Kristen Syrett Explained

Kristen Syrett is a linguist whose work focuses on language acquisition, psycholinguistics, semantics, and pragmatics.^[1]

Career

Syrett completed her Ph.D. at Northwestern University in 2007 as a student of Jeffrey Lidz, Christopher Kennedy, and Sandra Waxman, with a dissertation titled Learning about the structure of scales: Adverbial modification and the acquisition of the semantics of gradable adjectives.^[2]

She has been on the faculty at Rutgers since 2011, becoming an Associate Professor in 2017. She has served as the Undergraduate Program Director of linguistics and Director of the Rutgers Laboratory for Developmental Language Studies.^{[3] [4]} Before joining the faculty, she was first a postdoctoral associate at the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (2007-2008) and then a postdoctoral fellow at the Rutgers Center for Cognitive Science (2008-2011).^[5]

Honors and awards

Syrett is a prominent figure in the Linguistics Society of America (LSA), having been twice awarded the Linguistic Service Award, first in 2007 and again as a co-awardee in 2020.^[6] In 2018, she received the Early Career Award from the LSA, which recognizes "scholars early in their career who have made outstanding contributions to the field of linguistics".^{[7] [8]} As a student she received the prestigious Bernard and Julia Bloch Fellowship, the highest award to students offered by the society, and served as the student delegate to the executive committee of the LSA.^[9] In 2021 she became the Chair of the LSA's Public Relations Committee.^[10]

Selected publications

Books

• Syrett, K. and S. Arunachalam, Eds. (2018). Semantics in Language Acquisition. John Benjamins.^[11]

Selected articles

• Kennedy, C. and K. Syrett (2022). "Numerals denote degree quantifiers: Evidence from child language". Measurements, Numerals and Scales, 135-162.
• Syrett, Kristen, Christopher Kennedy, and Jeffrey Lidz. (2010). "Meaning and Context in Children's Understanding of Gradable Adjectives". Journal of Semantics, 27(1):1-35.^[12]

Notes and References

1. Web site: Kristen Syrett . 2022-03-12 . scholar.google.com.
2. Web site: Graduate Alumni: Department of Linguistics - Northwestern University . 2022-03-12 . linguistics.northwestern.edu . en.
3. Web site: Kristen Syrett . 11 March 2022 . Rutgers.
4. Web site: Laboratory for Developmental Language Studies, Rutgers University . 11 March 2022.
5. Web site: Syrett . Kristen . CV of Kristen Syrett.
6. Web site: Linguistic Society of America . Linguistic Service Award Previous Holders . 11 March 2022.
7. Web site: Linguistic Society of America . Announcing the Winners of Four LSA Awards . 11 March 2022.
8. Web site: Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences . Dr. Kristen Syrett wins LSA Early Career award. Rutgers School of Arts and Sciences . 11 March 2022.
9. Web site: Linguistics Society of America . December 2015 Member Spotlight: Kristen Syrett . 11 March 2022.
10. Web site: Public Relations Committee Linguistic Society of America . 2022-03-12 . www.linguisticsociety.org.
11. Book: Syrett . Kristen . Arunachalam . Sudha . Semantics in Language Acquisition, Trends in Language Acquisition (TiLAR) Series. 2018 . John Benjamins . Amsterdam. 9789027201379.
12. Syrett . K. . Kennedy . C. . Lidz . J. . Meaning and Context in Children's Understanding of Gradable Adjectives . Journal of Semantics . 1 February 2010 . 27 . 1 . 1–35 . 10.1093/jos/ffp011. 10.1.1.560.8777 .