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  6. Adam McCollum

Adam McCollum

Linguistics

I transitioned directly from UCSD to Rutgers University, where I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics. In my research, I examine the computational and representational structures that pervade sound patterns in human language. I'm interested in the kinds of phonological representations manipulated in cognition. Are they binary (+ or -) only, or does a person's mental grammar use a richer representational system? I'm also interested in how the computational complexity of a particular sound pattern affects its frequency across languages, as well as what kinds of sounds patterns are learnable and what kinds aren't by humans. Methodologically, my work draws on fieldwork, experimentation, as well as computational modeling. The lion's share of my fieldwork has been conducted in Central Asia, although I am now starting several projects in West Africa (pandemic-permitting!).