Publications & Talks

 

Note: If you're having trouble accessing any of the papers or documents, please don't hesitate to email the authors for a copy!

(members of M&M Lab listed in bold)

​​​​2024

  • Ankana Saha, Yağmur Sağ, Jian Cui, and Kathryn Davidson. Mandarin demonstratives as strong definites: An experimental investigation. Talk at Experiments in Linguistic Meaning (ELM 3), June 12-14
  • Hayley Ross, Najoung Kim, and Kathryn Davidson. Fake reefs are sometimes reefs and sometimes not, but are always compositional. Talk at Experiments in Linguistic Meaning (ELM 3), June 12-14.
  • Hande Sevgi. Gesture type matters: Encoding path and manner in space. Poster at IMPRS (The International Max Planck Research School for Language Sciences) Conference. Max Planck. June 5-7.
  • Ankana Saha, Yağmur Sağ, Jian Cui, and Kathryn Davidson. Mandarin demonstratives as strong definites: An experimental investigation. Poster at Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT), Rochester, May 28-30.
  • Yuhan Zhang and Kathryn Davidson. Interpreting referential noun phrases in belief reports – the de re/de dicto competition. To appear in Glossa Psycholinguistics. [Paper]
  • Natasha Thalluri and Kathryn Davidson. Degrees and depiction-gradability in sign languages. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung (SuB) 28. [paper]
  • Anastasia Tsilia and Kathryn Davidson. Effects of iconicity and monotonicity on licensing complement anaphora. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung (SuB) 28. [paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Compositionality and Iconicity.  [draft of manuscript]
  • Yağmur Sağ. Fake mass nouns and associative plurality. Talk at NELS 54, MIT, Jan 26-27.

​​​​2023

  • Ankana Saha, Yağmur Sağ and Kathryn Davidson. Focus on demonstratives: Experiments in English and Turkish, in proceedings of Semantics And Linguistic Theory (SALT) 33. [Poster][Paper]
  • Masoud Jasbi, Natalia Bermudez, and Kathryn Davidson. Default biases in the interpretation of English negation, conjunction, and disjunction, in the proceedings of Experiments in Linguistic Meaning 2, 129-141. [Proceedings paper]
  • Hayley Ross, Gennaro Chierchia, and Kathryn Davidson. Quantifying weak and strong crossover for wh-crossover and proper names. Proceedings of the 27th Sinn und Bedeutung conference. [proceedings paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Semiotic distinctions in compositional semantics. Proceedings of the 58th Chicago Linguistic Society. [proceedings paper]
  • Hande Sevgi and Kadir Gökgöz. Age of acquisition effects in zero-anaphora comprehension in Turkish Sign Language. Poster at Boston University Conference of Language Development (BUCLD) 48, November 2-5.
  • Yağmur Sağ. Cardinality and (In)definiteness. Talk at Sinn und Bedeutung (SuB) 28, September 5-8.
  • Kathryn Davidson and Hao Lin. Polar questions via contraries in Chinese Sign Language. Poster/Short talk at Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory (FEAST), June 27-29. [abstract][Slides]
  • Ankana Saha. Reference to kinds: the perspective from Bangla. Talk at the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 41, May 5-7, 2023.
  • Masoud Jasbi, Natalia Bermudez, Yuhan Zhang, Réka Siro, Kathryn Davidson. Crosslinguistic Interpretation of Logical Connectives: Negation, Conjunction, and Disjunction in English, Hungarian, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. Poster at Human Sentence Processing (HSP) Conference, March 9-11. [Poster]
  • Hande Sevgi and Kadir Gökgöz. Classifiers, Argument Expression, and Age of Acquisition Effects in Turkish Sign Language. Sign language and Linguistics 26(1). https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.21006.sev.

​​​​2022

  • Annemarie Kocab, Kathryn Davidson, and Jesse Snedeker. The emergence of natural language quantification. Cognitive Science 46(2). [ms][publisher download]
  • Kathryn Davidson and Deanna Gagne. “More is up” for domain restriction in ASL. Semantics and Pragmatics. [free publisher download]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Formal semantics and pragmatics in sign languages. [draft of book manuscript]
  • Caitlin H. Illingworth, Jee Won Diane Kang, Haley Gibbs, Kathryn Davidson and Roman Feiman. Negative polarity or negative concord? Some children think ’any’ means ’no’. Poster at Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), Nov. 3-6. [poster]
  • Nozomi Tomita. A pointing sign like fillers: One JSL user's discourse journey over time. Poster at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR), September 26-October 1.
  • Kathryn Davidson, Annemarie Kocab, and Dorothy Ahn. Embracing optionality: pragmatic constraints on loci. Poster at Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research (TISLR), September 26-October 1. [poster][abstract]
  • Kathryn Davidson. The value of abstraction for compositionality. Keynote at the Joint meeting of the SPP/ESPP in Milan. July 19-22. [Virtual talk]
  • Yuhan Zhang and Kathryn Davidson. Competing de dicto terms reduce de re acceptability. Talk at Chicago Linguistic Society conference, April 22-24.
  • Shannon Bryant. Expectation as a predictor of pronoun acceptability in English prepositional phrases. Poster at the 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, March 24-26.
  • Ethan Wilcox, Roger Levy, and Kathryn Davidson. How anaphoric are presupposition triggers? Evidence from cataphora. Poster at the 35th Annual Conference on Human Sentence Processing, March 24-26. [poster]
  • Jack Rabinovitch. Narrow Scoping Content Question Items in Shifty Contexts: A Case of Surprising Non-Quotation in Uyghur. Presentation at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 5-8. [Virtual talk]
  • Giuseppe Ricciardi and Josh Martin. Accounting for variability in the truth-evaluation of bare epistemic possibility statements. Presentation at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 5-8. 
  • Shannon Bryant. Location, Location, Location: Anaphora selection in English locative prepositional phrases. Presentation at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 5-8. 
  • Josh Martin. Privatives across phases: disambiguating the sources of adnominal modification. Presentation at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 5-8. 
  • Kathryn Davidson. Depictive versus patterned iconicity and dual semantic representations. Presentation at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 5-8.
  • Tess Monks and Kathryn Davidson. Demonstrative Shift and Proximal Markedness. Poster at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 5-8. [poster]

2021

  • Tess Monks and Kathryn Davidson. Demonstrative Shift and Proximal Markedness. Talk at Formal Diachronic Semantics (FODS) 6, Sept 6-7. [slides]
  • Giuseppe Ricciardi and Joshua Martin. Epistemic modality and the true nature of eavesdropping judgments. Poster at the 47th Meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology (SPP), June 28-July 2 [Poster]
  • Hande Sevgi. Syntax on its own is not enough: Sign language classifiers. Poster at the 57th meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, May 6-8.
  • Ethan Wilcox, Roger Levy and Kathryn Davidson.  Which Presuppositions are Subject to Contextual Felicity Constraints? Semantics and Linguistic Theory (SALT) 31, May 7-9. [proceedings paper]
  • Hande Sevgi. One root to build them all: Classifier constructions in sign languages. Poster at the 39th meeting of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL), April 8-11.
  • Yuhan Zhang,  Giuseppe Ricciardi,  and Kathryn Davidson.  How many response options in a TVJT? It  depends.  Short talk  at  the  34th  annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing, March 4-6. [slides]
  • Joshua Martin. D-linking and the semantics of wh-in-situ. Poster at the LSA Annual Meeting, Jan 7-10.
  • Kathryn Davidson. Implicatures - Theoretical and experimental perspectives. In Josep Quer, Roland Pfau & Annika Herrmann (eds.), Theoretical and Experimental Sign Language Research. Routledge - Taylor and Francis Group. [paper]

2020

  • Masoud Jasbi, Annika McDermott-Hinman, Kathryn Davidson and Susan Carey. Parents’ and Children’s Production of English Negation. Talk at the 45th Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), November 5-8. [proceedings paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson. A negative concord stage in the acquistion of negative polarity items. Poster at the 45th Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD), November 5-8. [poster]
  • Johanna Alstott and Masoud Jasbi. Lexicalization of quantificational forces in adverbial and determiner domains. Poster at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, July 29-Aug 1.
  • Annemarie Kocab, Kathryn Davidson, and Jesse Snedeker. The emergence of natural language quantification. Talk at the Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign language Theory (FEAST) conference, June 23-25.
  • Hande Sevgi and Kadir Gökgöz. To what extent does age of acquisition matter: Evidence from Turkish Sign Language (TİD). Poster at Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory (FEAST) conference, June 23-25.
  • Teodora Mihoc and Kathryn Davidson. Superlative-modified numerals and negation: A negotiable cost. Talk at the 1st ELM (Experiments in Linguistic Meaning) conference, September 16-18. [proceedings paper]
  • Yuhan Zhang and Kathryn Davidson. De re interpretation in belief reports -An experimental investigation. Poster at the 1st ELM (Experiments in Linguistic Meaning) conference, September 16-18. [proceedings paper]
  • Kate Henninger and Kathryn Davidson. Manual and Nonmanual Negation in American Sign Language: A Corpus Study. Poster at the Penn Linguistics Colloquium, March 27-29. (Conference cancelled, paper available)

2019

  • Kathryn Davidson, Annemarie Kocab, Andrea D. Sims, & Laura Wagner. The relationship between verbal form and event structure in sign languages. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1), 123. [free publisher download]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Alternatives: The view from sign language loci. Invited talk at the Amsterdam Colloquium, Dec. 18-20.
  • Kathryn Davidson. Is "experimental" a gradable predicate? Invited talk at NELS, MIT, October 25-27. [proceedings]
  • Dorothy Ahn. ASL IX to locus as a modifier. Talk at NELS, MIT, October 25-27.
  • Kathryn Davidson. Negation in Flux: a negative concord stage in child English. Talk at the Meaning in Flux workshop, Yale, Oct. 10-12. 
  • Ronice Quadros, Kathryn Davidson, Diane Lillo-Martin, & Karen Emmorey. Code-blending with Depicting Signs. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. [pdf][publisher download]
  • Jessica Sullivan, Kathryn Davidson, Shirlene Wade, David Barner. Differentiating scalar implicature from exclusion inferences in language acquisition. Journal of Child Language 46(4), 733-759. [publisher download]
  • Dorothy Ahn, Annemarie Kocab, & Kathryn Davidson. The role of contrast in anaphoric expressions in ASL. Proceedings of GLOW-in-Asia XII, Seoul Korea. 6-9 August 2019. [paper]
  • Annemarie Kocab, Dorothy Ahn, Gunnar Lund, & Kathryn Davidson. Reconsidering agreement in sign languages. Poster at GLOW 42, Oslo, Norway. May 7-11, 2019. [abstract] [poster]
  • Dorothy Ahn. The blocking of anaphoric bare nouns. Talk at GLOW 42, Oslo, Norway. May 7-11, 2019. [abstract]
  • Aurore Gonzalez. Question-Answer Clauses: relation to focus. Invited talk at NYU Semantics Group, NYU, April 26, 2019.
  • Alexander Klapheke & Kathryn Davidson.  NPI Intervention: Crosslinguistic Data. Proceedings of the Tubingen conference on Linguistic Evidence. [free publisher download]
  • Christina Zlogar, Kate Henninger, & Kathryn Davidson. Negating depictive modifiers in sign language and in co-speech gesture. Poster at LSA Annual Meeting, New York, NY. January 3-6, 2019. [poster]
  • Taylor Joyce. A unified contrastive analysis of lateral shift in American Sign Language. Poster at LSA Annual Meeting, New York, NY. January 3-6, 2019. [poster]

2018

  • Aurore Gonzalez. Countability Distinctions without Linguistic Cues.  Proceedings of ConSOLE XXVI. [paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson. What belongs in the “logical core” of a language? Theoretical Linguistics 44(3-4), 227-237. [paper]
  • Aurore Gonzalez, Kate Henninger, & Kathryn Davidson. Answering negative questions in American Sign Language. Talk at RALFe 2018, Paris, France. December 6-7, 2018.
  • Aurore Gonzalez, Kate Henninger, & Kathryn Davidson. Answering negative questions in American Sign Language. Talk at NELS 49, Ithaca, NY. October 5-7, 2018. [abstract][slides][proceedings paper (2019)]
  • Christina Zlogar & Kathryn Davidson. Effects of linguistic context on the acceptability of co-speech gestures. Glossa 3(1), 73. [free publisher download]
  • Dorothy Ahn Kathryn Davidson. Where pointing matters: English and Korean demonstratives. Proceedings of the 48th meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, University of Iceland. [paper]
  • Christina Zlogar, Anna Alsop, & Kathryn Davidson. Description and depiction in a reference game. Talk at XPrag: Experimental Pragmatics, Pavia Italy, May 30-June 1, 2018. [abstract]
  • Kathryn Davidson, Annemarie Kocab, Laura Wagner, & Andrea D. Sims. Verbal form and event structure in sign languages. Poster at Semantics And Linguistic Theory (SALT), MIT. May 18-20, 2018. [abstract] [poster]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Signs, speech, and gesture: integrating continuous and discrete representations into a single proposition. Invited talk at PLC 42, University of Pennsylvania. March 23-25, 2018.
  • Alexander Klapheke & Kathryn Davidson. NPI Intervention: Crosslinguistic Judgments. Talk at Linguistic Evidence 2018, Tübingen. February 15-17, 2018. [poster]
  • Elena Koulidobrova & Kathryn Davidson. Attitude embedding predicates and indexicals under role shift in ASL. In Festschrift for Angelika Kratzer. [paper]
  • Aurore Gonzalez. Countability Distinctions without Linguistic Cues. Poster at ConSOLE 2018, London. February 14-16, 2018. [abstract]  [poster]
  • Anna Alsop, Laine Stranahan, and Kathryn Davidson. Testing Contrastive Inferences from Suprasegmental Features Using Offline Measures. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America  [free publisher download]

2017

  • Muye Zhang, Maria Piñango, & Kathryn Davidson. The development of metonymic processing as the growth of context construal ability. Poster at BUCLD 42, Boston University. November 3-5, 2017.
  • Kathryn Davidson. 2017. Building a single proposition from imagistic and categorical components. Invited commentary on Goldin-Meadow and Brentari, “Gesture, sign and language: The coming of age of sign language and gesture studies”. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 40. [paper]
  • Dorothy Ahn & Kathryn Davidson. Where pointing matters: English and Korean demonstratives. Poster at NELS 48, Reykjavík, Iceland. October 27-29, 2017. [abstract] [poster]
  • Kathryn Davidson & Annemarie Kocab. Event structure and verbal morphology in American Sign Language. Talk at the Language and Cognition group meeting, Harvard University. September 5, 2017.
  • Laura Wagner, Carlo Geraci, Jeremy Kuhn, Kathryn Davidson, & Brent Strickland. Children’s Detection of Iconic Telicity in Sign Language. Poster at 14th International Congress for the Study of Child Language, Lyon. July 17-21, 2017.
  • Teodora Mihoc & Kathryn Davidson. Testing a PPI analysis of superlative modified numerals. Talk at XPrag 2017, Cologne. June 21-23, 2017. [abstract]
  • Ronice Quadros, Kathryn Davidson, Diane Lillo-Martin, & Karen Emmorey. Depicting Signs in Bimodal Bilingual Code-Blending. Talk at FEAST Reykjavík. June 21-22, 2017. [handout]
  • Dorothy Ahn. Semantics of definite descriptions: A micro-typology. Talk at GLOW in Asia XI, Singapore. February 20-22, 2017. [abstract]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Combining continuous and discrete representations in speech, sign, and gesture. Talk at the Cognition, Brain, & Behavior Research Seminar, Harvard University. January 26, 2017. [abstract summary]
  • Carina Kauf & Kathryn Davidson. Introducing demonstration complements in spoken/written languages. Talk at LSA 2017, Austin, TX. January 5-8, 2017. [abstract]
  • Gregory Scontras, Kathryn Davidson, Amy Rose Deal, & Sarah E. Murray. Who has more? The influence of linguistic form on quantity judgments. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America. [paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson, Annemarie Kocab, Andrea D. Sims, & Laura Wagner. Telicity Encoding in American Sign Language: Testing the Event Visibility Hypothesis. Talk at LSA 2017, Austin, TX. January 5-8, 2017. [abstract]

2016

  • Kathryn Davidson & Ivano Caponigro. 2016. Embedding polar interrogative clauses in American Sign Language. In Roland Pfau, Markus Steinbach & Annika Herrmann, A Matter of Complexity: Subordination in Sign Languages, Sign Languages and Deaf Communities, Mouton de Gruyer. [paper]
  • Teodora Mihoc. More evidence of heterogeneity in the class of comparative and superlative numeral modifiers. Talk at the Language and Cognition group meeting, Harvard University. November 29, 2016.
  • Corina Goodwin, Kathryn Davidson, & Diane Lillo-Martin. English Article Use in Bimodal Bilingual Children with Cochlear Implants: Effects of Language Transfer and Early Language Exposure. Talk at BUCLD 41, Boston University. Nov. 4-6, 2016.
  • Laura Wagner, Carlo Geraci, Jeremy Kuhn, Kathryn Davidson, & Brent Strickland. Is Telicity in Sign Languages Visible to Children? Poster at BUCLD 41, Boston University. Nov. 4-6, 2016 [poster]
  • Kathryn Davidson. Quotation, Classifier Predicates, and a Formal Semantics for Event Demonstrations. Invited talk at the University of Toronto. Oct. 21, 2016
  • Kathryn Davidson. The contribution of sign languages toward a new unified picture of conjunction and disjunction. Invited talk at MIT Workshop on Exhaustivity 2016, MIT. Sept. 10, 2016
  • Dorothy Ahn. Weak, strong, and deictic: Three kinds of definites. Poster at Sinn und Bedeutung 21, University of Edinburgh. Sept. 4-6, 2016.
  • Kathryn Davidson. Experimental approaches to studying meaning in speech, sign, and gesture. Talk at the Invited Symposium on Experimental Semantics and Pragmatics, 42nd Meeting Society for Philosophy and Psychology, University of Texas at Austin. June 1-4, 2016.
  • Kathryn Davidson & Ronice Müller de Quadros (UFSC, Harvard University). Blending speech with depicting signs: syntactic, semantic, and semiotic insights into language. Talk at SignFest 2016, Boston University. April 30, 2016.
  • Allison Durkin, Deanna Gagne, & Kathryn Davidson. 2016. English speakers and American Sign Language (ASL) signers extend the MORE IS UP to subset/superset relationships for quantification, presentation at International Society for Gesture Studies, Paris, July. 18-22 [poster]

Select papers from 2015 and earlier

  • Kathryn Davidson. 2015. Quotation, Demonstration, and Iconicity. Linguistics & Philosophy 38(6), 477-520. [publisher download]
  • Kathryn Davidson & Rachel I. Mayberry. 2015. Do adults show an effect of delayed first language acquisition when calculating scalar implicatures?. Language acquisition 22(4): 329-354. [publisher download]
  • Kathryn Davidson, Diane Lillo-Martin, & Deborah Chen Pichler. 2014. Spoken English language development among native signing children with cochlear implants. The Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 19.2: 238-250. [free publisher download]
  • Kathryn Davidson & Deanna Gagne. 2014. Vertical representation of quantifier domains. Sinn und Bedeutung 18. 110-127. [paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson. 2014. Scalar implicatures in a signed language. Sign Language & Linguistics 17(1). 1-19. [paper]
  • Kathryn Davidson. 2013. 'And' or 'Or': General Use Coordination in ASL. Semantics & Pragmatics 6(4). 1-44. [free publisher download] 
  • Kathryn Davidson, Kortney Eng, & David Barner.  2012. Does learning to count involve a semantic induction?. Cognition. 123(1): 162-173. [publisher download]
  • Ivano Caponigro & Kathryn Davidson. 2011. Ask, and tell as well: Question–Answer Clauses in American Sign Language. Natural Language Semantics. 19(4). 323-371. [publisher download