Linguistics Research
Language is produced and interpreted in context, not only within an immediate physical context, but also in the context of interlocutors' previous linguistic and physical experiences. Despite each speaker's unique set of experiences, they generally manage to converge on a set of representations of categories and the linguistic means to describe them that are similar enough to enable communication. I am interested in the way speakers acquire these representations and in the ways context and world knowledge interact in language use. My dissertation focuses on dimensional adjectives such as big and tall, which are context dependent and therefore provide a good testing ground for examining these interactions.
[abstract]
Which hippos are big?
Figure 1: Sample trial display for Experiment 1a (Kessler, 2019), showing hippos in ascending order. The display was accompanied by the audio question "Which hippos are big?"
Education
April 2019
Stanford University
PhD, Linguistics
Dissertation: World Knowledge, Context and Structure: The use and acquisition of dimensional adjectives
Committee: Meghan Sumner (co-advisor), Dan Lassiter (co-advisor), Beth Levin
June 2012
Hebrew University
MA in Linguistics
Thesis: Understanding Binyan Semantics through Language Acquisition
Advisors: Edit Doron, Yonata Levy
June 2009
Hebrew University
BA, Linguistics, minor in History
Presentations
2018
How World Knowledge Shifts Adjective Interpretation
The 40th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society
[poster]
2018
The Structured Acquisition of Dimensional Adjectives
92nd Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
[poster]
2016
At Most Readings for Bare Numerals under Necessity Modality
90th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America
[poster]