PhD Student
she/her/hers
Lee-Ann is a PhD candidate in Linguistics at Boston University, specializing in sociolinguistics, language variation and change, and the effects of contact. Her research examines how salience shapes language use in contact settings, focusing on Spanish in diaspora communities. Her dissertation analyzes liquid variation (r/l sounds) among Caribbean-origin Spanish speakers in Boston, alongside other phonetic and syntactic features, to explore how linguistic structures evolve and interact in bilingual communities.
Her work considers how salience grants speakers agency in linguistic variation, allowing them to use certain features as tools to index group membership, express patriotic pride, or signal their educational level, among other identity markers—while less salient features tend to shift in more systematic ways. Through this lens, she sheds light on the relationship between social meaning, linguistic structure, and speaker agency in language contact and bilingualism.
To learn more about her research, projects, and publications, visit her website.
[website: leeannvc.com]