Two Men Talking in a Tavern (detail), Jean Charles Meissonier (1848-1917)

​I'm a cognitive scientist who studies and writes about language and communication.

​How can people learn a second language in adulthood?

What makes cross-cultural communication difficult?
​
​How does our language ability change as we get older?

My first three books examined these questions. I wrote them with a former student who now works as a diplomat for the U.S. Department of State.

​My most recently published book, about irony and sarcasm, was released by MIT Press in 2020.

A new book, about the causes and consequences of miscommunication, is in press at Prometheus Books.