About
I am currently a PhD Candidate at The University of British Columbia (UBC, Vancouver, Canada). I have a Master’s degree in Language Studies from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (2015), and a post-secondary certificate in Translation (English) from Gama Filho University (2013). My Bachelor degree is in Letters (Portuguese-English), from Veiga de Almeida University (2008).
My research interests are syntax, semantics and their interfaces. In my doctoral dissertation, I investigate the parameter that governs the cross-linguistic variation found in the syntactic-semantic mapping of nouns. My three case studies are Brazilian Portuguese (Indo-European, Brazil), Kapampangan (Austronesian, Philippines) and Pirahã (Muran, Brazil).
I have several ongoing projects that contribute to the documentation of Pirahã. Besides the case study in dissertation, I also study how temporal notions are codified in Pirahã in my project ‘Tenselessness in Pirahã’, for which I received the Jacobs Research Fund Kinkade Grant. A second project, ‘Sound Change in Pirahã’, with Emily Sadlier-Brown (UBC) and our student Isabel Salomon, investigates a case of sound change in progress led by women in a Pirahã village, sowing evidence that the same sound change pattern found in WEIRD societies is also found in this Amazonian society. This work is to appear in a special issue of Linguistics Vanguard.
Since 2017 I have been a Research Assistant at TAP Lab (Tense and Aspect in the Pacific Lab). Among other responsibilities I have, the two main ones are: the construction of storyboards to elicit linguistic data, generating pedagogical material to teach tense and aspect in language classes; and the collaboration in a project about the perfect aspect cross-linguistically, called ‘Nobody’s Perfect’.
I am also the idealizer and co-founder of LaLaLab (Languages of Latin America Lab), a student-led research group focusing on the indigenous and autochthonous languages of Latin America.
Besides the research experience, I also have 13 years of teaching experience. More recently, I was also the TA Training Coordinator at UBC linguistics, for two years, organizing and facilitating workshops for the professional development of TAs in the department.