Natalie Weber

I am a new hire in the Linguistics Department at Yale and originally from Texas. My research interests include theoretical phonology and issues at the interface of phonology with syntax, morphology, and language change. My program of research incorporates linguistic theory and empirical language description. I currently conduct fieldwork with speakers of two dialects of Blackfoot (Algonquian) in Lethbridge, Alberta.

My current project deals with theories of prosodic structure and the correspondence of syntactic and phonological constituents. I am interested in determining the typological variation of “wordhood”, broadly defined, and whether words have a universal phonological or syntactic definition. My dissertation (“Prosodic constituency in Blackfoot”; to be defended in Fall 2018) addresses this by focusing on the phonology and syntax of words in Blackfoot.

When I am not researching, I can be found dancing. I love any social improvised partner dance, but especially swing, blues, and Argentine tango.