David Rubio Vallejo

Contact: drubiovallejo [at] gmail [dot] com

My LinkedIn is [here].

About

I'm a (former) formal semanticist and computational linguist.

I completed a MS in Computational Linguistics at Brandeis University and a PhD in Theoretical Linguistics at the University of Delaware, where my advisor was Satoshi Tomioka. My doctoral research focused on the interface between the syntax, semantics and pragmatics of natural language, where I looked at the interaction between circumstantial modality, tense, and aspect. [Dissertation abstract ] [Full work: Modal non-assertions ].

This page is intended as a repository of my academic work. If there is something that you might find interesting, but cannot access for any reason, feel free to drop me an email.

Education

2017-2019.	MS in Computational Linguistics, Brandeis University, USA.
2011-2017.	PhD in Linguistics and Cognitive Science, University of Delaware, USA. (Fulbright Scholar)
2009-2011.	MPhil in Linguistics and Comparative Philology, St. Cross College, University of Oxford, UK. (Linares-Rivas Scholar)
2005-2009.	BA in English Philology, Universidad de Deusto, Spain.

Projects

Fluency Friend (with Jamie Brandon)

Highlights: Python, Machine learning, Annotation.

• Bilingual language-learning goal-oriented chatbot that suggests Spanish translations of commands, asks the user to input them, and gives feedback on grammaticality.
• Brandeis 2018 Hackathon Best Google Integration and Best Machine Learning project winner.

HelpfulReviewsML

Highlights: Python, Machine learning, Annotation.

• Designed an annotation specification to automatize the discrimination of helpful reviews from irrelevant ones.

Spanish chatbot

Highlights: Python, Machine learning.

• Created a chatbot trained on the CORLEC corpus that implements the Jaccard coefficient and TF-IDF algorithms.

NLP tools

Highlights: Java, Python.

• Implemented a minimum edit distance finder, a Naive Bayes text classifier, a HMM part-of-speech tagger.
• Designed my own data structures (LinkedLists, Queues, Stacks, AVL trees, HashTables, Heaps).

Independent projects

• Used Python scripts to retrieve information from tweets into JSON files and plot it to observe trends.
• Modeled Finite-State Machines in Haskell to capture phonological generalizations.
• Created a CTL model in Haskell to assess the validity of propositions grounded at different time/world indices (with Dan Noar).

Publications

Forthcoming. Efectos de factualidad como implicaturas conversacionales. Los verbos modales y la expresión de la modalidad, ed. by Claudia Borgonovo and Ana Bravo.

2017. Actuality effects as conversational implicatures. Journal of Pragmatics 112: 44-67. [link]

2016. Bare Count Singulars in Spanish. Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics Society 51 , University of Chicago, IL. [link]

2015. The Counterfactual Reading of Spanish haber. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 21: Iss. 1, Article 27. [superseded by chapter 2 of my dissertation]

Presentations

2017. Future-oriented reproachative imperatives. 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. University of Delaware, DE. [slides] [draft]

2017. Weak necessity, focus, and interaction with negation. Penn Linguistics Conference 41. University of Pennsylvania, PA. [poster]

2016. Negation, focus alternatives, and perfect tense. MACSIM 6. Hunter College, City University of New York, NY.

2015. (Counter)factuality and the Spanish ability modal. MACSIM 5. University of Delaware, DE. [poster]

2015. Bare count singulars in Spanish. Chicago Linguistics Society 51. University of Chicago, IL. [slides]

2015. Non-incorporated bare singulars in Spanish. Penn Linguistics Conference 39. University of Pennsylvania, PA.

2014. Stronger counterfactuality. MACSIM 4. Rutgers University, NJ.

2014. Actuality effects in Spanish. Annual meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain. Queen's College, Oxford University, UK.

2014. The counterfactual reading of Spanish haber. Penn Linguistics Conference 38. University of Pennsylvania, PA.