Nicholas Griffen

I’m a PhD researcher at Université Paris Cité under the supervision of Ira Noveck. Soon (Fall 2025), I will submit my dissertation on "What Makes the Processing of Idioms Unique?".

Prior to beginning my time in Paris, I was awarded a Master's Degree in Linguistics at Universität Göttingen, under the supervision of Clemens Steiner-Mayr. While there I completed a thesis on "The Vagueness of Indeterminate Gradable Adjectives". During the course of this project, I rapidly developed a strong interest in Experimental Pragmatics.

Subsequently, I was awarded a SMARTS-UP mobility scholarship and a LabEx Master’s Thesis Grant which enabled me to develop my skill set as an experimentalist at Université Paris Cité.

Throughout my PhD, I have employed a diverse range of experimental methodologies. This initially centered on web-based paradigms, including self-paced reading tasks and norming studies. While more recently, I am in the process of conducting an EEG study to examine the neural mechanisms involved in figurative language processing.

In addition, I’ve led a bi-weekly Experimental Linguistics Workshop which takes place at the Laboratoire Linguistique Formelle and co-instructed a course on Psycholinguistics with Barbara Hemforth.