How does language work if it works? Most of my research is motivated by this question. I want to know how we learn, store, and use language, and how we manage to do all this so extraordinarily fast and accurately.
My research interests include lexical access in L1 and L2, the way in which language production and comprehension are a function of age, and how they interact with executive functions and long-term memory. I often use idioms and other types of fixed expressions to study these issues.
More recently, I have developed an interest in conditions in which language production is less effective than it could be (e.g., L2 production, stuttering). I believe that - much like the analysis of speech errors in the early days of psycholinguistics - a better understanding of these situations provides us with valuable information about the way in which our cognitive system processes language.
I am an assistant professor at the Center for Language of Cognition, University of Groningen, and I teach in the bachelor's and research master's programs in linguistics.
