Jeffrey Geiger
I'm a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Pomona College.
I received my PhD in 2020 from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago. My dissertation, Antecedence and context: Identity and nonidentity in verb phrase ellipsis and anaphoric deaccenting, was advised by Ming Xiang, with Chris Kennedy and Jason Merchant on the committee.
My research concentrates on the interaction between narrow linguistic antecedents and the broader context of utterance in the licensing and interpretation of context-sensitive linguistic expressions. I develop novel experimental paradigms to investigate the interfaces of discourse with syntax, prosody, and semantics.
Research
VP ellipsis and verbal anaphora in context
In this line of research, I explore the interpretation of verb phrase ellipsis (VPE) and other verbal anaphors such as do that in discourse contexts featuring salient information in both the immediate linguistic context and the broader situational context. My experimental results constrain the range of possible interpretation mechanisms for these constructions, suggesting that they consider both linguistic antecedent and broader contextual information, with different constructions potentially introducing different idiosyncratic interpretation biases.
[VPE and verbal anaphora research products]
Deaccenting licensing
I also study the licensing of anaphoric deaccenting, concentrating on the conditions under which material can be deaccented when inferable from, but not overtly instantiated in, the prior context. My results have shown that deaccenting under inference requires considerable support from the discourse context beyond straightforward lexical inferencing relations.
[deaccenting research products]
Dissertation
Title: Antecedence and context: Identity and nonidentity in verb phrase ellipsis and anaphoric deaccenting
Committee: Ming Xiang (chair), Chris Kennedy, Jason Merchant
My dissertation combined the VP ellipsis and anaphoric deaccenting threads of my research, experimentally investigating the role of context for each construction and remarking on the theoretical similarities and differences between the two with respect to the mechanisms for recruiting information from the broader discourse context.
This research was supported by an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant, #BCS-1827404.
All work
CV
| 2020 | PhD | Linguistics | University of Chicago |
| 2016 | MA | Linguistics | University of Chicago |
| 2012 | BA | Linguistics & Geography | Northwestern University |
[CV pdf]
Teaching
Pomona College
| Ongoing | Senior Thesis in Linguistics & Cognitive Science |
| Spring 2022 | Semantics & Pragmatics |
| Spring 2022 | Introduction to Linguistics (two sections) |
| Fall 2021 | Syntactic Analysis |
| Fall 2021 | Psycholinguistics |
| Spring 2021 | Introduction to Cognitive Science (two sections) |
| Fall 2020 | Topics in Cognitive Science: Culture and Cognition |
| Fall 2020 | Introduction to Cognitive Science |
University of Chicago
| Winter 2020 | Psycholinguistics co-taught with Ming Xiang |
| Winter 2019 | Introduction to Linguistics |
| Fall 2018 | Psycholinguistics |
| Fall 2017 | Psycholinguistics |
Contact
Jeffrey Geiger
185 E. Sixth Street
Pomona College LGCS, Edmunds 208
Claremont, CA 91711
jeffrey.geiger@pomona.edu