MILa is a research group under the umbrella of Brandeis Laboratory for Linguistics and Computation.

Our research focuses on the cross-linguistic exploration of issues in formal semantics, formal pragmatics, and in the semantics-pragmatics interface. A central goal of this research is to work out the proper division of explanatory labour between the effects of syntax and morphology, the compositional semantic mechanisms and rationality-based inferencing. We pursue four lines of research instantiating this goal:

Determining the source of variation in word meaning as purely semantic or arising from syntax and morphology;

Developing a formal model of speaker-meaning and discourse-level computations;

Defining the extra-linguistic factors that affect truth-conditions, and the way they enter into the meaning computation;

Determining whether separate models are necessary for semantic and pragmatic calculations that concern similar phenomena, such as modality and reference.

Methodologically, we pursue corpus-based investigations of written and spoken language, as well as observational and experimental studies of language use and acquisition, and aim to develop annotated corpora of spoken languages to enable the study of structure, meaning, and use of language.

In addition to the Laboratory for Linguistics and Computation, we are affiliated with the Undergraduate Program in Language and Linguistics, the Computational Linguistics M.A. Program, and the Department of Computer Science at Brandeis University.

Contact

Sophia A. Malamud

Phone: 781-736-2225        
Office: Volen, 137
Mail: MS 018
         415 South Street
         Brandeis University
         Waltham, MA 02454