I am a linguist and psycholinguist working on Hebrew language acquisition and the development of linguistic literacy in a usage-based framework. I am interested in understanding the emergence and consolidation of the lexicon and grammar across infancy, childhood and adolescence in the context of diverse linguistic typologies and communicative settings. I find statistical learning and Construction Grammar extremely helpful in accounting for the structural and semantic patterning found in my studies (read more).
Current projects
My current research includes the following projects:
- Input-output patterns in the acquisition of Hebrew root usage: A corpus-based psycholinguistic study (click here for details)
- Development of complex syntax resources: A psycholinguistic study in schoolage children with different linguistic proficiencies (click here for details)
- Handbook of Communications Disorders: Theoretical, Empirical, and Applied Linguistic Perspectives. De Gruyter (click here for details)
- Peer talk analyses: A corpus of peer talk conversations among Hebrew-speaking children aged 2-8 years which has been the subject of several developmental psycholinguistic analyses (click here for details).
Here you can find a talk (in Hebrew) about what childish errors can teach us about processes of language learning.
Psycholinguistics Research Group: language acquisition and processing
The research group discusses various subjects, including Morphology (Hebrew verbs), Syntax (Prepositions, Discourse Syntax), and Communication Disorders. The research group is interdisciplinary, with participants coming from different backgrounds: linguists, speech therapists, and educators (click here for details).
Selected publications (see recent publications, all publications)
Ravid, D. 1995. Language change in child and adult Hebrew: A psycholinguistic perspective. New York: Oxford University Press.
Ravid, D. & A. Avidor. 1998. Acquisition of derived nominals in Hebrew: Developmental and linguistic principles. Journal of Child Language, 25, 229-266.
Ravid, D. & L. Tolchinsky. 2002. Developing linguistic literacy: A comprehensive model. Journal of Child Language, 29, 419-448.
Ravid, D. & R. A. Berman. 2006. Information density in the development of spoken and written narratives in English and Hebrew. Discourse Processes, 41, 117-149.
Ravid, D. 2006. Semantic development in textual contexts during the school years: Noun Scale analyses. Journal of Child Language, 33, 791-821.
Ravid, D. & R. Schiff. 2009. Morpho-phonological categories of noun plurals in Hebrew: A developmental study. Linguistics, 47, 45-63.
Ravid, D. 2012. Spelling morphology: the psycholinguistics of Hebrew spelling. New York: Springer.
Ravid, D. & R. Schiff. 2012. From dichotomy to divergence: Number/gender marking on Hebrew nouns and adjectives across schoolage. Language Learning, 62, 133-169.
Ravid, D. & Y. Chen-Djemal. 2015. Spoken and written narration in Hebrew: A case study. Written Language and Literacy, 18:1, 56-81.
Ravid, D. & R. Schiff. 2015. It’s all about gender: Hebrew speakers’ processing of plural agreement morphology. Morphology, 25, 327–343.
Ravid, D., O. Ashkenazi, R. Levie, G. Ben Zadok, T. Grunwald, R. Bratslavsky and S. Gillis. In press. Foundations of the root category: analyses of linguistic input to Hebrew-speaking children. In R. Berman (ed.) Acquisition and Development of Hebrew: From Infancy to Adolescence. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Dorit Ravid 