I'm a PhD student in linguistics at Cornell University, and my primary areas of research are phonology and phonetics. Specifically, I'm interested in constraints on word maximality and the phonological structure of minor syllables (i.e. the first half of what are traditionally called sesquisyllables). I study how these relate to the prosodic hierarchy and how they can be modeled in an articulatory framework. In addition, I'm working on a description of the phonetic manifestations of registrogenesis in Bunong, a Mon-Khmer language spoken in Vietnam and Cambodia. And in fact, most of the languages I work on are located in Southeast Asia.

Education

MA (2005) Linguistics, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Thesis: An Optimality Theoretic Account of Cross-Dialectal Tendencies of Emphasis Spread in Arabic

BA (2003) Linguistics and Spanish, University of Virginia

Thesis: Mixtec Dialect Boundaries

Presentations and Posters

Unary Stress as a Result of Coupled Oscillators. 2011. The 2nd UConn Workshop on Stress and Accent.

A Reanalysis of Minor Syllables: The Interaction of Word Maximality and Positional Markedness. 2011. The 21st Annual Conference of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, Kasetsart University.

Registrogenesis in Bunong: The Interaction of Phonetics and Phonology. 2010. Workshop on Sound Change, Institut díEstudis Catalans.

Degar Identity and Language. 2010. SEAP Graduate Student Symposium, Cornell University.

The Sesquisyllable as a Disyllabic Word. 2010. Conference on the Word in Phonology, CUNY.

The Pharyngeal Hierarchy: A Solution to the Blocking of Emphasis Spread in Arabic. 2005. Student Conference in Linguistics, UT Arlington.

Publication

Thompson, B. B. (2006). The Pharyngeal Hierarchy. SKY Journal of Linguistics. 19: 229-237.

Teaching

Introductory Linguistics, Cornell University and UNC-Chapel Hill

The Death of Language (First-year Writing Seminar), Cornell University

Introductory Spanish, UNC-Chapel Hill and UNC-Greensboro

Intermediate ESL, Richland Community College

Awards

Cornell Graduate School Research Travel Grant (2011)

Southeast Asia Program Travel Fellowship (2011)

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for Khmer (2009-2010)

Summer Foreign Language Instruction Award (Summer 2009)

Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship for Vietnamese (2008-2009)

Service

Cornell Working Papers in Phonetics and Phonology (Co-editor) 2011-2012

Southeast Asia Program Graduate Student Committee (Co-chair), 2011-2012

NELS 39 (Co-organizer), 2008

Cornell Linguistics Circle

President, 2009-2010

Speaker Series Organizer, 2007-2009

Ph2 Reading Group (Organizer), 2008-2009, 2011-2012

Etc.

I'm originally from southern Virginia. I have a cat called Yao Ming, and I like to box, sew and plant flowers.