Diana Archangeli

University of Arizona

Diana Archangeli is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona, where she has served as Director of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Research Institute and Associate Dean for Research in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her advanced degrees include an MA in Linguistics from the University of Texas at Austin (1981) and a PhD in Linguistics from MIT (1984). Her previous positions include Fellow, Center for Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences, 2007-2008; Visiting Associate Professor, University of British Columbia 1991; Instructor, LSA Summer Institute 1989; Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, 1984-1985 and Peace Corps Volunteer, Central African Republic, 1974-1976. Dr. Archangeli's research interests include understanding how humans organize the sounds of their languages; currently this is playing out in seeking out the type of phonological system that develops if there are no universal linguistic principles. This effort is based empirically on the behavior of features in vowel harmony systems. Vowel harmony can be understood as different confluences of a variety of independent behavioral properties exhibited in phonological systems, and so is informative about a wide array of behaviors beyond harmony itself. A second methodological approach is using articulatory tools, such as ultrasound tongue imaging, to better understand the concrete aspects of how phonological features are implemented in speech.