Several faculty members from our Linguistics department presented research earlier this month at the 2026 Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America(LSA) in New Orleans. This annual conference brings together linguists from around the world to share new research on language structure, use, and change.

Dr. Steven Foley and Dr. Vera Lee-Schoenfeld presented collaborative work with Dr. Jill McClendon of Goethe Universität Frankfurt on English verb particle constructions, expressions such as "eat up" or "pull off" that can appear in more than one word order. Their paper examined why speakers can add words like "right" in sentences such as, "He ate the spinach right up," but not when the verb and particle stay together. Rather than treating this as a quirk of word order, our authors argue that it reflects how verbs behave inside sentence structure. Their analysis helps clarify why some of these expressions remain literal while others develop idiomatic meanings, offering a more intuitive account of patterns that English speakers use every day.

Read their abstract here.

Dr. Joshua Bousquette presented research on German language use in southeastern Wisconsin during the late 1940s, based on unpublished field notes collected by linguist Lester W. J. “Smoky” Seifert. His work shows that although German was still widely used at home and in close social settings, English had already taken over in schools and churches. Many speakers reported that younger generations could understand German but responded primarily in English. By examining language use across different areas of daily life, the project demonstrates how language shift can happen gradually and unevenly, even in communities with strong local ties and little outward mobility. The study underscores the importance of social context for understanding how heritage languages change over time.

Read his abstract here.

Great work to Dr. Foley, Dr. Lee-Schoenfeld, and Dr. Bousquette for sharing their research at the 2026 LSA Annual Meeting! We are proud to see UGA Linguistics so well represented at one of the field’s premier conferences!