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College of Humanities
Jeffrey Jack Green

Research

Picture of Research Image
Picture of Research Image

I am interested in how speakers utilize different sources of information in sentence processing. Recently I have investigated reference resolution in adjunct control, the relation between the implicit subject of an adjunct clause and its understood antecedent (as in Harry talked to Molly [before ___ boarding the train].), and how this compares to the resolution of overt pronouns (Harry talked to Molly [before he boarded the train].). These kinds of sentences provide an excellent test case for how speakers integrate different sources of information. I've also been looking at how resolution of reference interacts with the predictions we make about upcoming sentence and discourse content, and I also have a few second language acquisition projects. Below are my current and past projects, as well links to publications and presentations. See also my CV.

Work in progress

  • Barrow, J., Green, J.J., Green, J.R., & Kartapanis, A. Future earnings information in business text.​​
  • Green, J.J., Irwin, T., and Kesan, J. The use of gender and L1 strategies in the processing of L2 English pronouns.
  • Green, J.J., Knell, E., and Liu, Y. ERP evidence on the early stages of Chinese word learning: A partial replication of McLaughlin et al. (2004).
  • Lien, Z.-L., Green, J.J., & Shih, C. Effects of structural priming on Chinese word segmentation.
  • Lin, Y.-H., Knell, E., Green, J.J., and Liu, Y. Using eye-tracking to examine how CFL learners attend to Chinese radicals.
  • Nuckolls, J., Dewey, D., & Green, J.J. Semantic categorization of Kichwa ideophones in the brain: Evidence from fNIRS.
  • Stoops, A., & Green, J.J. An investigation of the neuronal signature of word order effects in Russian.
  • Sun, Y., Green, J.J., & Shih, C. Phonological prediction and Chinese tone sandhi: Evidence from eyetracking and ERPs.

Publications

  • Green, J.J. (2023). Rapid prediction of verbs based on pronoun interpretation is modulated by individual differences in pronoun processing. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2023.2226266 [pdf]
  • Green, J.J., McCourt, M., Lau, E., & Williams, A. (2020). Processing adjunct control: Evidence on the use of structural information and prediction in reference resolution. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 5(1):112. https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1133 [pdf]
  • Green, J.J. (2019). Non-subject control of temporal adjuncts. In E. Ronai, L. Stigliano, & Y. Sun (Eds.), Proceedings of the Fifty-Fourth Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society (pp. 137-148). Chicago: IL, CLS. [pdf]
  • Green, J.J. (2019). A movement theory of adjunct control. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 4(1):87. http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.724 [pdf]
  • Green, J.J. (2018). Adjunct control: Syntax and processing. (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland, College Park). http://doi.org/10.13016/M2HX15V08 [pdf]
  • Williams, A. & Green, J.J. (2017). Why control of PRO in rationale clause is not a relation between arguments. In A. Lamont & K. Tetzloff (Eds.), Proceedings of NELS 47 (Volume 3, pp. 233-246). Amherst MA: GLSA [pdf]
  • McCourt, M., Green, J.J., Lau, E., & Williams, A. (2015). Processing implicit control: Evidence from reading times. Frontiers in Psychology, 6(1629). http://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01629. [pdf]

Unpublished manuscripts

  • Green, J.J. (2018). Processing pronouns and PRO: Evidence from the N400 and self-paced reading times (unpublished qualifying paper, reporting joint work with M. McCourt, E. Lau, & A. Williams). [pdf]
  • Green, J.J. (2016). Control of local and remote rationale clauses. (unpublished qualifying paper) 

Slides/posters from presentations of unpublished work

  • Green, J.J., Irwin, T., and Kesan, J. (2022). Native-like L2 resolution of pronouns offline, but not online. UIC Bilingualism Forum. [slides]
  • Stoops, A., & Green, J.J. (2021). An investigation of the neuronal signature of word order effects in Russian. Society for the Neurobiology of Language. [slides]

Earlier work

In the summer of 2017, I interned at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages working on a project relating to the Seal of Biliteracy project. In the two weeks that I worked on the project, I composed a technical report on the requirements different states have for students to obtain the Seal of Biliteracy award.

  • Green, J.J. (2018). Report on state Seal of Biliteracy requirements (tech. rep. No. 2017-1). American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

As an undergraduate, I had several small research projects. In syntax, I developed a theory of movement similar to Move-F that had implications for syntactic architecture. I was also interested in the influence of a late-bilingual’s first and second languages on their perception of a third language. In work unrelated to linguistics, I worked in the cell biology lab of Darryl Kropf and investigated the role of microtubules and endomembrane cycling in the early development of a brown alga.

  • Green, J.J. (2013). The Final Form (FF) and π/λ movement: A unification of PF and LF. (unpublished manuscript)
  • Green, J.J. (April 3, 2013). Bilingual perception of a third language. University of Utah Undergraduate Research Symposium. 
  • Green, J.J., Cordero Cervantes, D., Peters, N.T., Logan, K.O., & Kropf, D.L. (2013). Dynamic microtubules and endomembrane cycling contribute to polarity establishment and early development of Ectocarpus mitospores. Protoplasma, 250(5), 1035-43. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00709-012-0476-5