Research interests
My research interests include psycholinguistics, multilingual processing, language contact, sociolinguistics, heritage and endangered languages, particularly Campidanese Sardinian.
I am a member at the Second Language Acquisition Lab. My research there focuses on how active use influences bilingual performances and on methods of measuring dominance, as well as the interplay between dominance and heritage languages.
Published work
Porru, I., Stern, M. C., & Martohardjono, G. (2021, April). Comparing dominance measures in speakers of typologically different languages: A case study of Turkish-English Bilinguals. In Conference on Central Asian Languages and Linguistics (p. 211). [link]
​
Martohardjono, G., Johns, M., Franciotti, P., Castillo, D., Porru, I., & Lowry, C. Use of the first-acquired language modulates pupil size in the processing of island constraint violations. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1180989. [link]
Projects
Comparing dominance measures in bilingual speakers of typologically different languages
This study aims to contribute to a better understanding of dominance in typologically different languages, such as Turkish and English. Developing robust measures of dominance is especially important and challenging for this population, since most methods to measure dominance rely on syntax or grammatical structures.
You can find the paper here.
Evidentiality and language contact: A case study of Turkish children in Berlin
This MA dissertation looked at the changes that Turkish evidentiality is undergoing in bilingual children living in Berlin due to contact with German. Previous studies (Herkenrath 2016) have found that in Turkish/German bilingualism the evidential suffix has disappeared, therefore we hypothesize that the Turkish evidential mark may have undergone attrition.
You can find the full thesis here.
Does Italian dominance affect Sardinian phonology? A case study of Southern Campidanese
This study looks at whether a peculiar phonological process of Campidanese (intervocalic lenition at the word boundary) is affected by Italian. In particular, I looked at whether speakers’ dominance affects this process
Conference Talks
Evidentiality and Language Contact: A Case Study of Turkish Children in Berlin
Porru I. - December 2019. SYNC, New York University
Explicit and implicit measures of language dominance in Turkish-English bilinguals
Porru I., Stern M.C., Martohardjono G. - February 2020. BUSCTEL, BoÄŸaziçi Üniversitesi
Comparing dominance measures in bilingual speakers of typologically different languages
Porru, I. - April 2022. ConCALL-4, Indiana University
Does Italian dominance affect Sardinian phonology? A case study of Southern Campidanese
Porru, I. - September 2022. LABiC, Ca' Foscari University
Language Use Modulates Processing of Island Constraints in Heritage Language Speakers
Martohardjono, G., Johns, M., Castillo, D., Franciotti, P., Porru, I., Lowry, C. - May 2023. Heritage Languages at the Crossroads (HL@Cross), Ä°stanbul Medeniyet Üniversitesi
Poster / Project launch. An ocean apart
Porru, I., Martohardjono G., Bayram, F. - NWAV51, Queens College
“Wait.. who are we talking about?”: Different interpretations in bilingual populations
Porru, I. - Communicating Your Science Symposium, Advanced Science Research Center (CUNY)