I am a linguist because I am interested in language understood as the most consequential and differentiating capacity of our species.
We do not yet thoroughly understand what language is. What is a language-ready brain, in the species and each individual? What computational and other capacities does it rely on? Which of them are generic and which domain-specific? How does language relate to human thought and communication? What do the existing languages tell us about it? Why can it be developed in the signed modality? Why is there no written modality independent of speech? Why does language not develop in conditions like non-verbal autism? Why does it go astray affecting rationality (schizophrenia) at times, and without affecting it at other times (aphasia)?
I am very fortunate to deal with these topics both through research (disorganized speech in schizophrenia and minimally verbal autism (a case study)) and teaching (introduction to linguistics, biolinguistics and syntax). In this way, I hope to contribute to advancing knowledge about what language is.
