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About me
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My name is Dr. Ai Taniguchi (谷口愛). I am a linguist and an Assistant Professor (Teaching Stream) in the Department of Language Studies at the University of Toronto Mississauga. I got my PhD in linguistics at Michigan State University in 2017. On this website, you will find where my expertise in linguistics and my passion for the visual arts intersect.

As an educator, I am a big advocate for public outreach in linguistics. I am someone who really, really cares about making linguistics accessible and relevant for everyone. My ability to explain complex topics to lay audiences has received high recognition at the 5-Minute Linguist competition at the 2019 Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. I enjoy thinking about how to efficiently, effectively, and aesthetically disseminate information, and this is where my artistic inclination is an asset for me as a teacher. I have no formal training in art or design (although I've done paid art commissions), but art has always been a part of my life, as long as I can remember. 

I'm a formal semanticist by trade, which means that I research mathematical models of how the meaning of words combine to form the meaning of sentences. I also study pragmatics, which means I'm also interested in how meaning is affected by context (and how context is affected by meaning). Fellow linguists: you can learn more about my research on my other website. Non-linguists: check out Chapter 7 (Semantics) and Chapter 8 (Pragmatics) of Essentials of Linguistics (2nd edition), which I am a co-author of!

Here's my CV.

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