Dr. Gonzalez is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Spanish and Portuguese and Linguistics. She is the Director of the Multilingual Syntax Lab at Iowa, a collaborative research lab that employs quantitative experimental methods to investigate language acquisition in adult multilingual populations. She is a Full Member of the DeLTA Center, serves as faculty for the Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate on the Cognitive Science of Language, and plays an active role in the program’s weekly Language Discussion Group.

Dr. Gonzalez is currently the Departmental Advisor for Honors in Spanish and Portuguese.

Research

Dr. Gonzalez is a formal linguist whose research centers on the acquisition of syntax (and its interfaces) in adult multilinguals, combining theoretical and experimental approaches. She is particularly interested in the role of lexical semantics in argument structure and questions related to mental representations of grammar as well as language behavior. Her work addresses factors that influence linguistic outcomes in multilinguals, such as age of exposure, context, proficiency, dominance, and typological similarity. She works with diverse populations of multilinguals, including traditional second language learners (i.e., sequential bilinguals), heritage bilinguals, and third language learners. 

Recent Publications

• Gonzalez, B.H. (Accepted). A lexical semantic approach to the L2 acquisition of Spanish psych verbs. Second Language Research. 
• Gonzalez, B.H. (2020). The Syntactic Distribution of Object Experiencer Psych Verbs in Heritage Spanish. Languages, 5(4), [63]
• Cabrelli Amaro, J., Iverson, M., Giancaspro, D., & Gonzalez, B.H. (2020). The roles of L1 Spanish versus L2 Spanish in L3 Portuguese morphosyntactic development. In K. V. Molsing, C. Becker Lopes Perna, & A.M. Tramunt Ibaños (Eds.), Linguistic Approaches to Portuguese as an Additional Language. (pp. 11-33). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Courses Taught

• PORT:3105 - Linguistic Aspects of the Lusophone World
• SPAN:2030 - Study of Language: Myths and Concepts
• SPAN:3100 - Structures of Spanish: Words & Sentences
• SPAN:3195 - Spanish Linguistics Lab I
• SPAN:4150 - Introduction to Spanish Syntax
• SPAN:4195 - Spanish Linguistics Lab II
• LING:6050 - Language Universals/Linguistic Typology

Awards

• 2020 James N. Murray Faculty Award