Gregory Scontras

About

Gregory Scontras is an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Director in the Department of Language Science at the University of California, Irvine, where he also directs the meaning lab. His research centers on the theories of natural language, specifically focusing on speakers’ mental representations of words and how these representations are employed in computing sentence meaning. His work aims to deepen the understanding of language and the psychological systems that influence it, with recent projects exploring measurement in linguistic phenomena, the role of context in ambiguity resolution, and the profiles of heritage speakers, who are unbalanced bilinguals. Originally from Maine, Scontras earned his BA in Linguistics and Philosophy from Boston University, followed by a PhD in Linguistics from Harvard University, where he wrote his thesis on the semantics of measurement in 2014. He then joined Noah Goodman’s Computation and Cognition Lab at Stanford University in the Department of Psychology. His academic and research pursuits are reflected in his extensive publication record, which includes contributions to understanding adjective ordering, heritage language processing, social inference, and the semantics of number morphology, among other topics.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Philosophy
• Linguistics
• Psychology
• Mathematics
• Statistics
• History

Selected publications

• Adjective ordering in Arabic: Post-nominal structure and subjectivity-based preferences

  Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America · 2020 · 26 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Adults have a collective tendency to choose certain adjective orderings in nominals with multiple adjectives. For example, English-speaking adults prefer the order big blue box over blue big box; they are uncomfortable with the latter ordering, yet they are unable to articulate why. Scontras, Degen & Goodman (2017) showed that subjectivity is a robust predictor of adjective ordering preferences in English. That is, less subjective adjectives are preferred closer to the noun. In the example b…

  DOI

• On the Many Dimensions of Complexity in Heritage Languages

  Heritage Language Journal · 2021-11-10 · 18 citations

  articleSenior author

  Abstract Heritage languages are often discussed in terms of their (reduced) complexity, but few attempts have been made to objectively measure the complexity of heritage languages. Here we explore various approaches to the investigation of language complexity, discussing three broad areas of inquiry: (i) attempts to objectively measure grammatical complexity, (ii) the potential role of socio-demographic factors in explaining variability in complexity, and (iii) considerations beyond grammatical…

  PublisherDOI

• Adjective Ordering Across Languages

  Annual Review of Linguistics · 2022-10-24 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Adjective ordering preferences stand as perhaps one of the best candidates for a true linguistic universal: When multiple adjectives are strung together in service of modifying some noun, speakers of different languages—from English to Mandarin to Hebrew—exhibit robust and reliable preferences concerning the relative order of those adjectives. More importantly, despite the diversity of the languages investigated, the very same preferences surface over and over again. This tantalizing regularity…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• On the semantics of number morphology

  Linguistics and Philosophy · 2022-02-19 · 13 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This paper develops a semantic account of morphological number marking, specifically in the presence of numerals. In addition to accounting for number marking on basic nouns like book in English, the account handles variation in patterns of number marking along two dimensions: cross-linguistically, between languages that either necessitate or prohibit singular morphology in the presence of numerals greater than ‘one’; and within one and the same language on the various nominal elements…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• How to frame bilingualism in context: Putting people and places in mind

  Bilingualism Language and Cognition · 2022-02-24 · 10 citations

  articleSenior author

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Maria Polinsky

  12 shared

• Zuzanna Fuchs

  8 shared

• Lisa Pearl

  University of California, Irvine

  7 shared

• Noah D. Goodman

  5 shared

• Kenneth Mai

  Harvard University Press

  4 shared

• Zeinab Kachakeche

  4 shared

• Richard Futrell

  4 shared

• Michael Franke

  3 shared

Labs

• The Meaning LabPI

Education

• B.A., Linguistics and Philosophy

  Boston University

• Ph.D., Linguistics

  Harvard University

  2014

Similar researchers at University of California, Irvine

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• Richard Futrellh-34