Research

Interests: 

Psycholinguistics (semantic and lexical processing, iconicity, experimental pragmatics, linguistic relativity, gesture)
Neurolinguistics (language testing in awake craniotomies, embodied cognition)
Linguistic philosophy (semantics, pragmatics, of mind)
Applied linguistics (language testing)
Higher Education Policy (commercialisation and internationalisation)

Papers:

(In prep) Elementalism: A Cognitive Neuroscience Framework for Neurosurgical Language Testing
(In prep) Olivier, M. Williamson, T. R., Xue, Y. A theoretical and experimental investigation of emphasis in Spanish overt subjects
(In review) Nadler, E., Guilbeault, D., Ringold, S., Williamson, T. R., Bellemare-Pepin, A., Comșa, I., Jerbi, K., Narayanan, S, Aziz-Zadeh, L. Statistical or Embodied? Comparing Colorseeing, Colorblind, Painters, and Large Language Models in their Processing of Color Metaphors.
(In review) Williamson, T. R. and Ibanez, A. The entropic symbiosis of linguistic meaning and consciousness.

2024
(With Neil Barua, Lydia Wiernik, Hajira Mumtaz, Sonia Mariotti, Madeleine Farrow, Raenette David & Anna E. Piasecki) Awake craniotomy with English and British Sign Language mapping in a patient with a left temporal glioblastoma reveals discordant speech-sign language maps. Acta Neurochirurgica. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-024-06130-x  
Overhauling research commercialisation at UK universities. Perspectives: Policy and Practice in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/13603108.2024.2351798

2022
Embodiment Effects in Idiom Processing. Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics, 14(1), pp. 180-199, https://www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/files/copil_14a_6_williamson.pdf 

2021
(with Napoleon Katsos, Ema Banerjee, Yin Jue Chang, Thomas Hikaru Clark, Joe Cowan, & Zuzanna Witkowska) Review of Experimental Pragmatics: The Making of a Cognitive Science by Ira Noveck. Journal of Pragmatics, 185, pp. 108-112, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2021.09.006.
The Graded Co-Salience Hypothesis for Polysemous Ambiguity. Journal of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain, 1(1), pp. 57-77, https://www.ulab.org.uk/journal/volumes/1/issues/1/articles/3 

2019
Is Arbitrariness a Design-Feature of the Sign? Proceedings of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain Conference IX, pp. 228-259, https://zenodo.org/record/3432350#.Yo4pWKjMLTA 

Presentations:

2024
(with Rachel Peal, Kris Kinsey, and Anna Piasecki) A Naturalistic Database of Gesture in British Monolinguals and its Clinical Applications. CHCR Showcase Conference, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. July 1, 2024.
(with Anna Piasecki, Sonia Mariotti, and Hajira Mumtaz) Towards more inclusive language testing in the operating theatre. iMean 7, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. June 19-21, 2024.
(with Sonia Mariotti and Hajira Mumtaz) The State of Affairs in Neurosurgical Language Testing. School of Social Sciences Student Conference 2024, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. May 24, 2024.
Overhauling Research Commercialisation at UK Universities: The Case of Language Testing. British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP)  Professional Issue Meeting: Collaboration, Power, and Influence, King's College London, London, United Kingdom. March 16 2024. 
(with Sonia Mariotti and Hajira Mumtaz) Intraoperative Language Testing at the Brain, Language, and Behaviour Laboratory. MShed, School of Arts Showcase, University of the West of England, Bristol, United Kingdom. January 24, 2024. 

2023
(with Anna Piasecki) Assessing Individuals’ Embodied Linguistic Gestures. Embodied and Situated Language Processing Conference 2023, Messina, Sicily, Italy. September 29-30, 2023.

2022
Hand-Action Meanings Facilitate Idiom Processing in Phrasal and Sentential Contexts. Cognitive Neuroscience of Language Embodiment and Relativity, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, Poland. October  7-9, 2022.
The Graded Co-Salience Hypothesis for Polysemous Ambiguity. 12th Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain Conference, University of Edinburgh, UK. April 9-11, 2022.

2021

The Graded Co-Salience Hypothesis for Polysemous Ambiguity. 17th International Pragmatics Association Conference, Winterthur, Switzerland. June 27-July 2, 2021.
Rayo’s Common Sense in Polysemy. 11th Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain Conference, University of Aberdeen, UK. April 16-18, 2021.
Words, Wurds, and Werdz: How to Select Lexical Stimuli for Psycholinguistic Experiments and A Journey of Increasing Reliability in Embodied Semantics. Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics MPhil Oral Presentations, University of Cambridge, UK. March 18, 2021.
The Quarks of Meaning: Embodied Semantic Content. Lent Term Pecha-Kucha, Girton College, University of Cambridge, UK. February 2, 2021.

2020

The Quarks of Language. Words With Friends, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. November 20, 2020.
Can ‘The Grab Bag’ Stand Up? An Empirical Analysis of Rayo’s Semantic Ontology. 10th Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain Conference, Edinburgh, UK. (cancelled)

2019

Is Arbitrariness a Design Feature of the Sign? 9th Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain Conference, Queen Mary University of London, UK. April 11-13, 2019.
(with Ben Crumpton) Wittgenstein: Language and Mind. Lancaster University Philosophy Society, Lancaster, UK. March 13, 2019.