My research is concerned with the stylistic use of phonetic variables to construct social personae, and with the relationship between linguistic variables and perceived social information (based in stereotypes). I am particularly interested in how the interpretation of an individual's social identity is stored in the mind and linked to linguistic (phonetic, lemma, and syntactic) information. In order to investigate this, I use a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods, including ethnography, acoustic phonetic analysis, and speech perception experiments.
At UHM, I am the convener for the In-Group, a group of made up of faculty and students who work in a variety of areas within sociolinguistics. If you are in Hawai‘i and would like to join us, please do not hesitate to contact me.
