PhD Students

Noa Brandel
English Second Language Acquisition by Hebrew Speakers Characterization of the linguistic knowledge in English as a second language and examination of teaching methods enabling a more effective acquisition. The research focuses on syntactic phenomena in which Hebrew and English differ, e.g., null subjects and the properties associated with them, and the (lack of) use of resumptive pronouns when forming relative clauses.

Noa Brandel

English Second Language Acquisition by Hebrew Speakers
Characterization of the linguistic knowledge in English as a second language and examination of teaching methods enabling a more effective acquisition. The research focuses on syntactic phenomena in which Hebrew and English differ, e.g., null subjects and the properties associated with them, and the (lack of) use of resumptive pronouns when forming relative clauses.

Alon Fishman
*Sensory Modalities in Grammar* My research will investigate the ways in which speakers discuss objects and events perceived via different sensory modalities, ranging from direct reference to certain modalities, through predication which presupposes a particular modality or requires contextual saturation of modality, to synesthetic metaphors which include cross-modal projection.

Shir Givoni
Marking Multiple Meanings Following my M.A. thesis, this study explores the online effect of low-salience markers or meaning-changers on the activation of low-salience meanings. It will test the Low Salience Marking Hypothesis (Givoni, Giora, and Bergerbest 2013) according to which such markers boost activation levels of less salient, i.e., less familiar, less frequent, less prototypical or less conventional meanings (The Graded Salience Hypothesis, Giora 2003) of utterances/concepts within the marker's scope. Online experiments will test the Low Salience Marking Hypothesis by measuring response times to lexical decision tasks.

Shir Givoni

Marking Multiple Meanings
Following my M.A. thesis, this study explores the online effect of low-salience markers or meaning-changers on the activation of low-salience meanings. It will test the Low Salience Marking Hypothesis (Givoni, Giora, and Bergerbest 2013) according to which such markers boost activation levels of less salient, i.e., less familiar, less frequent, less prototypical or less conventional meanings (The Graded Salience Hypothesis, Giora 2003) of utterances/concepts within the marker's scope. Online experiments will test the Low Salience Marking Hypothesis by measuring response times to lexical decision tasks.

Noa Karni
English as a Heritage Language in Israel Assessment and characterization of the linguistic knowledge of heritage English speakers in Israel in comparison to monolingual English speakers and late (L2) English learners, focusing on phonological and morpho-syntactic phenomena sensitive to the English-Hebrew language contact.

Itai Kupershmidt
Alternative Relations in Biblical Hebrew: A Syntactic, Semantic, and Pragmatic Study A new investigation of alternative relations as reflected in biblical Hebrew given in the Masoretic-Tiberian version, via examining ways of expression and varied interpretations, as well as clarifying the concept of irrealis in the relations' definition.

Tal Ness
Prediction Mechanisms in Sentence Processing I study prediction mechanisms in sentence processing, focusing on the interface between long-term memory and working memory, the influences of prediction strength, the consequences of prediction failure, and adaptation of prediction mechanisms. I employ psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic experimental methods, mainly using EEG and behavioral measures.

Tal Ness

Prediction Mechanisms in Sentence Processing
I study prediction mechanisms in sentence processing, focusing on the interface between long-term memory and working memory, the influences of prediction strength, the consequences of prediction failure, and adaptation of prediction mechanisms. I employ psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic experimental methods, mainly using EEG and behavioral measures.

Lior Ordentlich
The Psychological Reality of Idiom Storage An investigation into the representation and storage of idioms in the mental lexicon, based on behavioral and neurolinguistic measures. Read more.

Aviv Schoenfeld
Reference to Kinds, Plurality, and Countability I study the interface between three central topics in the semantics of nouns and noun phrases: reference to kinds, plurality, and countability. I analyze semantic facts about two sorts of indefinite noun phrases (in English) that are built on count and mass nouns and denote sets of kinds: nouns with a subkind reading (I wonder which bird* is the most common, I wonder which cheese is the most common), and noun phrases with kind (I wonder which kind of bird is the most common, I wonder which kind of cheese is the most common, different kinds of birds, birds of different kinds*). My goal is to provide a comprehensive and unified analysis of the most basic facts at the interface between the three aforementioned phenomena.

Aviv Schoenfeld

Reference to Kinds, Plurality, and Countability
I study the interface between three central topics in the semantics of nouns and noun phrases: reference to kinds, plurality, and countability. I analyze semantic facts about two sorts of indefinite noun phrases (in English) that are built on count and mass nouns and denote sets of kinds: nouns with a subkind reading (I wonder which bird is the most common, I wonder which cheese is the most common), and noun phrases with kind (I wonder which kind of bird is the most common, I wonder which kind of cheese is the most common, different kinds of birds, birds of different kinds). My goal is to provide a comprehensive and unified analysis of the most basic facts at the interface between the three aforementioned phenomena.

Renana Yaron
Hebrew among Typically-Developing and Language Impaired Children The study concerns factors affecting lexical retrieval of Hebrew-speaking children at different age-schooling levels, identified as having typical compared with atypical language development.

Hadas Yeverechyahu
Hebrew Phonotactics: Frequency and Grammar The study examines phonotactic restrictions in Modern Hebrew, focusing on the factors that shape these restrictions in the synchronic phonological system. It aims to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the role of external and internal factors in language knowledge, taking frequencies in the lexicon as the external factor and universal constraints as the internal factor.

Hadas Yeverechyahu

Hebrew Phonotactics: Frequency and Grammar
The study examines phonotactic restrictions in Modern Hebrew, focusing on the factors that shape these restrictions in the synchronic phonological system. It aims to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the role of external and internal factors in language knowledge, taking frequencies in the lexicon as the external factor and universal constraints as the internal factor.