Research Interests
Second language acquisition, experimental semantics, syntax/semantics interface
Additional Campus Affiliations
Professor, Linguistics
Director of Graduate Studies, Linguistics
Professor, Slavic Languages and Literatures
Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
Professor, Program in Jewish Culture and Society
Professor, Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies
Professor, Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Professor, Russian, East European and Eurasian Center
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Books
Ionin, Tania, and Ora Matushansky. Cardinals: The syntax and semantics of cardinal-containing expressions. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2019.
Journal Articles
Ionin, Tania, and Tatiana Luchkina. "Focus on Russian scope: An experimental investigation of the relationship between quantifier scope, prosody, and information structure." Linguistic Inquiry, vol. 49, no. 4, 2018.
Choi, Sea Hee, and Tania Ionin. "L1 Korean and L1 Mandarin L2 English learners’ acquisition of the count/mass distinction in English." Second Language Research, vol. 34, 2018, p. 147-177.
Ionin, Tania, Elaine Grolla, and Helade Santos. "Remarks: Another look at the acceptability of bare singular NPs in episodic sentences in Brazilian Portuguese." Syntax, 2018.
Ionin, Tania, and Teodora Radeva-Bork. "The state of the art of first language acquisition research on Slavic languages." Journal of Slavic Linguistics, vol. 25, no. 2, 2017, p. 337-366.
Ionin, Tania, Elaine Grolla, Helade Santos, and Silvina Montrul. "Interpretation of NPs in generic and existential contexts in L3 Brazilian Portuguese." Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, vol. 5, 2015, p. 215-251.
Ionin, Tania, and Eve Zyzik. "Judgment and interpretation tasks in second language research." Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, vol. 34, 2014, p. 1-28.
Ionin, Tania, Silvina Montrul, and Monica Crivos. "A bidirectional study on the acquisition of plural NP interpretation in English and Spanish." Applied Psycholinguistics, 2013.
Ionin, Tania, Soondo Baek, Eunah Kim, Heejeong Ko, and Ken Wexler. "That’s not so different from the: definite and demonstrative descriptions in second language acquisition." Second Language Research, vol. 28, 2012, p. 69-101.
Ionin, Tania, Silvina Montrul, and Helade Santos. "An experimental investigation of the expression of genericity in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese." Lingua, vol. 121, 2011, p. 963-985.
Ionin, Tania, Silvina Montrul, Ji-Hye Kim, and Vadim Philippov. "Genericity distinctions and the interpretation of determiners in L2 acquisition." Language Acquisition, vol. 18, 2011, p. 242-280.
Ionin, Tania, and Silvina Montrul. "The role of L1 transfer in the interpretation of articles with definite plurals." Language Learning, vol. 60, no. 4, 2010, p. 877-925.
Ionin, Tania. "The scope of indefinites: an experimental investigation." Natural Language Semantics, vol. 18, no. 3, 2010, p. 295-350.
Ionin, Tania, and Ora Matushansky. "The composition of complex cardinals." Journal of Semantics, vol. 23, 2006, p. 315-360.
Book Contributions
"Advanced-level Semantics." The Handbook of Advanced Proficiency in Second Language Acquisition, Blackwell, 2018, p. 442-460.
Ionin, Tania, and Tatiana Luchkina. "The one kitten who was stroked by every girl: revisiting scope and scrambling in Russian." A Pesky Set: Papers for David Pesetsky, 2017.
Ionin, Tania. "Certain properties of certain indefinites: An experimental perspective." Epistemic Indefinites, Oxford University Press, 2015, p. 183-210.
Ionin, Tania. "'Some' indefinites scope out of islands: an experimental investigation." Weak Referentiality, John Benjamins, 2014, p. 45-72.
Ionin, Tania. "Pragmatic variation among specificity markers." Different Kinds of Specificity Across Languages, edited by Cornelia Ebert, compiled by Stefan Hinterwimmer. Springer, 2013, p. 75-103.
Ionin, Tania. "Morphosyntax." The Cambridge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition, edited by Julia Herschensohn, edited by Martha Young-Scholten. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2012, p. 505-528.
Ionin, Tania. "Formal theory-based methodologies." Research Methods in Second Language Acquisition, edited by Alison Mackey, edited by Susan Gass. Blackwell, 2011, p. 30-52.
Recent Publications
Kim, M. H., & Ionin, T. (2024). Potential L1 transfer effects in explicit and implicit knowledge of articles in L2 English. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, 47(1), 51-77. https://doi.org/10.1075/aral.21010.kim
Chen, C. Y., & Ionin, T. (2023). Interpretation of Mandarin pronouns and reflexives by L1-Korean and L1-English learners of Mandarin. Second Language Research, 39(4), 941-968. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583221103744
Ionin, T., Luchkina, T., & Goldshtein, M. (Accepted/In press). Contrastive focus is acquirable: An investigation of Russian contrastive focus with English/Russian bilinguals. Second Language Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/02676583231178101
Ionin, T., Goldshtein, M., Luchkina, T., & Styrina, S. (2023). Who did what to whom, and what did we already know? Word order and information structure in heritage and L2 Russian. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 13(3), 343-371. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20045.ion
Wu, M. J., & Ionin, T. (Accepted/In press). The Effect of Input Flooding and Explicit Instruction on L2 Acquisition of English Inverse Scope. Language Teaching Research. https://doi.org/10.1177/13621688231153759