| 2009- | Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI Tenure-track position in Semantics. |
| 2008-2009 | Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI One-year position in Semantics. |
| 2008 | PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA Completed Five-Year Program in Semantics. |
| 1999 | AB-AM, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA Completed joint four-year Bachelors-Masters program. Graduated magna cum laude with highest honors in Linguistics with related field Computer Science. |
| title | Good Intensions: Paving Two Roads to a Theory of the De re/De dicto Distinction |
| supervisors | Irene Heim (chair), Alan Bale, Kai von Fintel, Danny Fox, Sabine Iatridou |
| description | The traditional scope theory of the de re/de dicto distinction is empirically inadequate, as evidenced by the scope paradoxes discussed in Fodor (1970), Bäuerle (1983), and Percus (2000). This work discusses two replacements for the traditional theory. The first replacement, the situation pronoun theory, which posits covert pronouns in the syntax of natural language representing pairs of worlds and times, overgenerates in several areas. The Intersective Predicate Generalization, extending work by Musan (1997), is proposed to describe one of these areas and a rule of Situation Economy is proposed to capture this generalization. However, several more areas of overgeneration are next discussed, some based on and extending work by Percus (2000), and some new. These cases, involving island constraints, polarity items, and subconstituents of DPs, are all captured under the scope theory. Therefore, a second replacement for the scope theory is proposed, which represents a more modest departure. The split intensionality system separates each intensional operator’s quantificational force from its intensional force, by use of a new operator, ^ after Montague (1970). Although further work is required, this new system preliminarily seems able to solve the problems with the traditional theory without overgenerating as the situation pronoun theory does. |
| 2008 | Marshall M.Weinberg Fund for Graduate Seminars in Cognitive Science: $20,000 to support co-teaching a class combining linguistics and philosophy |
| 2003, '5, '6 | Harvard University Certificate of Distinction in Teaching |
| 2003-2004 | MIT Presidential Fellow |
| 2003 | National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Honorable Mention |
| 1999 | Phi Beta Kappa |
| 1995-1999 | Harvard Scholarship for Academic Achievement |
| submitted | Split Intensionality: A New Scope Theory of De re and De dicto, Linguistic Inquiry |
accepted | Possible Worlds and Wide-Scope Indefinites: A Reply to Bäuerle (1983), Linguistic Inquiry |
| submitted | Situation Economy, Natural Language Semantics |
| to appear | Situation Economy, WCCFL 27 |
| to appear | Only the Strong: Restricting Situation Variables, SALT 18 |
| 2007 | Infinitival Complements and Tense, Sinn und Bedeutung 12 |
| 2007 | Telescoping and Scope Economy, WCCFL 26 |
| 2006 | Scalar Implicatures with Alternative Semantics , SALT 16 |
| 2006 | A Matter of Taste, Manuscript, MIT |
| 2005 | Textsetting, Phonology Generals Paper, MIT |
| Nov 2008 | Split Intensionality, Colloquium, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI |
| Nov 2008 | Comments on Eliza Block's "Is the Symmetry Problem Really a Problem?", Workshop in Philosophy and Linguistics, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI |
| Oct 2008 | Split Intensionality, Colloquium, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI |
| Apr 2008 | Situation Economy, Colloquium, Concordia University, Montréal, QC |
| Mar 2008 | Situation Economy, Talk, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI |
| Mar 2008 | Scope and Intensionality, Class Presentation, University of Michigan |
| 2008 | Situation Economy, WCCFL 27, UCLA |
| 2008 | Only the Strong: Restricting Situation Variables, SALT 18, UMass |
| 2007 | The World on Time, Southern New England Workshop on Semantics, MIT |
| 2007 | Infinitival Complements and Tense, Sinn und Bedeutung 12, University of Oslo |
| 2007 | Telescoping and Scope Economy, WCCFL 26, UC Berkeley |
| 2006 | Scalar Implicatures with Alternative Semantics , SALT 16, University of Tokyo |
| 2009 | Seminar: Discourse Constraints on Anaphora, University of Michigan Co-taught with Eric Swanson |
| 2008 | Aspects of Meaning, University of Michigan Undergraduate Introduction to Semantics |
| 2006 | Graduate Introduction to Semantics, MIT, with Irene Heim Teaching Assistant; led two special sessions on logic; led weekly section. |
| 2005 | Undergraduate Introduction to Linguistics, MIT, with Norvin Richards Teaching Assistant; led weekly section. |
| 2003-2006 | Freshman Seminar in Computational Linguistics, Harvard, with Stuart Shieber Teaching Assistant all four years class was offered; led weekly section; wrote and corrected all problem sets; created software for students to write morphology, syntax, and semantics rules. |
| 2009 |
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| 2008 | Reviewer, Journal of Semantics, Oxford University Press | |
| 2007 | Organizer, "Mereological Summer" Semantics Reading Group, MIT | |
| 2001-2008 | Freelance Computer Programmer, Cambridge, MA Worked for companies ranging from an online chat site to a non-profit providing electronics kits to high school students | |
| 2000-2001 | Freelance Computer Programmer, WordStream, Inc., Somerville, MA Provided expertise to team of linguists at translation software company by authoring guides for writing grammar rules and solving toughest grammar problems; improved efficiency through redesign of grammar and morphology formalisms. |