School of Graduate Studies Calendar, 2026-2027
Cognitive Science of Language
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Cognitive Science of Language
Based in the Department of Linguistics and Languages, the graduate program (M.Sc.; Ph.D.) in the Cognitive Science of Language is interdisciplinary and includes faculty from Humanities, Science, and Health Sciences. The program has a strong research orientation and has expertise in the areas of Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Sociolinguistics, Neurolinguistics, Phonetics/Phonology, Forensic Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics, and Psycholinguistics. The breadth of faculty research areas provides a rich environment for graduate training. The graduate program introduces students to the issues in those fields that form the nexus of cognitive science, linguistics, and languages and trains them in the research methods employed to study them. Our graduate programs provide flexibility so that students can optimize their studies around their own areas of interest.
Enquiries: 905-525-9140 Ext. 24388
E-mail: lingdept@mcmaster.ca
Website: http://www.humanities.mcmaster.ca/~linguistics/
Faculty/Fall 2026
Professors
Catherine Anderson, B.A. (McMaster), Ph.D. (Northwestern)
Ivona Kucerova, M.A. (Charles University, Prague), Ph.D. (MIT)
Victor Kuperman, B.A., M.A. (Hebrew University of Jerusalem), Ph.D. (Nijmegen)/Graduate Chair
Associate Professors
Anna L. Moro, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Toronto)
Daniel Pape, M.A. (TU/Humboldt, Berlin), Ph.D. (Humboldt, Berlin)
Assistant Professors
Alison Biggs, B.A. (SOAS, London), M.Phil., Ph.D. (Cambridge)
Phoebe Gaston, B.A. (Yale), Ph.D. (University of Maryland, College Park)
Professors Emeriti
John J. Colarusso, B.A. (Cornell), M.A. (Northwestern), Ph.D. (Harvard)
John F. Connolly, A.B. (College of the Holy Cross), M.A.(Saskatchewan), Ph.D. (London)
Elisabet Service, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (Helsinki)
Magda Stroińska, M.A. (Warsaw), Ph.D. (Edinburgh)
Associate Members
Christian Brodbeck (Department of Computing and Software)
Steven Brown (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
David Feinberg (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
Faiza Hirji (Communication Studies and Multimedia)
Karin Humphreys (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
Victor Satzewich (Sociology)
Michael Schutz (School of the Arts)
David Shore (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
Laurel Trainor (Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour)
Adjunct Members
John W. Schwieter (Wilfrid Laurier University)
Fields of Study in the Graduate Program
The M.Sc./Ph.D. program in the Cognitive Science of Language comprises the following fields:
Theoretical Linguistics
The department has a strong commitment to research in formal linguistic theory, including syntax, semantics, morphology, phonology/phonetics, and their interfaces, with a notable specialization in the intersection of theoretical linguistic research with behavioural, neural, computational, and language documentation methods. The graduate program emphasizes the theoretical disciplines as the foundation of empirical language science research, recognizing that empirical methods cannot advance our understanding of human cognition in the absence of clearly defined theory. Faculty members specializing in theoretical linguistics in turn actively engage with applied and experimental research. Some representative areas of faculty research interest include syntax-semantics interactions in the area of information structure (I. Kučerová), agreement (I. Kučerová), argument and event structure (A. Biggs. I. Kučerová), the syntax-morphology interface (A. Biggs, I. Kučerová), and articulatory phonology and the interface to phonetics (D. Pape). The applied linguistics side of current research engages in collaboration with local Indigenous communities (Indigenous-based pedagogy, language revitalization and documentation for language of home; I. Kučerová). The experimental side of the faculty’s research includes the investigation of movement and syntax-semantics interface, using EEG, eye-tracking and behavioural methodologies (I. Kučerová).
Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Neuroscience of Language
These fields study how language is represented and processed, from both a functional and neurobiological perspective, at all levels of linguistic structure from sound to morpheme to word to sentence to discourse. Research in these areas aims to establish the neural and cognitive bases of language, including speech production and perception, reading, and writing, across all ages and in both first and second language. Faculty also investigate impairments in language including developmental disorders and those acquired through strokes or other brain injuries. Current research in the department includes the interplay of working memory capacity and general cognitive resources with lexical retrieval and processing of morphological and syntactic complexity (E. Service), neural and cognitive mechanisms underlying speech perception, word recognition, and syntactic structure-building (P. Gaston, D. Pape), the integration of perceptual and contextual information during language comprehension (P. Gaston, D. Pape), the use and interplay of acoustic cues in speech production and perception (D. Pape), articulatory and biomechanical constraints in speech perception (D. Pape), the link between perceptual acuity and accuracy of articulation with respect to individual differences (e.g. ASD, personality traits; D. Pape), cognitive processes underlying reading acquisition and literacy in the first and second language (V. Kuperman), and language and emotion (V. Kuperman).
Computational Linguistics & Cognitive Modeling
This strand of research aims at developing computational models of natural language, as well as computational cognitive models of human communication. Faculty research in this area includes identification of linguistic markers of cognitive impairments (V. Kuperman, D. Pape) and computational modeling of speech processing (P. Gaston).
Cognitive Sociolinguistics and Clinical Linguistics
The field of cognitive sociolinguistics examines cognitive aspects of language use in diverse social contexts. Using methods from varied theoretical frameworks, it investigates pragmatic and sociocultural phenomena, including bilingual education, second language learning (E. Service, A. Moro), pidgins and creoles (A. Moro). Research in this area also includes psychometric assessments of language competence in bilingual adults (A. Moro), study of efficient educational strategies for second language acquisition (A. Moro), bilingual and multilingual phonology/phonetics for heritage speakers (D. Pape), study of drivers and outcomes of literacy in Canada and world-wide (V. Kuperman). Additional research is done on indicators of the cognitive and emotional state in aging (V. Kuperman).
Facilities for Research
Students in the program have access to the department’s research labs and other resources. The Language, Memory and Brain Lab includes a 128-channel EEG system as well as equipment for running behavioural studies of language processing. The Reading Lab includes two desk-mounted eye-tracking systems and several large corpora of written and spoken language data. The Phonetics lab consists of a sound-attenuated room with audio equipment and software to record speech and use medical tongue ultrasound for articulatory analysis, perform speech perception experiments as well as articulatory speech synthesis. The Bilingualism Lab includes two eye-tracking systems and multiple instruments to conduct a variety of bilingual assessments. The Syntax Lab includes a 32-channel EEG, an eyetracker, as well as equipment for running behavioural studies. Ample computational resources for modeling and data analysis are available across labs. Researchers in the department enjoy productive collaborations with a number of community partners, including the Hamilton-Wentworth Catholic District School Board and Mohawk College for Applied Arts and Technologies, a network of practicing Speech-Language Pathologists and other clinicians, the Hamilton chapter of TESL Ontario, and local communities of native speakers of many languages.
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