Research Interests
- Tone
how tone behaves in tone and pitch accent languages and how the
differences among these languages fit into a unified theory of
tone. Also, what lessons can we learn from tone for phonological
theory?
- Phonological theory:
how to represent the basic units of phonological systems and how to
state the basic tenets of phonological theory, e.g. in terms of
derivational rules or in terms of constraints.
- African language pedagogy:
how to deal with the typical problems encountered in African language
teaching, including the scarcity of teaching materials for most
languages, the scarcity of experienced teachers, and the need to
assure students that time spent learning an African language is well
spent in an American university setting.
- West African French:
a course in French for U.S. college students using the French spoken
in West Africa as a linguistic and cultural basis,
with colleagues at Stanford and at Florida International University