Michael B. Iverson

EDUCATION
RESEARCH
Michael B. Iverson
Department of Spanish and Portuguese
111 Phillips Hall
University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: 1-319-361-5473
E-mail: michael-iverson@uiowa.edu
Ph.D. (candidate) University of Iowa
Expected 2011 Hispanic Linguistics, focus: formal language acquisition
M.A. 2008 University of Iowa
Hispanic Linguistics, focus: SLA
B.A. 2006 University of Iowa
Spanish
B.S.E. 2006 University of Iowa
Biomedical Engineering
Major Fields: Romance linguistics and language acquisition
Area of Specialization: L2/L3 Acquisition, L1 Attrition, Bilingual Heritage
Speaker Acquisition
Areas of Interest: Syntactic Theory, language change and contact,
theoretical epistemology, statistics in applied linguistics
PUBLICATIONS
EDITED BOOKS
Cabrelli Amaro, J., Flynn, S., Iverson, M. & Rothman, J. (under contract, 2011). L3 Acquisition: Building
a Research Base. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Benjamins
Iverson, M., Judy, T., Ivanov, I., Tryzna, M., Rothman, J. & Slabakova, R. (eds.) (2010).
Proceedings of the Mind Context Divide Workshop. Sommerville, MA: Cascadilla Press
PROFESSIONAL JOURNAL ARTICLES
Rothman, J., Iverson, M., and Judy, T. (to appear 2011). Some Notes on the Generative Study of L3
Acquisition. Second Language Research 27,1.
Iverson, M. (2010) Informing the age of Acquisition debate: L3 as a litmus test. International
Review of Applied Linguistics, 48, 2-3.
Rothman, J., Iverson, M. & Judy, T. (2009). Bound Variable, Split Antecedent and Ellipsis Interpretations
in L2 Portuguese: Implications for L2 Acquisition Theories. Estudos da Linguagem 7, 2, 261-300.
Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2009). Beyond Morphological Use: What Semantic Knowledge Tells Us
About Aspect in L2 Portuguese. Estudos da Linguagem 7,2, 233-260.
Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2008). Poverty-of-the-stimulus and L2 Epistemology:
Considering L2 Knowledge of Aspectual Phrasal Semantics. Language Acquisition:
A Journal of Developmental Linguistics 15, 4, 270-314
Iverson, M., Kempchinsky, P. & Rothman, J. (2008). Interface Vulnerability and Knowledge of the
Subjunctive/Indicative Distinction with Negated Epistemic Predicates in L2 Spanish. EUROSLA
Yearbook 8, 135-163
Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2007). On L2 Clustering and Resetting the Null Subject Parameter in L2
Spanish: Implications and Observations. Hispania, 90, 2, 329-342.

Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2007). To Inflect or Not to Inflect Is the Question Indeed: Infinitives in Non-
Native Portuguese. The Journal of Portuguese Linguistics. 6,2 5-30.
Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2007). Input Type and Parameter Resetting: Is Naturalistic
Input Necessary? International Review of Applied Linguistics, IRAL 45,4 285-319.
Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2007). The Syntax of Pronominal Subjects in L2 Spanish: Comparing Two L2
Populations with Different Exposure. RESLA—Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, 20, 185-
214.
BOOK CHAPTERS (PEER REVIEWED)
Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (2010) Independent Normative Assessments for Bi/Multilingualism, Where art
thou? In Madalena Cruz-Ferreira (ed.), Multilingual Norms, 33-51. Berlin/New York: Peter Lang.
Iverson, M. (2009). N-drop at the Initial State of L3 Portuguese: Comparing Simultaneous and Additive
Bilinguals of English/Spanish. Pires, A. & Rothman, J. (eds.) Minimalist Inquiries into Child and
Adult Language Acquisition: Case Studies Across Portuguese, 221-244. Berlin/New York:
Mouton DeGruyter.
Cabrelli, J., Iverson, M., & Judy, T. (2009). N-Drop at the L3 Initial State and Its Relationship to the L2
Steady State. Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman (eds.) Minimalist Inquiries into Child and Adult
Language Acquisition: Case Studies Across Portuguese, 177-196. Berlin/New York: Mouton
DeGruyter.
Iverson, M. & Rothman, J. (2008). The Syntax-Semantics Interface in L2 Acquisition:
Genericity and Inflected Infinitive Complements in Non-Native Portuguese . . In Bruhn de Garavito
et al. (eds.) Selected Proceedings of the 10 th Hispanic Linguistic Symposium. Somerville, MA:
Cascadilla Press, 78-92.
CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS, REVIEWS & OTHER
Iverson, M. (2009). Knowledge of Noun-Drop across Various Lexical and Functional Categories in
Heritage Spanish Bilinguals. In Jean Crawford, Koichi Otaki, and Masahiko Takahashi (eds.),
Proceedings of GALANA 3, 98-106. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Rothman, J., Iverson, M., Judy, T. & Guijarro-Fuentes, P. (2009). Noun-Raising and Adjectival
Interpretative Reflexes in the L2 Spanish of Germanic and Italian Learners. In BUCLD 33:
Proceedings of the 33rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, 444-
455. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Iverson, M. & Rothman, J. (2008). Adverbial Quantification and Perfective/Imperfective Interpretive
Nuances in L2 Portuguese. In Slabakova et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the 9 th Generative
Approaches to Language Acquisition Conference, 70-80. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Cabrelli, J., Iverson, M., Judy, T. & Rothman, J. (2008). What the start of L3 tells us about the end of L2:
N-drop in L2 and L3 Portuguese In H. Chan, E. Kapia, H. Jacob (Eds.), A Supplement to the
Proceedings of the 32 nd Boston University Conference on Language
Development, available at http://128.197.86.186/posters/32/Cabrelli.pdf
MANUSCRIPTS IN PROGRESS
Pires, A., Rothman, J. & Iverson, M. (in prep.) What about the input?: On the late acquisition of
(some) syntax and semantics in child language. to be submitted to Language Acquisition
COLLOQUIA TALKS
2006 Inflect or Not to Inflect: Infinitives in L2 Portuguese (with J. Rothman) University of Iowa
Hispanic Linguistics Colloquium Series
2007 Interface Vulnerability and Knowledge of the Subjunctive/Indicative Distinction with Negated Epistemic
Predicates in L2 Spanish (with J. Rothman and P. Kempchinsky) University of Iowa
INVITED TALK
Conference on the role of the background languages in Third Language Acquisition
Informing the age of Acquisition debate: L3 as a litmus test
University of Stockholm, Sweden

PEER-REVIEWED CONFERENCES
SLRF, Second Language Research Forum October 6, 2006
The Logical Problem of Adult L2 Acquisition Revisited: The Case of Inflected Infinitives in L2 Portuguese
(with Jason Rothman)
10 th HLS, Hispanic Linguistic Symposium London, Canada October 19, 2006
To Inflect or Not to Inflect: Infinitives in L2 Portuguese (with Jason Rothman)
LSRL, Linguistic Symposium on Romance Language 37 March 15, 2007
Beyond Morphological Use: What Semantic Knowledge Tells Us about Aspect in L2 Portuguese (with
Jason Rothman)
GASLA 9, Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition May 20, 2007
Adverbial Quantification and Perfective/Imperfective Interpretive Nuances in L2 Portuguese (with Jason
Rothman)
GALA, Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Barcelona September 7, 2007
Another look at the Syntax/Semantics Interface in L2 Acquisition: Subjunctive vs. Indicative with Negated
Epistemics in Adult L2 Spanish Acquisition (with Jason Rothman and Paula Kempchinsky)
EuroSLA 2007 Newcastle, England September 14, 2007
L2 Grammatical Aspect Revisited: No Critical Period For Semantics Confirmed! (with Jason Rothman)
EuroSLA 2007 Newcastle, England September 14, 2007
Interface Vulnerability and Knowledge of the Subjunctive/Indicative Distinction with Negated Epistemic
Predicates in L2 Spanish (with Jason Rothman and Paula Kempchinsky)
SLRF, Second Language Research Forum October 13, 2007
N-drop at the L3 Initial State and Its Relationship to the L2 Steady State (with Jason Rothman, Jennifer
Cabrelli and Tiffany Judy)
11 th HLS, Hispanic Linguistics Symposium November 1, 2007
Does Interface Equal Interference?: The Non-Uniformity of the Subjunctive in Spanish and its L2
Acquisition (with Jason Rothman and Paula Kempchinsky)
32 nd BUCLD, BU Conference on Language Development November 4, 2007
What the Start of L3 Tells us About the End of L2: N-drop in L2 and L3 Portuguese (with Jason Rothman,
Jennifer Cabrelli and Tiffany Judy)
LSA, Linguistic Society of America 2008 January 4, 2008
The Interpretative Fallacy of the Interpretability Hypothesis: The Overt Pronoun Constraint and
Inflected Infinitives in L2 Portuguese (with Jason Rothman and Tiffany Judy)
LSA, Linguistic Society of America 2008 January 4, 2008
Informing Debates on the L2 Steady State: N-Drop at the Initial State of L3 Portuguese (with Tiffany Judy)
LSRL, Linguistic Symposium on Romance Language 37 April 4, 2008
L3 Portuguese in Successive and Simultaneous English/Spanish Bilinguals and Knowledge of N-drop
Romance Turn III Southampton, UK September 18th, 2008
Non-Convergence at Advanced Levels, Learnability and the Preemption Problem in L2 Semantics: DP and
Bare Nominal Interpretations in L2 Portuguese (with J. Rothman, T. Judy and P. Guijarro-Fuenetes)
SLRF, Second Language Research Forum October 10 th , 2008
Competence differences in heritage speaker grammars: The Interface Hypothesis across Spanish DPphenomena
(with Jason Rothman)
GALANA 3, Generative Approaches to Lang. Acq. North America September 4 th , 2008
N-Drop at the L3 Initial State and Its Relationship to the L2 Steady State.
33 rd BUCLD, BU Conference on Language Development November 2 nd 2008
Learnability in L2 Syntax-Semantics: Evidence from German and Italian Learners of L2 Spanish
(with Jason Rothman, Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes, and Tiffany Judy)
GASLA 10, Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition March 13-15 th , 2009
On Adjectival Syntax and Semantics in the Non-Native Spanish of Chinese and Italian Adult Learners
(with Pedro Guijarro-Fuentes; Tiffany Judy; Acrisio Pires and Jason Rothman)
Mind-Context Divide: Lang. Acq. & Interfaces of Cognitive-Linguistics Modules May 1 2009
Interface Vulnerability, Syntactic Deficits or Prior Linguistic Knowledge?: Explaining Differences Across
Brazilian Portuguese Knowledge as an L2 and L3 (with Tiffany Judy)

AATSP American Ass. of Teachers of Spanish and Portuguese July 9 2009
Linking Linguistics and Pedagogical Practice: Implications for Pronominal Subjects in L2 Spanish
(with Jason Rothman)
ISB 7 (International Symposium of Bilingualism) Utrecht, Holland July 7 th 2009
Generic Reference and N-Drop in Brazilian Portuguese as a Non-native Language and the Role of Prior
Linguistic Knowledge. (with T. Judy and P. Guijarro-Fuentes)
EuroSLA 2009 Cork, Ireland September 2 nd 2009
On Syntactic Transfer in Additive Multilingualism: Exploring the Syntax and Distribution of Pronominal
Subjects the L3 Initial State
EuroSLA 2009 Cork, Ireland September 2 nd 2009
The ‘age of acquisition’ debate and L3 acquisition
GALA 2009, Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition Lisbon September 9 th 2009
From Romance to Romance and why it might not be so straight forward: Null objects in the
L2 Spanish of Brazilian Portuguese natives (w/ J. Bruhn de Garavito, P. Guijarro-Fuentes & E. Valenzuela)
SLRF, Second Language Research Forum 2009 October 29-November 1, 2009
Yes/No Question Responses and Null-Subject Properties Related to Polarity Focus Differences in the L2
Acquisition of Spanish by Native Portuguese learners. (with J. Rothman, E. Brockhage, T. Judy, S. Dow, T.
Leal and G. Campos)
Hispanic Linguistic Symposium 2009 October 21-24, 2009
Polarity Focus Differences and Its Syntactic Reflexes in the L2 Acquisition of Spanish by Native
Portuguese learners. (with J. Rothman, E. Brockhage, T. Judy, S. Dow, T. Leal and G. Campos)
EuroSLA 2010 Reggio-Emilia, Italy September 1-4 2010
L2 effects on a ‘stable’ L1 Grammar: the L2 Brazilian Portuguese influence on L1 Spanish
Hispanic Linguistic Symposium 2010 October 14-17 2010
On L1 attrition and the Interface Hypothesis: A case study of Spanish attrition
Hispanic Linguistic Symposium 2010 October 14-17 2010
On typology and syntactic L1 preemption: Brazilian Portuguese speakers acquiring L2 Spanish (with Jason
Rothman)
Boston University Conference on Language Development November 5-7 2010
When L2 syntax is target-like and target-deviant at the same time: L1 preemption again! (with Jason
Rothman)
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
2008
MANUSCRIPT REVIEWER: Cascadilla Press, Selected Proceedings of the Hispanic Linguistics
Symposium
ABSTRACT REVIEWER: Mind-Context Divide Workshop
2009
ABSTRACT REVIEWER: American Association of Applied Linguistics Conference
MANUSCRIPT REVIEWER: Second Language Research; Selected Proceedings of Romance Turn III
2010
MANUSCRIPT REVIEWER: Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism; Hispania; TESOL Quarterly; Second
Language Research
WORKSHOPS ATTENDED & OTHER PREPARATIONS
2005 Undergraduate Research Assistant to Professor Rothman (University of Iowa)
2006 Graduate Research Assistant to Professor Rothman (University of Iowa)
2007--2009 Teaching Assistant (University of Iowa)
2007 Graduate Research Assistant to Professor Kempchinsky (University of Iowa)
2007 Special Editorial Assistant to Profs. Rothman and Niño-Murcia for:
NIÑO-MURCIA, M. & ROTHMAN, J (eds). (2008) Bilingualism and identity: Spanish at the
crossroads with other languages. Amsterdam: John Benjamins
2008 National Heritage Language Summer Institute (Harvard University)
2008 Special Research Assistant to Prof. Rothman in Brazil summer 2008
2009 The Mind-Context Divide: Interfaces and Language Acquisition (University of Iowa)

GRANTS & HONORS
2001-2005 Undergraduate Presidential Scholarship (University of Iowa)
2006-2012 Presidential Graduate Fellowship (University of Iowa)
2007 Conference Travel Grant for International Programs
2007 Departmental Conference Travel Grant
2008 Full Scholarship National Heritage Language Summer Institute (Harvard University)
2008 Stanley Pre-dissertation Research Fellowship
2010 T. Anne Cleary Dissertation Research Fellowship
MEMBERSHIPS
AATSP
LSA
EUROSLA