Diana Archangeli
About Diana Archangeli
Archangeli’s research explores both the fundamental concepts of how phonological systems are organized and the concrete ways in which sounds are used and produced in language.
Her conceptual research, Emergent Phonology (or Minimalist Phonology), asks the question of how much does phonological acquisition rely on innate, language-specific capabilities, and how much can rely on the human’s ability to extract similarities and generalizations from even very small amounts of input data. Diminishing the role of “Universal Grammar” for phonology leads to a different conception of lexical representations and the relations among them. A consequence is the elimination of vexing phonological issues such as abstract underlying representations and opaque surface patterns. (Much of this work is done in collaboration with Douglas Pulleyblank, University of British Columbia.)
This work is a continuation of her earlier work on underspecified representations, which focused on determining the minimal amount of information necessary and sufficient for expressing phonological patterns.
Archangeli also carries out basic research in the field, both documentation and experimental work, in Scotland, Assam (India), and Lombok (Indonesia), as well as looking at English in the United States. These efforts focus on determining the articulation of specific sounds in local languages through the use of ultrasound, and documenting sound systems of lesser studied languages. (Her primary collaborators in this area of research are Jeff Mielke, North Carolina State University (English) and Jon Yip, University of Hong Kong (Assamese & Indonesian languages).)
Research Interests
Phonology, phonology-morphology interface, language discription, articulatory phonetics
Contact Information
Degree(s)
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1984
MA, University of Texas at Austin, 1981
Courses Taught
LING/RSSS/GER 114 LEARNING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
LING/PSY 201 INTRODUCTION TO LINGUISTCS
LING 410/510 FOUNDATIONS OF PHONOLOGICAL THEORY 1
LING 518 HISTORY OF PHONOLOGY
LING 445a/545a STRUCTURE OF A NON-WESTERN LANGUAGE
LING 689 PROFESSIONALISM
LING 696B TOPICS IN PHONOLOGY & PHONETICS
LING 697A LINGUISTICS THEORY