Hilary Wynne

outlook university
Senior Research Associate

I am the Senior Research Associate in the Language and Brain Laboratory, working primarily on the EPSRC-funded Pertinacity grant (2022-2027). On this project, I am responsible for the design, execution, and statistical analysis of experiments. My current research involves experimentally investigating (through psycholinguistic behavioural techniques and neurolinguistic approaches) the extent to which underlying patterns such as feature contrast, quantity, and stress govern phonological processing in related languages. 

My other research areas include the interface between phonology and morphology with particular focus on the positional asymmetry of affixes in word processing, speech production (especially post-lexical encoding), speech planning, compounds and phrases, bilingualism, sublanguages (Aviation English in particular), and historical changes in English vowel height. I have training in psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic methodologies, statistical modelling, fieldwork, and the analysis and visualisation of data.

I have served as a Stipendiary Lecturer in Psycholinguistics at St. Hugh's College, tutor for Option B in Graduate Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics, and lecturer for the Oxford Prospects Programme. I have also held positions as a Departmental Lecturer in Psycholinguistics (2020-2021, Oxford), Lecturer in Phonology (2015-2016, Oxford), and a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Manchester (2016).

Education:

  • DPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology, University of Oxford, UK. "The Phonological Encoding of Complex Morphosyntactic Structures in Native and Non-Native English Speakers." Supervisor: Aditi Lahiri.
  • MPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology, University of Oxford, UK. "The Effects of Cognitive Load on Language Production: A Case Study of Aviation Communication." Supervisor: John Charles Smith.
  • M.A. in Medieval Studies, University of Toronto, CA.
  • M.A. in English and American Studies, University of Manchester, UK.
  • B.A. in English Literature, Wheaton College, Massachusetts.

 

Key Publications:

Wynne, H. S., Kotzor, S., Zhou, B., Schuster, S., & Lahiri, A. (2021). Asymmetries in the processing of affixed words in Bengali. Language, 97(3), pp. 599-628. Link: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/806349

Meng, Y., Kotzor, S., Xu, C., Wynne, H.S.Z., & Lahiri, A. (2021). Asymmetric influence of vocalic context on Mandarin sibilants: Evidence from ERP studies. Frontiers in Neuroscience: Speech and Language. Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2021.617318

Meng, Y., Wynne, H.S.Z., & Lahiri, A. (2021). Representation of “T3 sandhi” in Mandarin: Significance of context. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience. Link: https://doi.org/10.1080/23273798.2021.1893769

Kotzor, S., Schuster, S., Wynne, H.S.Z., & Lahiri, A. (2020). Form or structure? Morphological processing in second-language English speakers: evidence from long-lag lexical decision. In: Sanchez-Stockhammer et al. (eds), Language in Mind and Brain workshop proceedings.

Wynne, H.S.Z., Wheeldon, L., Lahiri A. (2020) Planning complex structures in a second language: Compounds and phrases in non-native speech production, in The Learnability of Complex Constructions: A Cross-linguistic Perspective, ed. Marcel Schlechtweg, Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs (TiLSM) 345, Aug 2020.

Wynne, H.S.Z., Kotzor, S., Zhou, B., Lahiri, A. (2020) The effect of phonological and morphological overlap on the processing of Bengali words, Journal of South Asian Linguistics, 11(2), pp. 25-51. Link: https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/jsal/index.php/jsal/article/view/138

Wynne, H.S.Z., Wheeldon, L., Lahiri A. (2018) Compounds, phrases and clitics in connected speech, Journal of Memory and Language, Volume 98, February 2018, pp. 45-58, ISSN 0749-596X. Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2017.08.001 Link: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0749596X17300591

 

Select Talks and Presentations

Orthographic Consequences of Affixation in Visual Processing: Evidence from an Abugida Script. Invited talk to be given at Pertinacious Phonology and Morphology workshop, London, Sept 2024.

An MMN Investigation of the Spectrum of Word Violability in English. with A. Lahiri. Talk to be given at the International Congress of Linguists, Poznan, Sept 2024.

The Perception of English Tense/Lax Vowels by L2 Speakers. with A. Lahiri. Talk to be given at the International Congress of Linguists, Poznan, Sept 2024.

Orthography and Phonology Interact in the Delayed Processing of Affixed Words. with A. Lahiri, S. Kotzor, B. Zhou. Architectures and Mechanisms in Language Processing, Edinburgh, Sept 2024. [poster]

Orthographic and Phonological Effects on Delayed Processing of Affixed Words. with A. Lahiri, S. Kotzor, B. Zhou. Talk given at the Linguistics Association of Great Britain annual meeting, Newcastle, August 2024.

Compound Planning, Production and Processing. Invited talk given to students at the Oldenburg School of Linguistics and Cultural Studies at Carl von Ossietzky Universität, Germany, June 17, 2023.

Methods in Language Production Research. Workshop given at the Faculty of Linguistics Lab Skills Seminars, University of Oxford, 26 May 2023.

Psycholinguistic Secrets: The Mysterious Workings of Words and the Mind. Podcast with Audemic, Inc. March 1, 2023.

 Psycholinguistic evidence for phonological grouping in language production. Talk given at the Faculty of Linguistics General Seminars, University of Oxford, Oct 24, 2022.

Language and Society: Exploring Linguistic Variation and Change in our Modern World. Lecture given for Oxford Prospects Programme, Jan 22, 2022. [virtual due to COVID19, medical]

Asymmetries in Affixation: Morphology Attaches, Phonology Binds. Talk given at the Surrey Linguistics Circle, 26 October 2021. [virtual due to COVID19, medical]

Linguistic Patterns of Failed Communications in Non-Routine Aviation Situations. Talk accepted at Brno Conference on Linguistics Studies in English. Sept 16-17, 2021. [virtual due to COVID19, cancelled due to medical]

Language in society. Lecture and seminar series given to students in Digital Culture & Communication, Oxford Prospects Programme, July 27-28, 2021 [virtual due to COVID19]

Language production experiments: from design to analysis. Two-day masterclass taught to graduate students and postdoctoral researchers in the Faculty of Linguistics, Oxford, June 22-23, 2021.

Historical linguistics and the history of the English language: A brief introduction. Invited class taught at Wheaton College (Mass., USA), Oct 19, 2019.

Representation of “T3 Sandhi” in Mandarin: Significance of context. with Y. Meng & A. Lahiri. Architectures and Mechanisms in Language Processing Conference, Moscow, Sept 2019. [poster]

Tri-morphemic words in processing. with S. Schuster, S. Kotzor, & A. Lahiri. Architectures and Mechanisms in Language Processing Conference (AMLAP), Moscow, Sept 2019. [poster]

Speech planning and morphologically complex words in bilingual English-Bengali children. Keynote lecture given with A. Lahiri at International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) workshop “Toward Modelling the Development of Speech Planning in Production”, Sydney, Aug 2, 2019.

The preparation of complex prosodic frames by L2 English speakers. Talk given at PROSLANG: Processing of Prosody Across Languages and Varieties. Wellington, Nov 29, 2018.

What makes a compound a compound? Evidence from connected speech. Eleventh Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Edmonton, Sept 25, 2018. [poster]

Asymmetries in the processing of prefixed & suffixed words in Bengali. with S. Kotzor, B. Zhou, S. Schuster, & A. Lahiri. Eleventh Conference on the Mental Lexicon, Edmonton, Sept 2018. [poster]

Greenhouses and green houses: using compounds to investigate planning in native and non-native English speakers. Talk given at the International Congress of Linguists, Capetown, Jul 8, 2018.

Prosodification of compound words in L1 and L2 speakers of English. Talk given at the International Symposium on Monolingual and Bilingual Speech (ISMBS), Crete, Sept 6, 2018.

Do L2 speakers overanalyse form overlap? Evidence from delayed priming of morphologically complex words. The Conference on Multilingualism, Groningen, Nov 8, 2017. [poster]

The planning and production of multiword utterances by L2 English speakers: An experimental study. with L. Wheeldon & A. Lahiri. The Conference on Multilingualism, Groningen, Nov 7, 2017. [poster]

Modality-related issues in the processing of morphologically complex words. with S. Kotzor, B. Zhou & A. Lahiri. Architectures & Mechanisms of Language Processing (AMLAP), Sept 9, 2017. [poster]

Evidence for the Prosodification of Multiword Utterances in L2 Speech. Architectures and Mechanisms of Language Processing (AMLAP), Lancaster, Sept 9, 2017. [poster]