Géraldine Walther

Géraldine Walther

Géraldine Walther

Head for the Concentration in Computational Linguistics (CMPL) in the MS in Data Analytics Engineering (DAEN)

Director of the Computational Linguistics Lab

Assistant Professor

Computational Linguistics, Language and cognition, Language documentation, Linguistic Typology, Morphology, Syntax

Géraldine Walther's research interests lie at the intersection between computational linguistics, linguistic typology, and cognitive science. She is investigating in the degree of internal cohesion within linguistic systems, which she researches using computational and quantitative methodologies applied to original data. The data is often directly collected as part of original language documentation enterprises. Her approach focuses specifically on system-level patterns of linguistic sub-organisation and their consequences for cognitive processing and development, as well as for diachronic change.

Before joining GMU in August 2019, Géraldine Walther was a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute for Comparative Linguistics at the University of Zurich, where she worked on an SNF research project investigating the relationship between properties of adult language structure and child language acquisition in the Romansch variety of Tuatschin (spoken by approx. 1500 speakers in the Grisons, Switzerland).

She obtained her PhD from the Université Paris Diderot in 2013.
(Thesis title: Sur la canonicité en morphologie: perspective empirique, formelle et computationnelle [On canonicity in morphology: an empirical, formal, and computational approach])

Géraldine Walther is currently developing the new computational linguistics strand within the Linguistics curriculum and setting up the new Computational Linguistics Lab.

Grants and Fellowships

Grants

2022-2024 $299,977

NSF EAGER Grant, NSF, ”Inclusive-ScamBuster: Inclusive Scam Detection Methods for Social Media to Design Assistive Tools for Protecting Individuals with Developmental Disabilities” (PI Hemant Purohit, GMU Information Sciences & Technology; Co-PI Géraldine Walther, GMU English/Linguistics; Co-PI Matt Peterson, GMU Psychology; Co-PI Yoosun Chung, GMU Special Education)

2022 $40,000

CCI Impact of Human Behavior on Cybersecurity, Commonwealth Cyber Initiative, NoVa Node, VA, “Characterizing Biases in Automated Scam Detection Tools for Social Media to Aid Individuals with Developmental Disabilities” (PI Hemant Purohit, GMU Information Sciences & Technology; Co-PI Géraldine Walther, GMU English/Linguistics; Co-PI Matt Peterson, GMU Psychology; Co-PI Yoosun Chung, GMU Special Education)

2021-2024 $449,709

NSF DEL/DLI Grant, NSF, ”Collaborative Research: DLI-DEL: Language Documentation with an AI Helper” (PI Antonios Anastasopoulos, GMU Computer Science; Co-PI Géraldine Walther, GMU English/Linguistics; Co-PI David Chiang, Notre Dame Computer Science and Engineering)

2021-2022 $29,928

CAHMP Seed Grant, Center for Advanced Human and Machine Partnership (CAHMP). "ScamBuster: Detecting Emergent Scam Networks on Social Media during Disasters" (PI Hemant Purohit, GMU Information Sciences & Technology; Co-PI Géraldine Walther, English/Linguistics.)

2016-2018

€8,000

IXXI/ISH, “Sur le bout de la langue” modélisation mathématique de la compétition entre langues’, (with Morgane Bergot, Université Claude Bernard, Lyon (France))

 

Awards

2014-2016 ~ €100,00

Postdoctoral fellowship, ASLAN Excellency cluster, ”Advanced Studies on LANguage complexity (ASLAN), CNRS, Lyon (France): two years of funding plus monthly salary, benefits, and additional expenses (conferences, research visits, summer schools) for developing a personal research project on “A typological approach to structural properties of morphological systems”.

01-02/2012 €2,850

Networds visiting grant, European Science Foundation, Surrey Morphology Group, University of Surrey (UK): six week visiting grant, collaboration on Canonical Typology with Prof. Greville G. Corbett and Prof. Dunstan Brown, on computational morphology with Prof. Dunstan Brown, on general typology with Maris Camilleri (Maltese) and Dr. Enrique Palancar (Chinantec).

2007-2010 ~ €115,000

PhD funding, ENS-LSH & Université Paris Diderot, Paris (France): three years of funding plus monthly salary, benefits, and additional expenses (conferences, research visits, summer schools) for PhD research “Sur la canonicité en morphologie: perspective empirique, formelle et computationnelle.” [“On canonicity in morphology: an empirical, formal, and computational approach”]

2003-2007 ~ €120,000

École Normale Supérieure de Lyon (Lettres et Sciences Humaines), Lyon (France): Admission to the ENS-LSH: fully paid selective 4-year studentship with monthly salary and benefits and supplementary courses in Linguistics, and German Language and Literature.

Courses Taught

General Linguistics

Undergraduate courses

Course number Title Term
LING 486 Syntax I Spring 2022, 2023

Graduate courses

Course number Title Term
LING 687 Syntax 1 Spring 2022, 2024
Fall 2022
LING 786 Spring 2020, 2021
LING 787 Syntax 2 Fall 2019

Advanced seminars

Course number Title   Term
LING 886 Advanced Syntax Seminar Tracing the Invisible:
Optionality in Language
Fall 2020
LING 890 Advanced Phonology Seminar

Computational Linguistics

Undergraduate courses

Course number Title Term
LING 475 Computers and Language Spring 2023

Graduate courses

Course number Title (Topic) Term
LING 570 Computational and Quantitative Methods Fall 2022, 2023
LING 517 Spring 2025
Fall 2025
LING 717 Spring 2025
Fall 2025
LING 686 Special Topics in Linguistics Computational Linguistics Fall 2019, 2020
Computational Typology Spring 2020
LING 571 Computational Linguistics I Spring 2026
LING 675 Spring 2023, 2024
LING 771

Computational Linguistics II TBD Fall 2026
LING 775 Computational Language Documentation Spring 2025

Advanced seminars

Course number Title Topic Term
LING 800 Advanced Seminar in Linguistics Computational Language Documentation Spring 2025
Models of Learning and Processing Spring 2026

Language and cognition

Undergraduate courses

Course number Title Term
LING 480 First Language Acquisition Fall 2023

Graduate courses

Course number Title Term
LING 580 First Language Acquisition Fall 2023
LING 641 Fall 2025
LING 741 Fall 2025

Advanced seminars

Course number Title Topic Term
LING 800 Advanced Seminar in Linguistics Models of Learning and Processing Spring 2026

Linguistic variation and linguistic typology

Undergraduate courses

Course number Title Term

Graduate courses 

Course number Title   Term
LING 686 Special Topics in Linguistics Computational Typology Spring 2020

Advanced seminars

Course number Title   Term
LING 886 Advanced Syntax Seminar Tracing the invisible: optionality in Language Fall 2020
LING 890 Advanced Phonology Seminar


Other

Graduate courses

Course number Title   Term
LING 795 Laboratory Research Experience Variability in NP internal Information Distribution Fall 2024
LING 898 Advanced Qualifying Seminar   Spring 2021





Education

2013 Doctorate in Linguistics Université Paris Diderot
2007 MA in Linguistics INALCO Paris
2006 Agrégation externe d’allemand  
2004 BA in Linguistics Université Lumière Lyon 2
2004 BA in German Studies Université Lumière Lyon 2 & ENS de Lyon
2003-2007 École Normale Supérieure  ENS de Lyon

Dissertations Supervised

Yamei Wang, Classifier Systems: A Quantitative Investigation of Their Distribution and Function in Mandarin and Beyond (2024)