I study how children acquire language, and in particular, how they learn about meaning. My research has looked at various dimensions of meaning, including children's understanding of temporal and event semantics (especially the linguistic category of aspect), and their understanding of social indexical meanings coded in dialect and register.

I also direct the Language Sciences Research Lab at the Columbus Center of Science and Industry (COSI) where I collect data and help to educate the public about language and linguistics.

Awards, Honors and Recognition

2024: Outreach and Engagement Community Partnership Award (awarded to the Labs in Life), The Ohio State University
2024: Linguistics, Language and the Public Award, Linguistics Society of America
2023: Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science 
2022: Lumley Interdisciplinary Research Award, The Ohio State University College of Engineering
2021: Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, The Ohio State University
2021: Member, The Ohio State University Drake Institute Academy of Teaching and Learning
2013: Distinguished Teaching Award, The Ohio State University Department of Psychology

Selected Publications

Jones, Z., Yan, Q., Wagner, L., & Clopper, C. (2017).  The development of dialect classification across the lifespan.  Journal of Phonetics 60, 20 – 37.

Wagner, L., Speer, S. R., Moore, L. C., McCullough, E. A., Ito, K., Clopper, C. G., & Campbell-Kibler, K. (2015).  Linguistics in a science museum: Integrating research, teaching, and outreach in a language sciences research lab.  Language and Linguistics Compass 9, 420-431. 

Fedder, J.C. & Wagner, L. (2015).  Being up front: Narrative context and aspectual choice.  Language and Cognition 7, 239 - 264.

Wagner, L., Vega-Mendoza, M., Van Horn, S. (2014).  Social and linguistic cues facilitate children’s register comprehension.  First Language, 34,  299 – 314.

Wagner, L., Clopper, C. G., & Pate, J. (2014).  Children’s perception of dialect variation.  Journal of Child Language, 41,  1062 – 1084.

Wagner, L., Dunfield, K., & Rohrbeck, K. (2014)  Children’s use of social cues when learning conventions.  Journal of Cognition and Development, 15,  479 – 494.

Ito, K., Bibyk, S., Wagner, L., & Speer, S.R. (2014) Interpretation of contrastive pitch accent in 6- to 11-year-old English Speaking children (and adults). Journal of Child Language 41, 84 - 110.

Wagner, L. (2013) By the numbers: A quantitative content analysis of chidlren's picturebooks. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, Article 850 (November).

Clopper, C., Rohrbeck, K. L. & Wagner, L. (2013) Perception of talker age by young adults with High-Functioning Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 43 134 - 146.

Candan, A., Küntay, A. C., Yeh, Y., Cheung, H., Wagner, L., & Naigles, L. R., (2012) Language and age effects in children’s processing of word order. Cognitive Development 27, 205-221

Clopper, C., Rohrbeck, K. L. & Wagner, L. (2012) Perception of dialect variation by young adults with high functioning Autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders 41, 740 - 754.

Wagner, L. (2012) First Language Acquisition. In Binnick, R. (ed), The Oxford Handbook of Tense and Aspect. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 458 - 480.

Wagner, L., Greene-Havas, M. & Gillespie, R. (2010) Development in Children's Comprehension of Linguistic Register. Child Development 81, 1678 - 1685.

Wagner, L. (2010) Inferring Meaning from Syntactic Structures in Acquisition: The Case of Transitivity and Telicity. Language and Cognitive Processes 25, 1354 - 1379.

Wagner, L. (2010) Acquisition of Semantics. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science 1 (4), 519 - 526 .

Wagner, L., Swenson, L., & Naigles, L. (2009) Children’s Early Productivity with Verbal Morphology. Cognitive Development 24, 223 - 239.

Wagner, L. (2009)  I’ll Never Grow Up: Continuity in Aspectual Representations.  Linguistics 47 (5), 1051 - 1074.

Wagner, L. (2009) Manners and Goals in Pre-Linguistic Thought: The Origins of Aspectual Construal. In Chandlee, J., Franchini, M., Lord, S., & Rheiner, G. (eds) Proceedings of the 33rd annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville: Cascadilla Press.

Wagner, L. and Lakusta, L. (2009) Using Language to Navigate the Infant Mind. Perspectives on Psychological Science 4 (2), 177 - 184.

Wagner, L., A. Yocom, M. Greene-Havas (2008) Children’s Understanding of Directed Motion Events in an Imitation Choice Task.  Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 100, 264 - 275.

Barner, D., Wagner, L., & Snedeker, J. (2008)  Events and the ontology of individuals: Verbs as a source of individuating nouns. Cognition 105, 805 - 832.

Lakusta, L., L. Wagner, K. O’Hearn, B. Landau (2007) Conceptual Foundations of Spatial Language: Evidence for a Goal Bias in Infants.  Language Learning and Development 3(3), 179 - 197.

Wagner, L. (2006) Aspectual Bootstrapping in Language Acquisition: Telicity and Transitivity. Language Learning and Development 2(1), 51 - 76.

Wagner, L., E. Kako, E. Amick, E. Carrigan, and K. Liu (2005) Children's Use of Pointing to Anchor Reference during Story-telling. In Brugos, A., M. R. Clark-Cotton, and S. Ha (eds) Proceedings of the 29th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development. Somerville: Cascadilla Press. 639-650.

Wagner, L. and S. Carey (2005) 12-month-olds Represent Probable Endings of Motion Events. Infancy 7 (1), 73 - 83.

Wagner, L. and S. Carey (2003) Individuation of Objects & Events: A Developmental Study. Cognition 90 (2), 163 - 191.

Wagner, L. (2002) Understanding Completion Entailments in the Absence of Agency Cues. Journal of Child Language 29, 109 - 125.

Kako, E. & L. Wagner (2001) The Semantics of Syntactic Structures. Trends in Cognitive Science, Vol 5 no. 3, 102 - 108.

Wagner, L. (2001) Aspectual Influences on Early Tense Interpretation. Journal of Child Language 28, 661 - 681.