Who are the CAT people?

The team currently revolves around an ever-growing number of researchers and students from Cyprus and abroad. The following people constitute the core team (faculty members, researchers, doctoral students):

In addition, a number of undergraduate students from UCY participate in research activities. The following students have been involved from the beginning for more than one semester:

 

Kleanthes Grohmann, PhD (Director, Cyprus Acquisition Team)

Kleanthes received his BA in Linguistics (First Class Honours) from the University of Wales, Bangor (now Bangor University) in 1996 and his PhD in Linguistics from the University of Maryland, College Park in 2000. After two years of postdocking in Germany, he came to UCY in 2003. As a trained theoretical linguist, his interests lie in biolinguistics at large from a generative perspective, with a research focus on architectural and operational issues within a minimalist approach to human language. His work includes (multiple) Wh-questions, left dislocation constructions, Spell-Out issues, and the infamous Prolific Domains. Kleanthes has worked on German(ic) syntax as well as selected issues in Slavic, Romance, and other language families. More recently he got interested in Greek syntax, in particular the grammar of Cypriot Greek (also in comparison with Standard Modern Greek).

With the foundation of CAT, he's working on a second life in academia: applying his theoretical expertise to issues surrounding language development. As such, he's actively investigating young children's first (and second) language acquisition, with a local focus on Cypriot Greek, both typically developing and language-impaired, as well as mono- and bi-/mulitlingual. Right now he's trying to exploit CAT research to test (or trash) his hypothesis on the socio-syntax of development. More on this soon…

Kleanthes is the (co-)author/editor of several research monographs, textbooks, and collected volumes. He also serves as the founding co-editor of the journal Biolinguistics and the book series Language Faculty and Beyond and has recently been appointed as the inaugural editor for the Scientific Cyprus Journal: Theoretical and Applied Linguistics. He is a member of the Editorial Board for Linguistic Analysis, Journal of Literature, Language and Linguistics, and the International Journal of Linguistics. He also serves on Linguist List's Ask-a-Linguist panel and the Wiley-Blackwell Language & Linguistics Compass Discussion Forum. From May 2010 on, he serves as the Chair of the Department of English Studies at the University of Cyprus and as the departmetnal representative on the university's Senate.

Email: kleanthi AT ucy DOT ac DOT cy
Profile: http://www.ucy.ac.cy/~kleanthi.aspx
Homepage: http://www.kleanthes.biolinguistics.eu

Maria Kambanaros, PhD CSP MSPA (Manager, Cyprus Acquisition Team)

Maria Kambanaros received her PhD in 2004 from Flinders University of South Australia, School of Medicine, Department of Speech Pathology and Audiology with the dissertation Verb and Noun Retrieval in Bilingual Greek-English Individuals with Anomic Aphasia. She has published several papers investigating word production breakdown for verbs and nouns for Standard Modern Greek in monolingual and bilingual aphasic adults. She has extended her interest in lexical access for verbs and nouns to other clinical populations including specific language impairment (SLI) and schizophrenia.

Maria holds an Associate Professor position in Speech Pathology at the European University Cyprus. She is the academic director of the Speech and Language Therapy program that was recently established in September 2009. This is the first and (so far) only speech and language therapy program in Greek-speaking Cyprus.

Email: m.kambanaros AT euc DOT ac DOT cy
Profile: http://euc.ac.cy/easyconsole.cfm/id/183/dep/165/c_id/10

Elena Papadopoulou, MA (Coordinator, Cyprus Acquisition Team)

Elena received her BA in English Language and Linguistics from UCY in 2005 and her MA in Language Acquisition from the University of Essex in 2006. She is currently working towards a PhD supervised research by Dr Sonja Eisenbeiss and Prof. Andrew Radford in Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics/Language Acquisition at the University of Essex. The current PhD research investigates the acquisition of Wh-questions in Cypriot Greek from a generative perspective through the syntactic priming paradigm. Her interests extend to theoretical applications of syntax, as well as the study of L1 and L2 acquisition by both typically developing and language impaired populations.

Elena has been a member of the Psycholinguistic Group at the University of Essex for the last four years, investigating language acquisition and developmental or acquired disorders, using both on-line and off-line experimental techniques. She has also been an editor of the Essex Graduate Student Papers in Linguistics, and is currently an elected member of the Linguistic Association of Great Britain (LAGB) Student Committee. She has also co-authored an article with Dr Kleanthes Grohmann (in progress) as well as authored two manuals (password-protected), for DMDX and ELAN.

Right now she is working towards the PhD and simultaneously coordinates CAT activities in her new role as the Gen-CHILD Project Research Assistant.

Email: epapadb AT gmail DOT com

Sviatlana Karpava, MA

Svetlana received her BA in Philology from the Belarus State University in 2003 and her MA in Applied Linguistics from the University of Cyprus in 2008, where she continues her studies as a PhD student under the supervision of Dr Kleanthes Grohmann. Her area of interest is generative syntax, semantics, and language acquisition. Svetlana participates in CAT and is going to investigate issues of adult/child second language acquisition of Greek, Cypriot Greek, and Russian.

Email: karpava.sviatlana AT ucy DOT ac DOT cy

Eleni Theodorou, MSc SLT

Elena received her BA in Speech and Language Therapy from the Technological Institute of Patras (Greece) in 2001 and her MSc in Language and Communication Impairment in Children from the University of Sheffield in 2007. Currently she continues her studies as a PhD student under Dr Kleanthes Grohmann's supervision at the Department of English Studies (UCY).

Her main research interest is the investigation of language deficits in Cypriot Greek-speaking children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). In addition to her research project, she is conducting different investigations related to Cypriot Greek first language acquisition issues of typically developing children, bilingual children, and language- impaired children within the CAT activities.

At the same time, Elena has been working as a Speech and Language Therapist for the Cyprus Ministry of Education, providing services to children in pre-primary and primary education for seven years. She is a Local Instructor of the MAKATON System, an augmentative communication system. She has also co-authored an article on voice-onset timing in Cypriot Greek with Areti Okalidou, Kakia Petinou, and Elena Karasimou (in press).

Email: theodorou.d.eleni AT ucy DOT ac DOT cy

Athina Skordi, MSc

Athina has received her BA in Linguistics from the University of East Anglia in 2006. She subsequently received her MSc in Neuroscience, Language and Communication from University College London in 2008. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Cyprus under the supervision of Dr Kleanthes Grohmann. She is conducting her research project within the CAT activities, for which she is investigating language acquisition issues in children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI) and typically-developing children. Her research interests lie in the acquisition of semantic notions, including the syntax–semantics and the semantics–pragmatics interfaces.

Email: skordi.athina AT ucy DOT ac DOT cy

Marina Varnava, BA

Marina is an MA student at the UCY Department of English Studies under Dr Kleanthes Grohmann's supervision.

Theoni Neokleous, MPhil

Theoni received her BA in Greek Philology from the University of Athens in 2007 and her MPhil in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge in 2008. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Cambridge, under the supervision of Dr Teresa Parodi, and her research focuses on the acquisition of syntactic structures in Cypriot Greek by typically-developing children. Her research interests include first language acquisition and the syntax of Cypriot Greek and fall in with CAT activities.

Natalia Pavlou

Natalia is a final-year BA student at the UCY Department of English Studies.

Chrystalla Michael

Chrystalla is a final-year BA student at the UCY Department of English Studies; she already holds a BA from UCY.

Evangelia Leivada

Evelina is a third-year BA student at the UCY Department of English Studies; she already holds a BA in Linguistics (Mediterranean Studies) from the University of the Aegean, Rhodes.

Anna Epistithiou

Anna is a third-year BA student at the UCY Department of English Studies.

Paraskevi Hadjiefthymiou

Skevi is a third-year BA student at the UCY Department of English Studies.

Paraskevi Mavroudi

Skevi is a third-year BA student at the UCY Department of English Studies.