Prof. M.T.C. Ernestus (Mirjam)

As a psycholinguist, I am interested in all aspects of language processing. However, my main focus is on how speakers produce and how listeners understand speech in informal conversations. Most of my work focuses on the reduced word pronunciation variants of words (e.g., "yeshay" for "yesterday") that are so abundant in everyday speech. These variants typically go unnoticed by native speakers and listeners but form great problems for second language learners.