Profile

I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at California State University, Fresno (i.e., Fresno State). I specialize in Hispanic linguistics, second language acquisition, and computational linguistics. My research hence draws upon different approaches to language research, including variationist and usage-based linguistics. I am also an experienced language teacher and a practicing translator and interpreter (EN <> ES, FR <> ES). In my free time I enjoy going to the movies, playing adventure videogames, and eating peanut butter cups.

Updates

November 2024: Presented a paper at the 52nd annual Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV), held in Miami, FL.
September 2024: Published an article in Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics
October 2023: Chaired a panel and presented a paper at the 2023 PAMLA Conference held in Portland, OR
September 2023: Published an article in Research Methods in Applied Linguistics
Fall 2023: Joined Fresno State as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures.
August 2023: Awarded Doctor of Philosophy degree from Pitt.
July 2023: Published a new chapter in the Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Usage-Based Linguistics.

Recent work

Synthetic and analytic forms in variation

In this project on L2 tense-mood-aspect marking, we examine variation between synthetic (i.e., morphological) and analytic (i.e., periphrastic) forms to encode progressiveness in Spanish. Learners showed increasingly target-like patterns of selection with increases in proficiency, and mixed-effects regression analyses revealed that novel factors such as lexical frequency and temporality, in addition to dynamicity, were relevant predictors of development. This study was published in the the latest issue of Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics.

Online written map task

In this collaborative project, we offer recommendations for creating a novel, customizeable map task. As proof of concept, we present a pilot study exemplifying our own map implementation, designed to elicit informal written communication in either English or Spanish. We describe the use of computational methods to measure task success, and we also provide a comparative analysis of the language elicited in both languages. This study was published in the December 2023 issue of Research Methods in Applied Linguistics.

Corpora, cognition, and usage-based linguistics

In this collaborative chapter we review the origins of usage-based approaches to language development and change, including their connection to human cognition. We also address the compatibility of these approaches with increasingly-sophisticated corpus design and query tools, and review recent studies on usage-based factors across different corpora, languages, and linguistic structures. This is one of the chapters published in Wiley Blackwell's Handbook of Usage-Based Linguistics (2023).

Future-in-the-past expression

Two forms commonly used to express future in the past are the periphrastic future in the imperfect (e.g., iba a bailar ‘I was going to dance’) and the conditional (e.g., bailaría ‘I would dance’). In this study we investigate future-in-the-past expression in residents of Seville, Spain and Caracas, Venezuela using a preference task. This study was published as a chapter John Benjamin's Innovative Approaches to Research in Hispanic Linguistics (2023).

Contact

Feel free to contact me by email or using the form below.

  • Address

    5245 N. Backer Ave.
    M/S PB-96
    Fresno, CA 93740

  • Email

    jb25 [at] csufresno [dot ] edu