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Research

• Syntax, morpho-syntax. Computational syntax and phonology. Phonology/syntax interface.
• Phonological, syntactic, historical, and comparative study of Semitic, Bantu, and Romance languages.
• Second language acquisition and pedagogy.
• Arabic dialectology.

Key publications

• The Zulu Conjoint/Disjoint Verb Alternation: Focus or Constituency?, in ZAS Papers in Linguistics, volume 1:43.
• Buell and Sy (2005), A Fixed Hierarchy for Wolof Verbal Affixes on morpheme orderings of valence-changing verbal suffixes in Wolof. Presented at BLS. To appear in the proceedings.
• My dissertation, entitled Issues in Zulu Verbal Morphosyntax is on the syntax and morphosyntax of the Zulu verb. Chapters include discussion of derivation of the verb stem, the nature of reciprocal -an, subject and object agreement as a reflex of argument raising, dependencies between inflection morphemes and the derivation of the inflected verb, an analysis of long and short verb forms, and an analysis of locative applicative forms.
• Other current work includes an analysis of the case and EPP (overt subject) requirements of certain complementizers in Egyptian Arabic and Classical Arabic. I hope to have a draft available for public viewing soon.
• My paper The Zulu verb within the constraints of the LCA has been submitted for publication in the next volume of Trends in African Linguistics. You may read the paper or the ACAL handout (Boston, April 2004) on which it was based.
  
  

Other publications can be found on my personal website.

CV

• Currently a researcher for the Language Materials project (part-time). I find and document teaching materials and authentic materials which can be adapted for language instruction in less commonly taught languages. Much of my work there has been in Arabic.
• Various stints as teaching assistant (TA) in the UCLA Department of Linguistics, for syntax courses and for historical linguistics.
• Lived in Egypt as an adult ten years, during which I studied Arabic language and Arabic music, taught Arabic as a second language, and translated for a large USAID-funded project. Have been teaching Arabic for some fifteen years now.
• Instructor of Spoken Egyptian Arabic (first year, intensive) for UCLA's 1998 summer session.
• Instructor of Standard Arabic (first year, intensive) for Northwestern University's Summer Study Abroad Program in Alexandria, Egypt for three consecutive summers, 1995-97.
• Have been teaching other second languages since high school, including Spanish, English, Esperanto, and French, at the level of private lessons, private language schools, and community college continuing education courses. Have received Berlitz-method training.