Michael Becker
michael.becker@phonologist.org
mxbecker@indiana.edu
Assistant professor, IU Linguistics
Research interests
- Phonology, the lexicon, and the connections between them
- Modeling variable and categorical effects in the lexicon
- Acquisition of grammatical trends by humans and machines
Recent journal publications
- Michael Becker, Andrew Nevins, and Jonathan Levine (2012) Asymmetries in generalizing alternations to and from initial syllables. Language 88:2, pp. 231–268.
- Maria Gouskova and Michael Becker (to appear) Nonce words show that Russian yer alternations are governed by the grammar. NLLT.
- Michael Becker and Anne-Michelle Tessier (2011) Trajectories of faithfulness in child-specific phonology. Phonology 28:2, pp. 163–196.
- Michael Becker, Nihan Ketrez, and Andrew Nevins (2011) The surfeit of the stimulus: Analytic biases filter lexical statistics in Turkish laryngeal alternations. Language 87:1, pp. 84–125.
Submitted manuscripts
- (submitted) Michael Becker and Maria Gouskova (NYU) Source-oriented generalizations as grammar inference in Russian vowel deletion.
- (Under revision for NLLT) Michael Becker, Lauren Eby Clemens, and Andrew Nevins. A richer model is not always more accurate: the case of French and Portuguese plurals.
- (Under revision for Phonology) Michael Becker and Lena Fainleib. The naturalness of product-oriented generalizations. Ms. UMass Amherst. Also available as ROA-1036.
Recent/upcoming news
- January 3-6, 2013: I presented "Wug-testing source-oriented generalizations: grammar inference in yer deletion" at the 87th meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Boston, MA. With Maria Gouskova (NYU). [project page]
- October 19-21, 2012: I presented "Source-oriented generalizations as grammar inference in yer deletion" at the 43rd Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, CUNY. With Maria Gouskova (NYU). [project page]