Lindy Lab

We investigate language skills in atypical development paths and collaborate with associations in our environment.

About us…

We are a group of researchers interested in increasing our understanding of different types of language-related development trajectories.

We are a group of linguists, philosophers, psychologists and educators interested in increasing our understanding of different types of language-related development trajectories . By this we mean developmental paths in which the grammar of the individual’s mother tongue is not fully mastered, or in which the vocabulary is very limited and the prosody or intonation is atypical or those in which figurative meaning is difficult to understand, or others in which language does not seem to be incorporated as an instrument of thought, etc.

The main office of the laboratory is the Micaela Portilla Ikergunea Research Center of the UPV/EHU (Facultad de Letras, Campus of Álava) in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The group belongs to the Hizkuntzalaritza Teorikorako Taldea (Basque Research Group in Theoretical Linguistics, HiTT), which investigates the faculty of human language from a cross-linguistic perspective and through formal and experimental analysis in the domains of phonology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Members of the Lindy Lab include:
Elena Castroviejo (Ikerbasque & UPV / EHU); Agustín Vicente (Ikerbasque & UPV / EHU); Urtzi Etxeberria (IKER-CNRS); Marta Jorba (UPV / EHU); Valentina Petrolini (UPV/EHU); Óscar Fernández de Gamarra (Landaberde Daycare Center); Itziar Arbina (Landaberde Daycare Center); Marta Ponciano (UPV / EHU).

What we want to do

We aim to identify key elements in the development of both typical and atypical language that can help in diagnosis.

Atypical language development trajectories are very different from each other. Even focusing on Autism Spectrum Conditions (ASC), the heterogeneity observed is impressive. It is very common in this area that the results of the studies are not replicated, partly because of this heterogeneity. We do not aspire to identify language-related problems shared by all individuals on the autism spectrum, but to find elements that can be problematic for certain subgroups, thus creating the conditions to achieve both a greater understanding of the linguistic abilities of different groups within the spectrum, and more precise diagnostic tools.

Mission & Values

Our group comprises researchers and educators. We seek to expand our knowledge and offer a return to the people we work with and their families.

Our group comprises people who come both from an academic and a scientific domain, and from intervention and diagnosis practice in care and assistance environments for individuals on the autism spectrum and their families. Thus, we investigate with the double objective of broadening knowledge about the linguistic and cognitive abilities of the population with ASC, and offering a return to the people and families with whom we work.

TEAM

Elena Castroviejo

Elena is a linguist and develops research related to natural language semantics and pragmatics. More specifically, she has investigated topics such as non-declarative sentence types (exclamatives and interrogatives), modification and gradability, discourse structure and non-literal meanings (implied, evaluative, expressive) from a formal and cross-linguistic perspective.

Agustín Vicente

Agustín is an Ikerbasque Professor at the UPV / EHU. His background is in philosophy, and he works in semantics and pragmatics and on the relationships between language and thought. In recent years, his research focuses on studying the cognitive role of inner speech.

Urtzi Etxeberria

Urtzi is a permanent researcher at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and director of the IKER Research Center (UMR 5478) dedicated to the study of the Basque language and texts. He obtained his PhD in 2005 (UPV / EHU). His current research focuses on the study of the syntax-semantics and semantics-pragmatics interfaces by combining the methods of theoretical and experimental linguistics.

Marta Jorba

Marta is a Juan de la Cierva postdoctoral researcher at the University of the Basque Country (UPV / EHU). Her research focuses on the fields of philosophy of mind and psychology, with special interest in the nature of thought, language and experience. She has worked on inner speech and its relationship with cognition and is interested in examining the role of inner speech in cognitive processes in people with ASC.

Óscar Fernández de Gamarra

Oscar is a psychologist and educator. In the last 10 years he has worked as an educator and director at the Landaberde center in Vitoria, working with adults within the ASC.

Itziar Arbina

Itziar is a psychologist and educator. She has been working with children, adolescents and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders for more than 10 years and has participated in psychosocial and sports programs. She currently works in an Adult Day Center with ASC.

Marta Ponciano

Marta has a degree in English Philology from the UPV / EHU and is a pre-doctoral researcher in the study of generalizations in the population with ASC.

COLLABORATORS

Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga

HU Berlín

Héctor Marín Manrique

University of Zaragoza

Ingrid Lossius Falkum

University of Oslo

Julia Robles

Hodari

Estibaliz Tejedor

Grammar & Cognition Lab

UPF