Hi, I’m Michael Goodale. I’m a PhD student working at Institut Jean-Nicod at École normale supérieure where I am advised by Salvador Mascarenhas and Yair Lakretz. My thesis looks apply different Bayesian inference algorithms to the formalisms that have been developed in theoretical linguistics in order to model language acquisition as well as ways of connecting formal linguistic representations with what is learnt by neural network models.

My research interests largely lie at the interface of formal semantics, cognitive psychology and natural language processing. I am particularly interested in neurosymbolic models of conceptual processing and reasoning more generally.

I did a master’s degree in cognitive science at ENS where I developed a model of conceptual processing where the core primitives of formal semantics, discrete sets, are replaced with continuous representations, namely manifolds. This was to develop a novel account of privative adjectives, generic statements, and classical reasoning errors like conjunction fallacy. You can find a copy of it here on lingbuzz.

You can download my full résumé here.