Research

I'm interested in phonological and phonetic variation, especially on the intra-speaker level. I am currently examining the structure and stylistic tendencies of narrative speech (spontaneous story-telling), which I believe will clarify the ramifications of narrative elicitation as a sociolinguistic method. The project feeds into a broader theme of determining how the sociolinguistic monitor operates across distinct modes or genres of speech.

My main backburner interests are: 1) phonetic signatures of syllabic affiliation, 2) the relationship between reduction and deletion, and 3) serial representations in Optimality Theory. To those ends, I've spent time exploring C-Center stability, debuccalization / deletion processes in Hixkaryana, hiatus resolution in Ojibwe, Super-Optimality, and Harmonic Serialism.

Presentations

Hacker, M. Narrative Style-Shifting in Self-Recorded Audio Diaries. Talk at Southeastern Conference on Linguistics (SECOL 2026). 26 March 2026. [PDF]

Hacker, M. Hixkaryana Prefix Deletion is Gradual. Talk at Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC 50). 1 March 2026. [PDF]

Hacker, M. The Gradual Deletion Hypothesis: Evidence from Nasality Agreement in Hixkaryana. Poster presentation at UC Santa Cruz Linguistics Undergraduate Research Conference (LURC). 7 June 2024. [PDF]

Papers

Hacker, M. The Gradual Approach to Prefix Deletion. In preparation for Penn Working Papers in Linguistics, Volume 33.1. 2027.

Tools

Praat Handcoder Pause Mod: a version of Fruehwald's Handcoder that allows querying the texgrid specifically for tokens in pre-pausal position.

Who is this person

I'm from Northern California and attended UC Santa Cruz to study Linguistics and Environmental Studies. I like all kinds of visual arts, as well as running, hiking, biking (anything where I get to move my legs), and baking. I'm in the Spartan Housing Cooperative and serve as its corporate secretary. Ask me about co-ops if you're interested in creating more sustainable and affordable ways of living. ☺

I am gradually walking every road in East Lansing and keeping track of it on a giant map. I want to get to know every nook and cranny of the area I inhabit. I have done this in every place I've previously lived and I will never stop doing it. If you live in the area and like to go on little adventures, my inbox is always open!