Main profile

Jeff

Lidz

Professor

Interests: 

Language Acquisition, Psycholinguistics, Semantics, Syntax

Projects: 

Graduate-IGERT, Infant Child Studies, LSC Faculty, Outreach, Winter Storm

Units: 

Language Science Center, Linguistics

Degree(s): 

PhD 1996, Linguistics, University of Delaware

Contact: 

jlidz@umd.edu

301-405-8220

1417 Marie Mount Hall

Role(s): 

Faculty, Management

Website: 

http://ling.umd.edu/~jlidz

Google Scholar Profile

About: 

I study syntax and semantics through the lens of language acquisition and comparative syntax. And, I study language acquisition through the lens of comparative syntax and semantics. My research uses the tools of comparative and theoretical syntax in order to build hypotheses about the kinds of structures that learners expect to find in language. From this jumping off point, I then ask how learners are able to traverse the space of possible grammars in acquiring a particular language. This requires proper apportioning of explanation between three components of a learning mechanism: the perceptual intake, the inductive bias, and the inference engine that links the perceptual intake to the inductive bias in selecting a grammar. This kind of work requires understanding the linguistic and extralinguistic factors that contribute to the learner's perception of their experience, the kinds of statistical inferences learners are able to make, and the range and limits on linguistic representations in human learners.

 

Collaborators: 

UMD:
Robert DeKeyser
Naomi Feldman
Valentine Hacquard
Yi Ting Huang
Rochelle Newman
Nan Ratner
Elizabeth Redcay
Colin Phillips
Paul Pietroski
Alexander Williams

Elsewhere:
Anne Christophe, ENS, Paris
Justin Halberda, Johns Hopkins University
Chung-hye Han, Simon Fraser University
Tim Hunter, University of Minnesota
Shevaun Lewis, Johns Hopkins University
Julien Musolino, Rutgers University
Darko Odic, University of British Columbia
Akira Omaki, Johns Hopkins University
Lisa Pearl, UC Irvine
Meredith Rowe, Harvard University
Lyn Tieu, ENS, Paris
Alexis Wellwood, Northwestern University

Current and Former Students: 

Erin Leddon, PhD 2006; Northwestern University
Ann Bunger, PhD 2006; Indiana University
Jessica Peterson, PhD 2006; GoHealth
Elisa Sneed, PhD 2007; Nanyang Technical University, Singapore
Utako Minai, PhD 2006, University of Kansas
Kristen Syrett, PhD 2007, Rutgers University
Joshua Viau, PhD 2007, Dade County (FL) Public Schools
Chunyan Jing, PhD 2007, Bloomberg LP
Anastasia Conroy, PhD 2008, Fresh Stitches
Eri Takahashi, PhD 2009, University of Toronto, Scarborough
Sun-Young Lee-Ellis, PhD 2012, US Department of State
Annie Gagliardi, PhD 2012, University of Edinborough
Dave Kush, PhD 2012, Haskins Labs, Yale University
Megan Sutton, PhD 2014

Angela He, PhD expected 2015
Kate Harrigan, PhD expected 2015
Aaron Steven White, PhD expected 2015
Naho Orita, PhD expected 2015
Julie Gerard, PhD expected 2016
Rachel Dudley, PhD expected 2017
Mike Fetters, PhD expected 2017
Laurel Perkins, PhD expected 2019
Sigrithur Bjornsdottir, PhD expected 2019