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Tracy Lennertz
Graduate Student
Department of Psychology, 125-NI
Northeastern University
Boston, MA 02115
(617) 373- (office)
(617) 373-8714 (fax)
lennertz.t@husky.neu.edu

• See curriculum vitae (pdf)

• See research website

Advisor: Iris Berent

Research

My research aims to understand the human capacity for language. In particular, I am interested in what people know about phonology, or the sound structure of language. Speakers can generalize their knowledge of phonology to novel forms. For example, most people would agree that "blik" could be a possible word, but "lbik" could not be. With Dr. Iris Berent, I examine the grammatical underpinnings of this knowledge using onset clusters as a case study (e.g., "bl" as in "black"). This research examines whether speakers share linguistic preferences regarding onset clusters, and how these preferences may be shaped by phonetic and phonological constraints. My dissertation investigates English speakers’ tacit knowledge of fine-grained phonological distinctions that do not occur in their language.

For more information, please visit my website at http://web.mac.com/t.lennertz.