Michael Becker

Michael Becker is a phonologist who specializes in the phonological organization of the lexicon. In his experimental work, he studies how speakers find patterns in their real words and use them to treat words that they haven't heard before ("wugs", Berko 1958). In his computational work, he builds universal models that take in real words and then mimic the behavior of humans when given novel words. Michael Becker received a PhD in linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

RESEARCH AREAS

- Phonological determinants of word formation processes

- Computational modeling of lexical and behavioral word formation data

- Documentation, analysis, and preservation of endangered languages