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David Beaver is a Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Texas at Austin, where he also serves as the Director of the Cognitive Science Program. His research primarily focuses on linguistic meaning, exploring various subfields such as semantics and pragmatics. He employs a range of methodologies, including computational studies of large text corpora, experimental research, and theoretical modeling with logic and statistics. His main empirical topics include presupposition, examining how assumptions are reflected in speech; anaphora, understanding how expressions like pronouns derive meaning from prior context; and topic/focus, investigating how melodic and linguistic features indicate the relationship between questions and answers. His research interests also extend to temporal event semantics and the automatic extraction of psychological and social features in text and dialogue. Moreover, he delves into broader philosophical and cognitive science themes, including political language and its implications, the intersection of linguistics and law, and the societal impacts of language.
General requirements for the Graduate School at UT Austin apply to all programs unless otherwise specified.