I am a contact linguist and creolist. Viewing my work through a cognitive lens, I am interested the processes that underlie language emergence and change and that guide the use of highly multifunctional, context-dependent features of language (e.g., pragmatic markers). Much of my work centers on Kwéyòl Donmnik (Dominica Creole) and its source languages, and I am also interested in African American Language. I use several methodologies in my research, including corpus-based analyses, thematic analyses of interviews and surveys, and experimental tasks.