Olivia Griffin

My research centres on iconicity—a non-arbitrary link between form and meaning in language. Some of the questions that drive my current work are what types of iconicity occur across human languages?,  how do iconic linguistic processes fit into the grammatical system as a whole?, what happens when multiple instances of iconicity occur at the same time?, and (how) does linguistic experience affect sensitivity to iconicity?

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I am interested in the intersection of iconicity research and health equity, especially in relation to how speakers of a language that uses ideophones or other iconic words to depict pain and other symptoms experience health communication in North America. ​I am also interested in iconicity outside of human language. I ask whether (Multimodal) Large Language Models are sensitive to the types of iconicity observed in human language, and whether iconicity occurs in cetacean communication.