Linguistics Research Page for Kim Bruce


My research interests in Linguistics are fairly new. With support from the Mellon Foundation, I spent a sabbatical leave at UCSC in 2004-2005 studying linguistics, and have begun building a research program in the area. My interests are primarily in semantics and pragmatics. Helpfully, both of these areas build nicely on my previous fields of specialization, Mathematical Logic and Programming Language Semantics.

My current research involves modelling multi-participant dialogs and is being performed with Prof. Donka Farkas at UC Santa Cruz. We are working on elaborating models of discourse in order to keep track of the current focus of attention as well as to determine when it is OK for a conversation to terminate normally. A draft paper now exists. See my Recent papers.

I am always looking for good undergraduates to work for me. The main prerequisite is successful completion of the semantics or pragmatics courses and a strong academic record. I will also strongly prefer students who will have taken my new course on Mathematical and Computational Foundations of Natural Languages. Students can work for me during the summer or the academic year. I am also happy to support honors theses on topics related to my research.

Please note that Pomona College does not have a graduate program, so that we do not take Master's or Ph.D. students.


Last updated 4/21/02

Back to:

  • Kim Bruce's home page
  • CS Department home page
  • kim@cs.pomona.edu