I’m currently Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam’s Department of Dutch Linguistics, and program director of the BSc Cognition, Language and Communication. My 2019 dissertation, Rule and Order. Acquiring ordinals in Dutch and English, was part of the NWO-funded Horizon Knowledge & Culture program) and was nominated for the AVT/Anéla Dissertation Award 2019 and the Erasmus Dissertation award 2021. I was supervised by Fred Weerman, Sjef Barbiers & Johan Rooryck.

Research Interests

I like to think about how people (kids and adults) acquire language and how this interacts with their cognitive abilites and development, especially when it comes to knowledge and skills that are unique to humans. How do we learn to think and talk about numbers, events, 'things' and 'stuff'? My current research focuses predominantly on (the acquisition of) numerals and ordinals, though you may also find me working on pronominal reference, event verbs, or verb clusters in acquisition, variation and change. More generally, I am interested in experimental (psycho)linguistics, mostly with respect to syntax and morphology in Germanic languages. In addition, Jan Rock and I were awarded an interfaculty fellowship (interfacultaire onderwijsonderzoeksfellowship)  to carry out a project on integrative (academic) writing education, entiteld Inclusief Schrijven: geïntegreerd schrijfonderwijs en inclusiviteit in interdisciplinaire programma’s (2021-2023).

PhD Students

I'm co-supervising (with Judith Rispens and Alla Peeters-Podgaevskaja) Heleen de Vries' NWO-funded PhD project, entiteld Does language count? Numeracy, language and statistical learning in children with and without Developmental Language Disorder. (Start date: September 2021).
Monique Flecken, Marieke Schouwstra and I are supervising Rosa Zaaijer's PhD project on event cognition. (Start date: January 2024).

See also

• Personal Site
• Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC), and the research groups VARCAS, LLLM and Grammar & Cognition.
• Typology of Number Systems (Lisa Bylinina)
• Festival der Zinnen: Neerlandistiekdagen 2024

I have experience in various UvA programs (BA/MA Dutch Language & Culture, Language and Communication, Linguistics, BSc Language, Cognition & Communication) and at AUC.

2023–2024

• S1B2 Stemmen van de Stad 1 (yr 1 BA Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur)
• S2B1 Taal en theorie: het Nederlands onder de loep (yr 3 BA Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur)
• S2B3 Knowledge Application (yr 2 BSc Cognition, Language and Communication)
• Supervision: theses, tutorials and internships

Also: program director CLC, tutor CLC.

Previously (2013-2023)

• Introduction to Linguistics (yr 1 BSc Cognition, Language and Communication + BA Linguistics)
• Early vs Late Acquisition (graduate course)
• Stemmen van de Stad 2 (yr 1 BA Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur)
• Zinsanalyse (coordinator, yr 1 BA Nederlands)
• Inleiding Algemene Taalwetenschap en Nederlandse Taalkunde (in artikelen) (coordinator; yr 1 BA Nederlands)
• First Language Acquisition (yr 2 BA Linguistics)
• Taalontwikkeling (coordinator; yr 2 BA Nederlands)        Supergaaf: Taalontwikkeling heeft de Onderwijsprijs 2016 gewonnen!
• Knowledge Application (yr BSc Cognition, Language and Communication)
• Linguistics (AUC)
• Bacheloronderzoek Taalkunde /Onderzoekswerkgroep Taalkunde (coordinator; yr 3 bachelor Nederlands)
• Undergraduate thesis Language Acquisition (BA Linguistics)

Also: program director CLC, tutor CLC, program committee BA Linguistics (chair), tutor BA Linguistics.

En voor niet-studenten:

• Festival der Zinnen: Neerlandistiekdagen 2024, 4 & 5 april, 2024 aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam
• Van telsommen naar taalregels - Spui25-lezing
• Mastercourse 'Zoek het lekker zelf uit!' Hoe je grote taalkundige vragen vertaalt naar een onderzoek(je) in de klas. Voor docenten Nederlands en andere taaldocenten in het vo. Vrijdag 31 maart 2017.
• Masterclass Taalkunde - Verdwijnt het Nederlands? Voor taalliefhebbers en wetenschappers in spe uit 4-5-6 vwo! Vrijdag 8 maart 2017.
• Kinderprogramma " Je weet niet wat je weet: wat is taal?" Universiteitsdag. Zaterdag 16 juni 2017.

More info

• UvA Studiegids/Course Manuals
• UvA Roosters/Timetables
• BSc Cognition, Language and Communication
• Onderwijs in de Nederlandse taalkunde: de dynamiek van het Nederlands

2024

• Meyer, Caitlin. "Mensen, dingen, en massa's". Festival der zinnen: Neerlandistiekdagen 2024, Universiteit van Amsterdam, 4 april 2024.

2023

• Zaaijer, Rosa, Caitlin Meyer & Monique Flecken. "Verbal labels facilitate event learning." In theme session Ad hoc cognition and the Whorfian question: towards and experiential and situated model of language-thought interactions. 16th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. HHU Düsseldorf, August 7-11, 2023.
• Meyer, Caitlin. “Count language in: how linguistic knowledge shapes numerical development.” Linguistics Prague, Charles University, Prague, June 22-24, 2023. Invited.
• De Vries, Heleen, Caitlin Meyer & Alla Peeters-Podgaevskaja. “Cross-situational word learning and numerical acquistion.” Grote Taaldag. Algemene Vereniging voor de Taalwetenschap, Utrecht, February 3, 2023.

2022

• De Vries, Heleen, Caitlin Meyer & Alla Peeters-Podgaevskaja. “Taal en telvaardigheid: de rol van statistisch leren bij de verwerving van telwoorden.” Anéla Studiedag. Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, March 25, 2022. Poster.

2021

• Meyer, Caitlin. Van taalsommen naar telregels. Public lecture in the IIS series: Dit hebben we in huis. March 22, 2021. Online.

2020

• Meyer, Caitlin. “Taal telt. Fundamentele verbazing over taalverwerving.” Neerlandistiekdagen, Leiden, March 6, 2020.
• Meyer, Caitlin. “Rule and Order. Acquiring ordinals in Dutch and English.” Presentation given as a finalist for the AVT/Anéla Dissertation Award. Dutch Annual Linguistics Day, Linguistic Society of the Netherlands, Utrecht, January 31, 2020.
• De Vries, Heleen, Caitlin Meyer & Alla Peeters-Podgaevskaja. Learning strategies in Russian ordinal acquisition. Dutch Annual Linguistics Day, Linguistic Society of the Netherlands, Utrecht, January 31, 2020.

2019

• Meyer, Caitlin. “Proef op de taalsom. De verwerving van taal- en telregels.” Taalontwikkeling bij kinderen (TOK), Amsterdam, November 13, 2019. Invited.

• Meyer, Caitlin. "Who ordered that? Ordinal acquisition in Dutch, English and beyond.” Numerals and beyond. Leiden University, Leiden, October 17–18, 2019. Invited.

2018

• Meyer, Caitlin. Rule and order: using structure to acquire ordinal numerals. ComSyn, Leiden University, Leiden, 29 November, 2018.

2017

• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. “Two systems, one strategy: acquiring ordinals in Dutch and English.” Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA) 2017, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Palma de Mallorca, September 7–9, 2017.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Hier kun je op rekenen: taal, tellen en het brein. (You can count on this: languages, number and the brain.)" Geesteswetenschappen in beweging (Humanities in motion), Opening ceremony of the academic year 2017–2018, University of Amsterdam Faculty of Humanities, de Rode Hoed, Amsterdam, September 7, 2017.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman."Ordinal variables: acquiring ordinal numerals in Dutch and English.” The 11^th Mediterranean Morphology Meeting (MMM11), University of Cyprus, Nicosia, June 22–25, 2017. Poster. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. "Can kids order a sandwich? On (the acquisition of) ordinals in West Germanic. A Germanic Sandwich 2017, Munster, Germany, March 16-18, 2017. Program. Abstracts.Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Ordinal acquisition: the state of the obvious." Language and Linguistics Research Seminars, Institute for Research in Social Sciences, Ulster University, Northern Ireland, February 24, 2017. Invited talk.
• Wolterbeek, Joris, Lisa van Dijke, Lotte Hogeweg & Caitlin Meyer. "Learning to suspend implicated contrast: the acquisition of ook 'also'." TiN-dag 2017. Linguistic Society of the Netherlands, Utrecht, February 4, 2017.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Ordinal acquisition: the state of the obvious." TiN-dag 2017. Linguistic Society of the Netherlands, Utrecht, February 4, 2017.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. "The rule-based acquisition of ordinals. Evidence from Dutch and English." 91st Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Austin, TX, January 5-8, 2017. Poster. Peer-reviewed.

2016

• Meyer, Caitlin. "Eerste, tweede, derde heb je niet zo een-twee-drie onder de knie." Live Science Lab, Drongo Festival, Utrecht, September 30-October 1, 2016. Public Outreach.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Eerste, tweede, derde heb je niet zo een-twee-drie onder de knie." Public lecture in the Proost op de wetenschap series, Spui25, Amsterdam, May 13, 2016. Invited talk.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "On second thought: acquiring ordinal numerals in Dutch & English." CNL meeting, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, April 1, 2016.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. "Transparency matters: the acquisition of synthetic and analytic ordinals in Dutch." The 40th Penn Linguistics Conference (PLC40), University of Pennsylvania, PA, March 18–20, 2016. Peer-reviewed.

2015

• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. “Acquiring cardinals and ordinals in Dutch: ordinal concepts and linguistic knowledge.” 11th International Symposium of Cognition, Logic and Communication – Number: Cognitive, Semantic and Crosslinguistic Approaches. Riga, Latvia, December 10-11, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. "Order and ordinality: the acquisition of cardinals and ordinals in Dutch." Boston University Conference on Language Development (BUCLD) 40, Boston University, Boston, MA, November 13–15, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "When getting out of line is in order." Ling Lunch. University of Connecticut, CT, November 10, 2015. Invited.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. "Getting your ducks in a row: acquiring ordinals and ordinality." Workshop on Linguistic and Cognitive Aspects of Quantification (LCQ), Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary, October 16-17, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "When getting out of line is in order." Experimental Linguistics Talks Utrecht (ELiTU). Utrecht University, Utrecht, October 12, 2015. Invited.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Sjef Barbiers & Fred Weerman. "Getting your ducks in a row: the acquisition of cardinals and ordinals in Dutch." Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA) 2015, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France, September 10–12, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin, Doatske De Haan, Martina Faber & Fred Weerman. "Embracing ascending orders: verb clusters in bilingual acquisition."  Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA) 2015, Université de Nantes, Nantes, France, September 10–12, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Acquiring cardinals, ordinals and superlatives (but not in that order)." The Societas Linguistica Europaea 48 ^th Annual Meeting (SLE 2015), Leiden University Center for Linguistics (LUCL), Leiden, September 2–5, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Barbiers, Sjef & Caitlin Meyer. "English and Dutch ONEs." The Societas Linguistica Europaea 48 ^th Annual Meeting (SLE 2015), Leiden University Center for Linguistics (LUCL), Leiden, September 2-5, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. "Variation and change in verb clusters: evidence from acquisition." 22nd International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL). University of Naples, Naples, Italy, July 27–31, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. "Variation and change in verb clusters: evidence from acquisition." Workshop on Verb Clusters. UvA/Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, May 28–29, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Alles op een rijtje krijgen: de verwerving van hoofd- en rangtelwoorden." Het Grote Taalkunde-ontbijt, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, May 11, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. "Language acquisition and language change: the case of verb clusters." A Germanic Sandwich 2015, University of Nottingham, Nottingham UK, April 24–25, 2015. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Alfa's zijn (g)een b-keuze." Luid zingend op een ijsschots de zomer tegemoet: de toekomst van de geesteswetenschappen. Symposium in honor of Nicoline van der Sijs' 60th birthday. Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, April 1, 2015. Invited.
• Meyer, Caitlin. "Easy as first, second, fourth: the acquisition of Dutch (cardinals and) ordinals." TIN-dag 2015, Linguistic Society of the Netherlands , Utrecht, February 7, 2015. Program and abstracts.

2014

• De Haan, Doatske, Martina Faber, Caitlin Meyer & Fred Weerman. "Acquiring verb clusters in a bilingual setting: the case of Frisian and Dutch." The 20th Frisian Philologists' Conference 2014, The Fryske Akademy, Leeuwarden, 10–12 December, 2014. Peer-reviewed.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. "Cracking the cluster: the acquisition of verb clusters in Dutch."  The 20th Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference (GLAC-20), Purdue University, West-Lafayette, IN, May 2–3, 2014. Peer-reviewed. Program.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. "Cracking the cluster: the acquisition of verb clusters in Dutch." TIN-dag 2014, Linguistic Society of the Netherlands, Utrecht, February 1, 2014. Program and abstract.

2013

• Meyer, Caitlin, Sabine van Reijen & Fred Weerman. "Easy as 1-2-(3)? Acquiring verb clusters in Dutch". Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition (GALA) 2013, Oldenburg, Germany, September 5–7, 2013. Peer-reviewed. Abstract.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. “Raising red flags: acquiring verb clusters in Dutch.” TIN-dag 2013, Linguistic Society of the Netherlands, Utrecht, February 9, 2013. Abstract.
• Meyer, Caitlin & Fred Weerman. “The Acquisition of ‘Red’ and ‘Green’ Word Order.” A Germanic Sandwich 2013, KU Leuven, Belgium, January 11–12, 2013. Peer-reviewed.

 2012

• Meyer, Caitlin. “Winkelnamen: hoe eigen zijn ze eigenlijk?” Taalkundecolloquium Nederlandse Taal en Cultuur, UvA, May 22, 2012.

Was je erbij?

Please scroll down for English.

Onderzoek taal en getal

Bij dit project spelen kinderen een belangrijke rol: zonder hun hulp is het onderzoek namelijk onuitvoerbaar. Doet uw kind ook mee? Dan heeft u een informatiebrief ontvangen, want wij vinden het belangrijk dat u weet wat van uw kind wordt gevraagd. Maar misschien wilt u meer weten, of bent u inmiddels benieuwd naar de resultaten. U bent dan hier aan het juiste adres: naarmate het onderzoek vordert, wordt deze pagina aangevuld met meer informatie, zoals tussentijdse resultaten en vervolgonderzoeken.

Het spelletje

Jaap de Aap is een hele lieve aap. Binnenkort gaat hij op vakantie. Waar hij heen gaat, is nog even een verrassing, maar hij heeft vast al zijn spulletjes verteld van zijn grote reis. Dat vinden zij zo leuk dat ze allemaal mee willen. Ze staan zelfs in de rij om in de koffer te springen! Maar o jee, ze passen er niet allemaal in! Wie helpt hem de juiste spullen uit de rij te pakken en in de koffer te leggen?

Blijf op de hoogte van de (tussentijdse) uitkomsten:

Snel iets weten?

Meer weten?

Benieuwd naar meer?

Nog even geduld! Alle resultaten zijn binnen en er wordt druk aan een overzicht gewerkt. U ziet het hier als alles bij elkaar gebracht is. U ziet een voorproefje in de update van september 2016.

En kijk! Jaap staat met zijn verhaal in het aprilnummer van Onze Taal! (april 2016).

Dit onderzoek maakt onderdeel uit van het door NWO gefinancierde Horizon Knowledge & Culture project. Klik hier voor de projectwebsite (voor onderzoekers).

What's this about? Language and number!

If you're reading this because you've been asked if your child or (pre)school can participate, you've come to the right place! This project is about what children know about cardinal and ordinal numerals, like one, two, three and  first, second, third. Is fourth easier than third because it's transparent, despite being further down the count list? And how do English-speaking kids compare to those learning Dutch? Click below for a brief and general project description. More information in English should be available soon, but feel free to contact Caitlin if you can't wait to know something more in the meantime.

The game

Moe is a spunky little monkey. This friendly guy is going on a trip, and all of his things want to come along. In fact, they’re even getting in line to jump into his suitcase! But uh-oh: the monkey only has two suitcases, so he can’t possibly bring everything. He needs a little help! The aim of the game is to pick the right objects from the line (like the third car, the last puppy, and eight banana’s) and pack them in the suitcase. Every child plays the game twice: once for each suitcase.

Funding

This project is funded by the NWO as part of the Horizon Knowledge & Culture project. Click here for our project page (for researchers).