Li-Fang Lai

My previous research on Yami, an endangered indigenous/Austronesian language spoken in Taiwan, comprises two primary threads. The first concerns how language contact and linguistic ecology have driven sound change in Yami. The second line of my research deals with intonation and prosody, with a focus on (a) investigating the interaction between syntax, pragmatics, and intonation in Yami and (b) examining whether there is contact-induced prosodic variation in Yami-Mandarin bilinguals’ intonation patterns.

I am currently extending my research to bilingual and bidialectal language processing using behavioral and ERP methods and am interested in developing experimental research paradigms in auditory processing that can be employed in field settings.

Research Interests:

Sociophonetic variation, intonation and prosody, language contact and language variation, psycholinguistics, ERPs, perception and production in bilingual and bidialectal speakers, field methods, Yami, Mandarin, Appalachian English, Pennsylvania Dutch English