchronic variation and diachrony in Spanish copula use
Advisor: Maria Piñango
Position: Post-doc, Haskins Laboratory

2017

Leandro Bolaños

Dissertation: Perception and production of timing in non-native speech: Russian palatalization
Advisor: Stephen Anderson
Position: Analytical Linguist, Google

Shira Calamar0

Dissertation: Stratal Harmonic Serialism: Typological predictions and implications
Advisor: Gaja Jarosz and Claire Bowern
Position: Language Engineer, Amazon

Gregg Castellucci

Dissertation: The temporal organization of mouse ultrasonic vocalizations and its dependence on Foxp2 expression
Advisors: Stephen Anderson & David McCormick
Position: Postdoctoral Trainee, Long Lab (NYU Medical Center); Affiliated Scientist, Haskins Laboratory

Yao-ying Lai

Dissertation: The complement coercion phenomenon: Implications for models of sentence processing
Advisor: Maria Piñango
Position: Post-doc, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities (Tokorozawa, Japan),
Visiting Researcher, Waseda University (Tokyo, Japan)

Sabina Matyiku

Dissertation: Semantic effects of head movement: Evidence from negative auxiliary inversion
Advisors: Robert Frank & Raffaella Zanuttini
Position: Senior International Linguist, Apple Computer

2016

Jason Zentz

Dissertation: Forming wh-questions in Shona: A comparative Bantu perspective
Advisors: Robert Frank & Raffaella Zanuttini
Position: Assistant Dean of Academic and Faculty Affairs, FAS Deans Office Yale University

Nicole Palffy-Muhoray

Dissertation: Hungarian temporal and aspectual reference in the absence of dedicated markers
Advisor: Ashwini Deo
Position: Asst. Director, Yale Peabody Museum Student Programs (updated: May 23, 2019)

2015

E-Ching Ng

Dissertation: The phonology of contact: Creole sound change in context
Advisor: Stephen Anderson
Position: postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, bonded to the English Department at the National University of Singapore

2014

Emily Gasser

Dissertation: Windesi Wamesa morphophonology
Advisor: Claire Bowern
Position: Assistant Professor, Swarthmore College

Kelly Nedwick

Dissertation: Metalinguistic negation in English and Arabic
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Program Development Consultant at Niagara University

Michael Freedman

Dissertation: Frozen scope and grammatical optimization
Advisors: Robert Frank
Position: Computational Linguist at Ntrepid Corp

2013

Ilkyu Kim

Dissertation: Korean -(n)un, salience, and information structure
Advisors: Ashwini Deo, Laurence Horn
Position: Associate Professor, Kangwon National University

Mark Tiede

Dissertation: An MRI-based morphological approach to vocal tract area function estimation
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories

2012

Argyro Katsika

Dissertation: Coordination in prosodic gestures at boundaries in Greek
Advisor: Jelena Krivokapić
Position: Asssistant Professor, Department of Linguistics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Yuan-Chen Jenny Yang

Dissertation: An information structure approach to passives: with special focus on Mandarin Chinese and Taiwanese Southern Min
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Assistant Teaching Professor, Rutgers

2011

Scott McClure

Dissertation: A system for inducing the phonology and inflectional morphology of a natural language
Advisors: Gaja Jarosz, Stephen Anderson
Position: Speech Scientist, Nuance Communications, Inc.

2010

Rajdip Dhillon

Dissertation: Stress and tone in Indo-Aryan Languages
Advisor: Darya Kavitskaya

Jennifer Mack

Dissertation: Information structure and the licensing of English subjects
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Research Assistant Professor, Northwestern University, School of Communitcations

2009

Erich Round

Dissertation: Kayardild morphology, phonology and morphosyntax
Advisor: Stephen Anderson
Position: Senior Lecturer, University of Queensland, Australia

Michael Proctor

Dissertation: Gestural characterization of a phonological class: The liquids
Advisor: Darya Kavitskaya
Position: Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

Jodi Reich

Dissertation: Morphosyntax acquisition in hildren with disorders of spoken language
Advisor: Maria Babyonyshev
Position: Associate Professor of Instuction, PhD Program Director, Temple University, College of Public Health

William Salmon

Dissertation: Dislocations, context and composition: or, double dubjects in Brazilian Portuguese
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Associate Professor, Department Head, & English Graduate Faculty, University of Minnesota Duluth, Department of English, Linguistics, and Writing Studies

2008

Thomas Conners

Dissertation: Tengger Javanese
Advisor: Dianne Jonas
Position: Research Scientist and Associate Research Professor, U niversity of Maryland, Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security

Man Gao

Dissertation: Mandarin tones: An articulatory phonology account
Advisor: Louis Goldstein

Minjung Son

Dissertation: The nature of Korean place assimilation: Gestural overlap and gestural reduction
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Assistant Professor, Hannam University, Korea

2007

Chao Li

Dissertation: Mandarin resultative verb compounds: Where syntax, semantics & pragmatics meet
Advisor: Maria Babyonyshev, Laurence Horn
Position: Professor, College of Staten Island, CUNY

Hosung Nam

Dissertation: A gestural coupling model of syllable structure
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Assistant Professor, Korea University Dept. of English Language and Literature

Stefania Marin

Dissertation: Vowel to vowel coordination, diphthongs and articulatory phonology
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Reserch Scientist, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Institute of Phonetics,

2006

Mariko Yanagawa

Dissertation: Articulatory timing in first and second language: A cross-linguistic study
Advisor: Louis Goldstein

2004

Petra Burkhardt Schumacher

Dissertation: Representation and interpretation at the syntax-discourse interface: Establishing dependency
Advisor: Maria Piñango
Position: Professorin für Sprachwissenschaft des Deutschen / Empirische Sprachwissenschaft, University of Koln

2003

Kuniyoshi Ishikawa

Dissertation: Predicates, events, and discourse: representing the so-called head-internal relative construction in Japanese
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Associate Professor, Meiji University

Marianne Pouplier

Dissertation: Units of phonological encoding: Empirical evidence
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Professor, Institut für Phonetik und Sprachverarbeitung, University of Munich

2002

Iris Smorodinsky

Dissertation: Schwas with and without active gestural control
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Associate Teaching Professor, Georgetown University

2000

K. David Harrison

Dissertation: Topics in the phonology and morphology of Tuvan
Advisor: Stephen Anderson
Position: Professor and Chair, Swarthmore College

Seungja Choi

Dissertation: Negation in Korean and Japanese
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Director of Language Instruction/Associate DUS /Senior Lector II), Yale MacMillan Center: Council on East Asian Studies

William A. Vance

Dissertation: The Rigvedic temporal vocabulary, with linguistic notes on some related Indo-European words
Advisor: Stanley Insler
Position: Director T he Executive Voice

1999

Bryan Gick

Dissertation: Articulatory basis of syllable structure: a study of English glides and liquids
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Professor Universtiy of British Columbia

Douglas N. Honorof

Dissertation: The effect of explicit articulatory training on adult gestural acquisition
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratory

Lizanne Kaiser

Dissertation: Morphosyntax of clausal nominalization constructions
Advisor: Stephen Anderson
Position: Linguistic Consultant at Lexicon Branding, Inc., California USA

1997

Yuki Takatori

Dissertation: A study of phonological constraint in Slavic phonology
Advisor: William Mahota/Draga Zec
Position: Associate Professor, Georgia State University

1996

Miles Beckwith

Dissertation: The Greek reduplicated aorist
Advisor: B. Vine
Position: Chair, Associate Professor of English, I ona College

M. David Greenspon

Dissertation: On reflexives and middles
Advisor: Laurence Horn

Parviz Parsafar

Dissertation: Spatial prepositions in Modern Persian
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Instructor, Yuba College (English as a Second Language)

1995

Rosanne H. Pelletier

Dissertation: Aspects of the syntax and morphology of Telugu
Advisor: Laurence Horn

1994

Cleo Condoravdi

Dissertation: Descriptions in context
Advisor: Donka Farkas
Position: Professor, Stanford University

Sun-Hee Kim

Dissertation: Division of labor between grammar and pragmatics: The distribtuion and interpretation of anaphora
Advisor: (Laurence Horn)

Simon Kimani Njogu

Dissertation: Discourse in East African dialogue poetry: a sociolinguistic approach
Advisor: A. Biersteker
Position: Director of Twaweza Communications and former Associate Professor of African languages at Kenyatta University in Kenya

1993

Margaret Hall Dunn

Dissertation: The phonetics and phonology of geminate consonants: Evidence from Finnish and Italian
Advisor: Louis Goldstein

Martha Wang Gallagher

Dissertation: A Study of reduplicatives in the Chu Cí
Advisor: Hugh Stimson
Position: Professor of Chinese, U.S. Miltary Academy, West Point, NY (Retired)

Elizabeth C. Zsiga

Dissertation: Features, gestures & the temporal aspects of phonological organization
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Professor, Georgetown University

1992

Peter Hendriks

Dissertation: History & development of nominal predication in 8th century Japanese
Advisor: S. Martin
Position: Assistant Professor of East Asian Languages, University of Wisconsin

Caroline L. Smith

Dissertation: The temporal organization of vowel and consonant gestures
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Associate Professor Department of Linguistics University of New Mexico

1991

Andre M. Cooper

Dissertation: An articulatory account of aspiration in English
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Adjunct Professor, College of William and Mary

1990

Sung Bom Lee

Dissertation: On the form and interpretation of inflectional anaphora
Advisor: Donka Farkas
Position: Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Seoul, Korea

1989

Harriet S. Magen

Dissertation: Acoustic study of vowel-vowel coarticulation in English
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Professor Emeritus, Rhode Island College, Department of Communications

Rena A. Krakow

Dissertation: Articulatory organization of syllables: kinematic analysis of kabial and velar gestures
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Associate Professor, Temple University, School of Public Health

1988

Suzanne E. Boyce

Dissertation: The influence of phonological structure on articulatory organization in Turkish and English: Vowel harmony and coarticularion
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Professor, University of Cincinatti, Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

1987

Sharon Y. Manuel

Dissertation: Acoustic & perceptual consequences of V-V coarticulation in three Bantu languages
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Assistant Professor, Wayne State University, Dept of Speech

1985

Alexander C. Lehrman

Dissertation: Simple thematic imperfectives in Anatolian and Indo-European
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position: Associate Professor, University of Delaware, Deceased: October 10, 2011,

Charles E. Hoequist, Jr.

Dissertation: A comparative study of linguistic rhythm
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Researcher, Cambridge University, Department of Engineering, Deceased: June 7, 2018,

Greer Watson

Dissertation: Pronouns and prepositional phrases
Advisor: Laurence Horn
Position: Researcher, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto

1984

Donald A. Ringe, Jr.

Dissertation: Perfect tense in Greek inscriptions
Advisor: (Warren Cowgill)
Position: Professor, University of Pensylvania

Leon A. Serafim

Dissertation: Shondu: The prehistory of a Northern Ryukyuan dialect in Japanese
Advisor: Samuel E. Martin
Position: Professor Emeritus of the University of Hawaii

1982

Janet Elaine Gertz

Dissertation: The nominative-accusative neuter plural in Anatolian
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position: Director for Preservation for Columbia University Libraries

Karen E. Sandness

Dissertation: The evolution of the Japnese past and perfect particles in the Muromati periods
Advisor: Samuel E. Martin
Position: Assistant Professor, Linfield College, Oregon

Michael A. Covington

Dissertation: Syntactic theory in the Late Middle Ages: Modernistic models of sentence dtructure
Advisor: Rulon Wells
Position: Senior Research Scientist Emeritus former Adjunct Professor of Computer Science, Institute for Artificial Intelligence The University of Georgia

Doug Whalen

Dissertation: Perceptual effects of phonetic mismatches
Advisor: Louis Goldstein
Position: Vice President of Research, Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories , and Professor Adjuct of Linguistics Yale University, Distinguished Professor of Linguistics at The Graduate Center (CUNY)

1979

May Chao Shih

Dissertation: Methods for diagnosing ubsystems of L2 grammars
Position: Assistant Professor of English, San Francisco State University

William H. Cook

Dissertation: A grammar of North Carolina Cherokee
Advisor: Floyd Lounsbury
Position: Guest Professor of English, University of Sofia, Bulgaria

1978

Andrea G. Levitt

Dissertation: The effects of clause structure on memory for sentences
Position: Professor Emerita of French and Linguistics, Wellesly College

1977

Stephanie Wroth Jamison

Dissertation: The -aya- verbal formations in Vedic Sanskrit
Advisor: Stanley Insler
Position: Professor, University of California, Los Angeles

1975

J. Marshall Unger

Dissertation: Studies in Early Japanese morphophonemics
Advisor: Samuel Martin
Position: Emeritus Professor of Japanese, Ohio State University

Donald W. Beukema

Dissertation: A grammatical sketch of Chimborazo Quicha
Advisor: Floyd Lounsbury
Position: Computer Analyst, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Samuel R. Ramsey, Jr.

Dissertation: Accent and morphology in Korean dialects
Advisor: Samuel Martin
Position: Professor of East Asian Linguistics, University of Maryland

Shigeru Tsuchida

Dissertation: Reconstruction of Proto-Tsouic phonology
Advisor: Isidore Dyen
Position: Professor, Teikyo Heisei University

1974

Jared S. Klein

Dissertation: The particle u in the Riqveda
Advisor: Stanley Insler
Position: Distinguished Research Professor of Linguistics, Classics, and Germanic and Slavic Languages, Franklin College of Arts and Science, University of Georgia

Curtis D. McFarland

Dissertation: The dialects of the Bikol area
Advisor: Isidore Dyen

Marianne Mithun

Dissertation: A grammar of Tuscarora
Advisor: Floyd Lounsbury
Position: Professor, University of California, Santa Barbara

Paul D. Black

Dissertation: Lowland East Cushitic: Reconstruction & subgrouping
Advisor: Isidore Dyen
Position: Casual VET Teaching - Adult Literacy & Numeracy

Thomas G. Dieterich

Dissertation: Non-pronominal anaphora and specificity in English
Advisor: Rulon Wells
Position: Professor of Applied Linguistics Portland State College

1973

Bernd Nothofer

Dissertation: The reconstruction of Proto-Malayo-Javanic
Advisor: Isidore Dyen
Position: Professor Emeritus, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

Clifford Abbott

Dissertation: Derivations of English infinitives
Advisor: Rulon Wells
Position: Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin, Green Bay

William M. Christie, Jr.

Dissertation: A Stratificational view of linguistic change
Advisor: Sydney Lamb
Position: Professor of English, University of Arizona

1972

Paul Alexander Humez

Dissertation: The vocalic system of Modern Standard French
Position: Free Lance Writer

1971

Hans Henrich Hock

Dissertation: The so-called aeoIic inflection of the Greek contract verbs
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position: Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and Sanskrit, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Jorge E. Hankamer

Dissertation: Constraints on deletion rules in syntax
Position: Professor, UC Santa Cruz

1970

Delagnel H. Roop

Dissertation: A grammar of the Lisu language
Advisor: William Cornyn
Position: Professor Emeritus, University of Hawaii, Department of Indo-Pacific Languages

David Francis

Dissertation: Greek disyllabic roots: The aorist formations
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position Professor of Classics, University of Texas, Deceased

David C. Bennett

Dissertation: Spatial & temporal uses of English presuppositions
Position: Professor, School of Oriental and African Studies, London, Deceased: 2002

1969

H. Christoph Wolfart

Dissertation: An outline of Plains Cree morphology
Advisor: Floyd Lounsbury
Position: Distinguished Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, University of Manitoba,

Yoshihiko Ikegami

Dissertation: The semiotic structure of the English verbs of motion
Position: Professor, University of Tokyo

1968

Elizabeth W. Barber

Dissertation: The computer-aided analysis of undeciphered ancient texts
Position: Professor Emerita of Archaeology and Linguistics, Occidental College

Sarah Thomason

Dissertation: Noun suffixation in Serbo-Croatian dialects
Advisor: Alexander Schenker
Position: Professor, University of Michigan

1967

Andrew L. Sihler

Dissertation: On the phonemic status of the Proto-Indoeuropean resonants
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position: Professor of Linguistics, University of Wisconsin–Madison

Henry E. Rogers

Dissertation: The phonology and morphology of Sherbro
Position: Professor, University of Toronto, Deceased: February 2, 2010

John Guy Fought

Dissertation: A grammar of Chortí
Position: Professor of Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

Paul H. Voorhis

Dissertation: A grammar of Kickapoo
Position: Emeritus Professor of Native Studies and Languages, Brandon University, Manitoba

1966

Frederick J. Damerau

Dissertation: Empirical investigation of statistically generated sentences
Position Researcher, IBMThomas J. Watson, Deceased: January 27, 2009,

Raimo Anttila

Dissertation: Proto-Indoeuropean schwa-ablaut
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position: Professor Emeritus, UCLA Linguistics

Adam Makkai

Dissertation: The idiom structure of English
Advisor: Rulon Wells
Position: Professor Emeritus, University of Illinois at Chicago

1965

John U. Wolff

Dissertation: Syntax of Cebuano Bisayari
Advisor: Isidore Dyen
Position: Professor Emeritus, Linguistics and Asian Studies, Cornell University

1964

Valerie Becker Makkai

Dissertation: Verb structures of Modern Literary Arabic and Lebanese Colloquial Arabic
Position: Professor Emerita, University of Illinois at Chicago

W. Keith Percival

Dissertation: A grammar of Toba-Batak
Advisor: Isidore Dyen
Position: Professor Emeritus, University of Kansas

Alan M. Stevens

Dissertation: A grammar of Madurese
Advisor: Isidore Dyen
Position: Professor Emeritus, Queens College

Kay R.M. Williamson

Dissertation: The Kolokuma dialect of Ijo
Advisor: Bernard Bloch
Position Dean, Graduate School University of Port Harcourt, Deceased: January 3, 2005,

1962

Samuel Jay Keyser

Dissertation: The dialect of Samuel Worcester
Advisor: Helge Kökeritz
Position: Professor of Linguistics Emeritus, MIT

1961

John J. Chew, Jr.

Dissertation: A transformational analysis of the syntax of Colloquial Japanese
Position: Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto-Anthropology

1960

George Cardona

Dissertation: The Indo-European thematic aorists
Advisor: Warren Cowgill
Position: Professor Emeritus of Linguistics and South Asian Studies, University of Pennsylvania

Karl M.D. Rosen

Dissertation: Greek loans in Latin through the period of the Republic
Position: Professor in Classics and Linguistics, University of Kansas, Deceased: July 19, 2018,

Herbert Landar

Dissertation: Navaho syntax
Advisor: Floyd Lounsbury
Position: Professor of Linguistics, English and Anthropology, California State University of Los Angeles, Deceased: February 3, 2003

1959

Hugh M. Stimson

Dissertation: The Chung-yüan yin yüng: A study in an Early Mandarin phonological system
Position: Yale University (Professor Emeritus), Deceased, January 24, 2011

1958

Wallace Chafe

Dissertation: Seneca morphology
Position Professor of Linguistics University of California, Santa Barbara, Deceased: February 3, 2019

Robert A. Bays

Dissertation: Tense and aspect in Spanish

Franklin Southworth

Dissertation: An experiment in the comparative method based on four modern Indic languages
Position: Professor Emeritus of South Asian Linguistics, University of Pennsylvania

1957

Warren Cowgill

Dissertation: The Indo-european longavowel preterites
Position: Professor of Linguistics, Yale University, Deceased: 1985,

1955

John C. Street

Dissertation: Outline grammar of the language of the Secret History of the Mongols
Position: Professor Emeritus, University of Wisconsin-Madison,

Betty J. Sheft

Dissertation: Grammatical method in Pivini

Roderick Ross Macdonald

Dissertation: Russian prepositions

Warren Held

Dissertation: The relative sentence in Hittite

Kun Chng

Dissertation: The Kathinavastu (study of a Buddhist Hybrid Sanskrit text)

1954

Lawrence C. Thompson

Dissertation: Grammar of South Vietnamese
Position: Professor of Linguistics, University of Hawaii, Deceased: 2009,

Richard B. Noss

Dissertation: Outline of Siamese grammar

1953

Alfred Sheldon Wise

Dissertation: Russian noun suffixation

Alexander Schenker

Dissertation: Nominal inflection in modern colloquial Polish
Position: Professor of Slavic Languages and Literature, Yale University, Deceased: August 21, 2019

Howard B. Garey

Dissertation: The historical development of tenses from Late Latin to Old French
Position: Professor, Yale University, Deceased: September 27, 2014,

1950

Andrew H. Yarrow

Dissertation:

Eleanor H. Jorden

Dissertation:
Advisor: Bernard Block
Position: Chairman of the Department of East Asian Languages at the U.S. State Department’s Foreign Service Institute, Deceased: February 18, 2009

Samuel E. Martin

Dissertation: Japanese morphophonemics
Advisor: Bernard Bloch
Position: Professor of Far Eastern Linguistics, Yale University, Deceased: November 28, 2009

Notable Linguists Awarded Yale Degrees in Other Fields

1963 Paul Postal

(PhD Anthropology): Some syntactic rules in Mohawk

1963 Stanley Insler

(PhD Far Eastern Languages & Literatures)

1955 Harold C. Conklin

(PhD Anthropology)

1949 Floyd G. Lounsbury

(PhD Anthropology): Comparative Iroquoian morphology

1939 Charles F. Hockett

(PhD Anthropology): A descriptive grammar of the Potawatomi Language

1935 Mary Haas

(PhD Anthropology): A grammar of the Tunica language

1933 Walter Dyk

(PhD Anthropology): A grammar of Wishram

1933 Morris Swadesh

(PhD Anthropology): The internal economy of the Nootka word

1933 Stanley Stewart Newman

(PhD Anthropology): A grammatical sketch of Yokuts