Academic Papers

Coindexation in Attitude Complements (pdf)

Status: Mostly complete. A significant finding which contradicts standard analysis.

Abstract: Coindexed nominals within attitude complements appear unable to be read de re as distinct individuals, contrary to judgements previously reported in the literature. Most theories which derive de dicto interpretation of nominals in attitude complements cannot account for this (with the notable exception of Santorio (2014), who links de re interpretation to shifting assignments on raised indices). We develop a similar theory of shifting assignments which is able to account for the restriction on coindexed de re readings. Locating our proposed quantification over assignment functions in a Speech-Act Projection (SaP) may provide a principled solution to issues of de se interpretation.

Interpretation of the Optative Mood in Classical Greek (pdf)

Status: Fairly polished, further study would be desirable.

Abstract: The Classical Greek optative mood appears in a variety of constructions, of which some are easily related and others only with difficulty. We present a unified analysis for nearly all usages of the optative--including the optative of secondary sequence, in which an embedded verb under a past tense matrix verb bears optative morphology without any change in truth conditions, but excluding the past general conditional--which characterizes the optative as an expression of a modal domain restrictor. Insofar as our analysis is successful, it provides support for the existence of a modal domain coordinate and for histories framework proposed by Klecha (2014).

Multiplicative Groups of p-adic fields (pdf)

Status: Not very polished.

An exposition of p-adic numbers based on Jean-Pierre Serre's A Course in Arithmetic which examines the multiplicative groups of fields of p-adic fractions.

Aspectual Morphemes in Colonial Valley Zapotec Number Marking (pdf)

Status: Needs revision and further research.

Abstract: We show the definite future and irrealis morphemes in Colonial Valley Zapotec (CVZ) can be given denotations as a nonmodal future tense and a generic modal quantifier, respectively, and that these denotations can account for their interpretation as prefixes to numerals.

Projects

ACE Charity Quiz (animalcharityevaluators.org, github)

I created a new charity quiz for Animal Charity Evaluators. Read this blog post for more background.

AstroJumpr

AstroJumpr is an infinite jumper game for browsers written in 2011 using the HTML5 Canvas Element. Its appspot.com host was deactivated from lack of activity, so I need to transition away from the deprecated Master/Slave Datastore on Google App Engine, as well as update the account system which used a discontinued Facebook API.

Bridge-Tools

I wrote a number of Python scripts to simplify the process of lemmatizing texts for Haverford's Bridge vocabulary tool. These scripts are not publically available, but I can describe them in more detail upon request.

Michael Mari's Website (michaelfrancismari.com)

I maintain the website of Michael Francis Mari, a Latin teacher currently working at Montford Academy. I built a custom CMS for review guides, quizzes, and gallery albums, overhauled the existing user interface into a more responsive design, and built pages for quizzes and for showcasing student projects. The content management and student score interfaces are not publically accessible. A video page is currently under construction.

Minimalist (repl.it)

Status: Made rapidly for a class project in 2014.

Minimalist syntactic theory aims to construe language as a computational process whose rules can be written as explicit algorithms. I attempted to code a process which implements some aspects of minimalism such as feature-checking, and while the result certainly doens't encompass all features of natural language or all proposals associated with minimalism, I thought it was pretty cool. The linked file also contains a BinaryTree class which I wrote that is later subclassed into TreeNode and LexicalItem classes.

Project Euler Solutions (github)

Status: Completed for fun in my spare time.

Some solutions to problems on Project Euler.

Socrates 2.0 (jamesfaville.com/socrates.html)

Status: Made rapidly for a class project in 2013. Revised very slightly in 2017.

Inspired by ELIZA, a primitive "AI" program which frustrated thousands of users by pretending to be a psychotherapist, I set out to create a very frustrating digital version of Socrates which draws from his portrayal in Aristophanes' Clouds and adapts argumentation from Plato's Republic.