Please tell us about your research project.
A master's student in linguistics, my research aims to analyse the relationship between phonology and semantics. I’ve chosen to explore more particularly the case of polysemous sentences, with the ambition to analyse whether people’s phonologic cues help disambiguate these sentences. After showing that (contrary to what previous studies concluded) people do not necessarily produce consistent patterns, I am then currently working on the reception and understanding of these sentences.
Could you please tell us a bit more about your scholarship/exchange programme?
I am participating in the exchange programme between the MFO and the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. Being part of Oxford I am given the opportunity to access incredible resources, both intellectual and social. This research stay also offers me the possibility to be part of a broader and very fruitful academic environment and to discover other fields and approaches.
First impressions of Oxford/the University?
Oxford is obviously a quiet city compared to Paris, and this is a great asset when we need to do research. While nature and tradition are omnipresent here, we also have access to all the facilities inherent to big cities. People are generally very kind and open-minded, both in the city and in the University. The University is itself widely open to the public and offers great seminars which extensively supports interdisciplinarity. As a cultural and research centre, the MFO favours the exchange of ideas across students from different fields as well