T.J. Martin

About T.J. Martin

My name is T.J. Martin, and I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, in a multilingual environment (French, Arabic, Spanish). From an early age, I developed an acute awareness of language and how it shapes communication, which sparked my passion for learning about diverse languages. Code-switching became a natural part of my daily life, though I didn’t fully realize its significance until later in my academic journey.

As a young adult, I moved to France to study French Literature, in which later I would complete my degree in French Studies at the University of Michigan and afterwards in Linguistics at Wayne State University. My time abroad has deepened my understanding of the complex interconnection between race, language, and identity. However, it wasn’t until the final stages of my dissertation that I fully grasped the profound impact of these dynamics on my thinking, perspective, and use of language.

My research now focuses on African American Language (AAL), specifically exploring its phonetic and phonological systems. I am investigating the role of utterance-initial stops in AAL speakers across the U.S. (specifically the East coast, the South, and the Midwest) and examining how speech rate influences comprehension. To support this research, I am employing computational methods to visualize and analyze the data that I am annotating in Praat. My dissertation reflects my broader exploration of identity, race, and language, and how they shape our experiences of the world. I do have two boys, (Rémy and Pico) they are such a bundle of joy and brighten my stressful days.

Areas of Study

Syntax, Morphology, Phonetics/Phonology, Sociolinguistics, Typology, Language variation/change/evolution, Computational Linguistics. 

Projects

I am currently working on an R package for Word Orders. 

Research Interests

I have done most of my past research, before coming to U of Arizona, in the domain of Syntax from a Minimalist and Typological perspective. However, I am interested in a multitude of fields in Linguistics such as: Language Acquisition in Typically developing children and children with a specific language impairment (SLI), Language Contact, (Socio)Phonetics & Phonology. I am a native speaker of AAL. I am interested in Pidgin & Creole languages, French, Spanish, and Semitic languages. My overarching research program is on language change, language evolution, and language variation. I aim to look at how Race, Gender, and Sexuality intertwine with language and how this changes in societies across the globe.