Maria Polinsky

Professor, Department of Linguistics

Maria Polinsky's Language Lab studies "heritage languages" and language processing.  The lab looks at how native speakers respond to the structure and meaning of their languages.  It also studies the knowledge of language in heritage speakers -- those who grew up hearing and even speaking a language other than English but who are now more comfortable with English.

The lab uses behavioral methods to study native and heritage speakers of a range of languages such as English, Russian, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic and Persian.