I am a formal semanticist and fieldworker, with interfacing interests in pragmatics, typology, syntax and cognitive science.

My primary interests lie in exploring how human beings compute complexity in meaning and structure, using formal mathematical and logical tools. I am most interested in formulating rigorous theoretical models that can handle empirical diversity, i.e. the overlap of formal semantics and typology. My specific research topics so far have included modality (epistemic and deontic), evidentiality (nominal and propositional), questions (wh-, polar, biased, embedded, concealed) and question particles, discourse particles, lexical semantics of verbs/verb roots/the semantics of affixation (morpho-semantics interface), embedding and complementation, disjunction, and negative polarity items. Overall, what can we learn about underlying universals in human linguistic systems from semantics + rich typologies?

My main empirical focus is South Asian languages, especially on indigenous, endangered and underresourced languages in the South Asian linguistic area. Recent joint work has also focused on Romanian, Oromo, and Cantonese. Most of my data is gathered through semantic fieldwork on site or through virtual native speaker interviews and surveys.
Since Fall 2022-present, I have been in the field (Meghalaya, northern Bengal, etc.) studying modality and complementation in Khasi, (Chungli) Ao, Adi, Lepcha, Meiteilon, Assamese, Nepali, funded by the NSF. I am currently working with some indigenous or adivasi communities in West Bengal, such as the Munda, Mahali, Kol/Ho, Santhali, Koda (Austro-Asiatic), Toto (Sino-Tibetan), which are endangered and in need of revitalization.

I was recently awarded the National Science Foundation CAREER grant for my 2022-2027 research project Theory, Fieldwork, and Typology: A Semantic/Pragmatic Triad in Underrepresented Linguistic Systems, within the NSF Division Of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences.
[dept. news]

I run a semantics fieldwork lab at the University of Minnesota, called the Fieldwork Integrates Theory & Typology (FITT) lab, with undergraduate and graduate students.
Apart from the Institute of Linguistics, I am also a member of the graduate faculty in the Center for Cognitive Sciences at the University of Minnesota.

I am also actively interested in misinformation and disinformation research and how such digitized information packets interface with linguistic processing, computation of meaning online and causal connections with belief systems. I have been awarded a Grant-in-Aid award from the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) at UMN for my joint project with colleagues in Educational Psychology (CEHD) titled An experimental investigation of the linguistic properties of clickbait.

Prior to joining UMN, I received a Ph.D. in Linguistics with a Certificate in Cognitive Science from Rutgers University (2017), and was a Lecturer at the Department of Linguistics at Harvard University (2018 and 2019).

Recent:

I organized (F)ASAL-11 at the University of Minnesota, March 26th-March 28th, 2021:
Formal Approaches to South Asian Languages conference

A dear friend and fellow semanticist passed away recently, I made a website to celebrate his works and his life:
Rahul Balusu, in memoriam

Research

Journal Articles, Book Chapters, Under Review

Proceedings Papers

Invited Talks

Dissertation

2017. Evidentiality and Questions: Bangla at the Interfaces       RUCore       LingBuzz

Broadly speaking, two themes are intertwined in this dissertation: (i) perspective-sensitive elements such as evidentials and epistemic modals across different speech acts; (ii) embedded and unembedded disjunction and alternative questions. Both themes are explored from the lens of the syntax-semantics interface.

Refereed Presentations

Teaching