I am a laboratory phonologist, which means I worry about sounds both as physical entities and as grammatical entities. Broadly, I'm interested in phonological categories: What are they? How are they formed? What's the evidence for them? How do they relate to the phonetic substrate? In more traditional terms, I study features, segments and inventories and the way they play together at the phonology-phonetics interface.
My dissertation considered the class of voiced spirants (the voiced, non-sibilant fricatives), with a special focus on [v]. Specifically, I looked at how [v] and the remaining voiced spirants patterned phonetically, phonologically, and in terms of their distribution to consonant inventories with respect to the obstruent-sonorant divide. My dissertation can be downloaded here.
I have recently shifted much of my energy to linguistic pedagogy. I am particularly committed to using linguistics to shed light on issues of discrimination and prejudice, and I strive to design inclusive classrooms that don't shy away from tackling difficult issues. I am also concerned with getting undergraduates involved in authentic research, both in classes and in the senior theses I advise.
Baker Hall 138, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh PA 15213
cbjorn AT andrew DOT cmu DOT edu
About Me
When I'm not linguisticating, I have the privilege and joy of experiencing the world through the eyes of my ten-year-old son, Anagnostis, and my seven-year-old daughter, Athena. My husband Adam is a mathematician, so we named our dog Tarski, after the logician. I cook a lot, knit a lot, exercise whenever I can, and try to read non-linguistics related material as often as possible.
