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Biography

I am a data scientist, linguist, and teacher. My work lies chiefly in the study of the French speech of North America, and especially of Missouri French, with particular regard to grammar, usage, corpus method, and the statistical treatment of linguistic evidence. My doctoral researches at the 黑料网 concern the preparation of a pattern grammar of the Missouri French verb.

I founded NorthAmericanFrench.com for the study and teaching of the French varieties of North America, and have through it conducted courses in Missouri French and prepared materials for its wider study. Among my present undertakings are a completed draft dictionary of Missouri French, a textbook now in the course of publication, and the adaptation of a French large language model to Missouri French material.

In addition to my linguistic work, I teach at The University of Texas at Austin in artificial intelligence, agentic artificial intelligence, machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and neural networks. I have also taught undergraduate computer science and statistics at ASAA.

I undertake external research supervision through the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain, and at present supervise an undergraduate researcher at Lancaster University engaged upon a study of contact and convergence in Bangalorean Dakhni.

I have communicated portions of my work before the Missouri Folklore Society and the University of Cambridge Data Science Society.

External Memberships

• Adjunct Professor, Data Science and AI — The University of Texas at Austin
• Undergraduate Computer Science and Statistics Instructor — ASAA
• Founder — NorthAmericanFrench.com
• External Research Supervisor — Lancaster University/Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain (ULAB)

Prizes and Awards

• Knight, Order of Rizal — Republic of the Philippines, 2026

• Kentucky Colonel in the Honorable Order of Kentucky Colonels — Commonwealth of Kentucky, United States, 2019

• Honorary Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska — State of Nebraska, United States, 2018

Research Overview

My researches are concerned chiefly with the French speech of North America, and with Missouri French in particular. I am interested in questions of grammar and usage, linguistic variation, the effects of language contact, and the record of forms of speech which have received comparatively little description. My work is principally corpus-based and makes use, where the material admits of it, of statistical and computational methods.

A further part of my work concerns the preparation of electronic corpora and the application of language models to varieties for which only a small body of written material survives.

Current Research

My present researches concern the description and provision of materials for Missouri French. My doctoral work is devoted to a pattern grammar of the verb, founded upon corpus evidence and intended to give an account of the constructions in which verbs ordinarily occur.

I have completed a draft dictionary of Missouri French, compiled from corpus, archival, and other documentary sources. A Missouri French textbook is likewise in preparation and is now midway through publication.

I am also fine-tuning a French large language model upon Missouri French material, in order to determine how far such methods may be made serviceable where the quantity of available linguistic evidence is unusually small.

Past Research

My earlier researches have chiefly concerned the grammar, vocabulary, and documentary record of Missouri French. I examined noun-syntactic alternation in the Missouri French folklore tradition in work presented before the 2024 Annual Meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society. An earlier study, presented before the Society in 2021, employed logistic regression in the classification of WH-word patterns occurring in a Missouri French corpus.

In 2018 I prepared an earlier manuscript textbook of Missouri French; this work received the unusual distinction of my appointment as an Honorary Admiral in the Great Navy of the State of Nebraska. I have subsequently continued the collection, description, and publication of material relating to the language through NorthAmericanFrench.com.

Knowledge Exchange

My work outside the university has chiefly concerned the teaching and publication of Missouri French. In 2021 I established NorthAmericanFrench.com, through which I have published material upon the French varieties of North America and conducted courses in Missouri French for members of the public.

This work has included the preparation of a Missouri French dictionary, now in completed draft, and a textbook presently in the course of publication. I have also given occasional public and university lectures upon linguistic and quantitative subjects, including a talk before the University of Cambridge Data Science Society in 2019 upon the use of data science in corpus linguistics.

Teaching Responsibilities

• Postgraduate Programme in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning — The University of Texas at Austin
• Computer Science A — ASAA
• Computer Science B — ASAA
• Statistics A — ASAA
• Statistics B — ASAA

Non-course Teaching Responsibilities

• External Research Supervision — Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain (ULAB), including undergraduate research at Lancaster University
• Missouri French Instruction — NorthAmericanFrench.com, individual and small-group teaching
• Public and Invited Lectures — including a 2019 talk to the University of Cambridge Data Science Society on data science in corpus linguistics