Liliana E. Sánchez, Ph.D.
Professor
Hispanic and Italian Studies
Pronouns: Ella/La
Contact
Building & Room:
UH 1713
Office Phone:
Email:
Related Sites:
hours
| Sunday | ||
|---|---|---|
| Monday | ||
| Tuesday | 09:30am – 11:00am | LING 210 |
| 12:30pm – 01:45pm | SPAN 206 | |
| 02:00pm – 03:00pm | Drop-In hours | |
| Wednesday | 09:00am – 06:00pm | Drop-In hours, off campus |
| Thursday | 09:30am – 11:00am | LING 210 |
| 12:30pm – 01:45pm | SPAN 206 | |
| 02:00pm – 03:00pm | Drop-In hours | |
| Friday | ||
| Saturday |
About
My research interests are bilingual, heritage and comparative syntax. In bilingual syntax, my current work focuses on crosslinguistic influence across language components especially syntax, morphology and informational structure (Spanish in contact with Quechua, Shipibo, Ashaninka, Korean and English). My work on heritage bilingualism focuses on modelling processes of differential access to heritage grammars. In comparative syntax, I work on the interface between informational structure and morphosyntax (Spanish, Quechua). I have also done collaborative work with academic and community researchers on Indigenous languages, access to health information, language documentation, and corpora annotation.
Selected Grants
National Science Foundation. 2025-2028., National Science Foundation Collaborative Research: Advancing Open-Access Resources for Languages: Investigating evidentiality and focus features., PI.
National Science Foundation. 2020-2021., RAPID Collaborative: Relevance of linguistic and cross-cultural appropriateness in communication during the pandemic. (https://sites.google.com/view/saipm-covid19/home), Co-PI with Helen Koulidobrova
National Science Foundation. 2014-2015., Workshop: Bilingual Morphology at the crossroads - New directions in the study of word structure., Co-PI collaborative with J. Camacho, N. Sagarra, and J. Austin.
Selected Publications
Cuza, A., Shin, N., & Sánchez, L. (2025). Genericity expression in child heritage Spanish. Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics, 18(1), 107-129. doi:10.1515/shll-2025-2004
Imbaquingo-Ramón, J., Sánchez, L., Perez, D., & Koulidobrova, E. (2025). Distribution of evidential markers in a Cuzco Quechua corpus. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, 10(1), 5899-5899.
Martínez Vera, G., López Otero, J. C., Sokolova, M. Y., Cleveland, A., Marshall, M. T., & Sánchez, L. (2023). Aspectual se and Telicity in Heritage Spanish Bilinguals: The Effects of Lexical Access, Dominance, Age of Acquisition, and Patterns of Language Use. Languages, 8(3), 201. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/languages8030201
Sánchez, L., Camacho, J., Mayer, E., and C. Rodriguez. 2023. The ‘Big DP’ Hypothesis: Evidence from Gender Agreement in a Language Contact situation. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 22, 127-148. https://revistes.uab.cat/catJL/article/view/v22-sanchez-et-al
Martínez Vera, G., López Otero, J. C., Sokolova, M. Y., Cleveland, A., Marshall, M. T., & Sánchez, L. (2023). Aspectualse and Telicity in Heritage Spanish Bilinguals: The Effects of Lexical Access, Dominance, Age of Acquisition, and Patterns of Language Use. Languages, 8(3), 201. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/languages8030201
Sánchez, L. and H. Koulidobrova. 2023. Mythbusters and Indigenous Perceptions of COVID-19. Ampersand. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amper.2023.100118
Sánchez, L., M. Goldin, E. Hur, J.C. López Otero, P. Thane, J. Austin, J. Markovits. 2023. Dominance, Language Experience, and Increased Interaction Effects on the Development of Pragmatic Knowledge in Heritage Bilingual Children: Acceptance of Null and Overt Subjects in Spanish and English. Heritage Language Journal. Brill. https://brill.com/view/journals/hlj/20/1/article-p1_1.xml
Amaral, L. and L. Sánchez. 2023. Commentary to The dynamics of bilingualism in language shift ecologies in Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism.
Mayer, E. and L. Sánchez. 2023. Feature Selection in Clitic Expression in Two Bilingual Amazonian Spanish Varieties. Spanish Diversity in the Amazon. M. Jara., R. Zariquiey, P. Valenzuela, A.M. Escobar (Eds.).Amsterdam: Brill. 251-279.
Shin, N., Cuza, A., & Sánchez, L. (2022). Clitics in Spanish-English Heritage Bilingual
children. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 1-13.
Sánchez, L., Camacho, J., Mayer, E., and C. Rodriguez. 2022. Gender Agreement in A Language Contact Situation. Languages, 7(2):81. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7020081
Sánchez, L. 2022. Is Quechua II a pluricentric language family? Pluricentric languages in different theoretical and educational contexts. Rudolf Muhr, Eugenia Duarte, Cilene Rodrigues, Juan Thomas (eds.) Graz/Berlin, PCL-Press. 31-46.
Publication Aggregators
Service to Community
Comunidad de Lingüistas. Member of support group for indigenous peoples.
Member of Bilingualism Matters Chicago. Childhood Bilingualism Workgroup.
Professional Leadership
Media Resource, Linguistic Society of America
Editorial Board Member, Isogloss
Editorial Board Member, Continua
Editorial Board Member, Living Languages
Editorial Board Member, Borealis
Editorial Board Member, Lengua y Sociedad
Editorial Board Member, Living Languages
Notable Honors
2024-2025, Distinguished Scholar Award in Humanities, Arts, Design & Architecture., Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research. UIC.
2017, Clement A. Price Human Dignity Award, Rutgers University
2016-2017, Research School of Humanities & the Arts External Visitor Support Fund, Australian National University
July-December 2012, Franklin Pease-Yrigoyen Visiting Professor Fellowship, Department of Humanities, Pontifical Catholic University of Peru
Education
Ph.D., Linguistics. University of Southern California, 1996
Professional Memberships
- Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas
- Linguistic Society of America
- Asociación de Lingüística y Filología de América Latina
Selected Presentations
Selected recent presentations
Recent keynotes and invited talks
- 2025. Variability in Heritage syntax? Lexical frequency, differential access, and transient alignments. Encuentro de Gramática Generativa. Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina August 6th. Keynote.
- 2025. ¿Cómo surgen las formas innovadoras?: Alineamientos bilingües en variedades de español en situaciones de contacto. Transfer und Hybridisierung XXIV Congreso de la Asociación Alemana de Hispanistas. Plenary. Hamburg University.
- 2025. Variability in Heritage speakers’ syntax: the role of lexical frequency, differential access, and transient alignments. Lois Matthews Lecture. Department of Spanish and Portuguese. University of California at Los Angeles.
- 2024. Evidentiality, focus, topic markers, and word order in Cuzco Quechua. Newcastle University.
- 2023. Structuring discourse in Southern Quechua and Spanish: Connectors, switch-reference, and evidential markers. Department of Linguistics. U of Chicago.
- 2023. Minoritized and Indigenous Language Rights. Rochester University.
Conferences
- 2025. Convergences between the Language Law, the National Language Policy, and the Intercultural Bilingual Education Policy" PERU FORUM 2025: BUILDING A STRONGER FUTURE BEYOND THE BICENTENNIAL. May 19th. U of Chicago panel. Association of Peruvian students.
- 2025. Verbal development in Heritage Spanish-English and Spanish-English bilingual children in immersion schools. International Symposium on Bilingualism. San Sebastián, Spain. With Sánchez, L., Austin, J., Goldin, M., Jimenez, A., Hur, E., López Otero, J. Markovits, J. Thane, P.
- 2025. Every and todos/as los/as: Distributive and collective interpretations among Spanish-English Heritage speakers. International Symposium on Bilingualism. San Sebastián, Spain June 10. (Poster). With Martínez Vera, G., Lopez Otero, J., Sokolova, M., Cleveland, A., Marshall, M.
- 2025. Linguistic Empowerment of Indigenous Groups – Project SAIPM Covid-19. International Colloquium. Muros Lingüísticos (Linguistic Walls). June 13. With Koulidobrova, E., Sánchez, L., Colón Rodriguez, K., Imbaquingo, J., Perez, D., Mannava, N., Lee, S.
- 2024. How investigation and documentation came together: From COVID-19 to language policy. Multidisciplinary Approaches in Policy and Planning. Carleton University, Ontario, Canada. June 27-30. With Koulidobrova, H., Sánchez, L., Colón Rodriguez, K., & Imbaquingo, J.
- 2024. Distribution of Evidential Markers and Perspective Shift in Cuzco Quechua. Quechua Alliance, Northwestern University. With Sanchez, L. Perez, D., Imbaquingo, J., & Koulidobrova, E.
- Indigenous health and language of COVID-19: Peru vs. Ecuador. Desafíos en la Diversidad. Pontifica Catolica Universidad de Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador, September. With Guamán, R., Koulidobrova, E., Sánchez, L., Imbaquingo, J., Ortega, F. & Haboud, M.
- 2023. How long does it take to name a picture? The effects of extralinguistic variables on lexical retrieval among Spanish Heritage speakers. Hispanic Linguistics Symposium. Brigham Young University. Salt Lake City. October 12-14. With Julio César López Otero, Rosela Romero, Jess Ward, and Carmen Thom.
- 2023. Las lenguas de acceso a la información sobre el COVID en Quechua y Shipibo en Perú y en Kichwa en Ecuador. September 12-15. Pontifical University of Ecuador. Quito, Ecuador. With Helen Koulidobrova, Rosa Guamán, Jeff Imbaquingo, Fernando Ortega, Marleen Haboud.
- 2023. Aspectual se in Heritage Spanish Bilinguals. Heritage Languages at the crossroads. Istanbul Medeniyet University. Istanbul, Turkey. May 29th-30th With Gabriel Martinez Vera, Marina Sokolova, Megan Marshall, Adam Cleveland.
- 2023. Multilingualism and COVID readiness in Indigenous communities of Peru. International Symposium on Bilingualism 14. Macquarie University, Australia. With Helen Koulidobrova.
- 2023. Linguistic Attitudes towards Shipibo-Konibo in urban and rural environments. International Symposium on Bilingualism 14. Macquarie University, Australia. WithL Elisabeth Mayer José Camacho Carolina Rodriguez Alzza
- 2023. Language rights and multilingualism of Indigenous migrant children. Spanish Linguistics in the Southeast Conference. February 25th. With Rosela Romero.
- 2023. The language of ‘access’ to COVID information in Quechua and Shipibo communities in Peru. Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas. January 22. With Elena Koulidobrova.
Research Currently in Progress
Research Currently in Progress
Research projects
- 2023-present . Co-PI. The need for research-based assessments for multilingual learners in dual-language programs. Collaborative with Prof. Michele Goldin (PI), Prof. Jennifer Austin (co-PI), Prof. Esther Hur (co-PI), Prof.Julio Lopez Otero (co-PI), Prof. Abril Jiménez (co-PI), Patrick Thane, Ph.D. (co-PI). Funded by William T Grant Foundation through Touro University
- 2020-present. Relevance of linguistic and cross-cultural appropriateness in communication during the pandemic. NSF-funded.
- 2020-present. Quantifiers in bilinguals and monolinguals.
- 2015-present. Documenting Cuzco-Collao Quechua. In collaboration with Prof. Sue Kalt, Prof. Antje Muntendam, Prof. Pedro Plaza, Hipólito Peralta Ccama, Bersi Macedo.
- 2014-present. Argument Marking in Andean and Amazonian Languages and Spanish. In collaboration with Elisabeth Mayer (Australian National University), Carolina Rodriguez Alzza (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and José Camacho (University of Illinois Chicago)
- 2012-present. Discourse structure in Southern Quechua. In collaboration with Prof. Luis Andrade (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and Prof. Roger Gonzalo Segura (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú).
- 2015-present. Null subjects in Spanish-English Bilingual Acquisition. In collaboration with Jennifer Austin (Rutgers, Newark), Michele Goldin, Esther Hur, Abril Jimenez, Julio Lopez Otero. Peru site: María Blume (PUCP), Mari Fernandez (PUCP) and Andrea Junyent.
Broad Impact Projects
- 2024-present. Corpora Annotation
- 2020- present. Materials for health experiencies and prevention (COVID-19) in Quechua (in collaboration with H. Koulidobrova and Siwar Peralta) and Shipibo (with H. Koulidobrova and Bernabe Nahua).