about

I’m a PhD candidate in linguistics at MIT. My dissertation is mostly about the modifiers almost and barely. I advocate for an exceptive semantics for the modifiers, showing this more accurately accounts for their distribution with respect to nominal quantifiers. The analysis is generalized further: I show how it extends naturally to comparatives and equatives, with interesting consequences for what adjectives must mean arising as a result.

My prior research hopped around: a pattern of non-local, syntactically triggered, inwardly-sensitive allomorphy in aspect morphology in Santiago Atitlán Tz’utujil (with collaborators Ted Levin, Paulina Lyskawa, and Rodrigo Ranero funded by the Jacobs Research Funds and the Kenneth Hale Fellowship Fund); the morphosyntax and semantics of degree achievement verbs, comparatives, and adjectives; and the semantics and acquisition of attitude verbs.

In 2015, I completed a BA in linguistics and a BA in philosophy at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst; I then spent a year as a Baggett Fellow in the University of Maryland before returning to Massachusetts.

I can be reached at cjbaron (at) mit (dot) edu.