Mercedes Martinez Bruera

Linguistics PhD. Candidate at Goethe University Frankfurt

I am a final-year PhD student currently working on the relationship between sentence processing and language variation and change. I am interested in understanding if cognitive factors play a role in why a language devolops in a specific way. I am also interested in the reasons why bilingual/heritage speakers may be different from monolingual speakers. To do this I use different psycolinguisitc methods (eye-tracking and behavioral experiments) to evaluate language processing and production.

News

Poster at HSP 2026!

We are presenting a poster on how coarticulation affects word recognition in English-German bilinguals.
March 2026

I presented at AMLaP and HSP 2025

Two posters on optionality and sentence processing
March/September 2025

I started a new position at CRC 1629.

I will be working for CRC 1629 NegLaB in the INF project

INF supports researchers in experimental design, programming, statistical analysis and data management. I will be conducting workshops and private consultations to support the member of the CRC on creating reliable and reproducible research workflows.

March 2025

Education

Goethe University Frankfurt

PhD Student
I moved from Argentina to start my PhD in May of 2022. Currently I am in my final year.
May 2022 - Present

Argentinian Catholic University

Bacherlor's in literature and linguistics

I did a 5 year university degree where I studied linguistics, world literature, classics and also received training as a teacher.

March 2017 - April 2022

Publications

Martinez Bruera, M., Weingärtner, D., Listanti, A., Gattei, C., Álvarez Gonzalez, C.J., Barber, H., Rinke, E. & Lago, S. (2025): Heritage Grammars and Language Change: The Case of Clitic Doubling in Spanish. Heritage Language Journal. [mansuscript]

Rinke, E., Weingärtner, D., Flores, C., Martinez Bruera, M., Listanti, A., Novo Gomes, J., Correa, L., Lago, S. (2025): One step ahead. Comparing heritage speakers with speakers of different varieties of Portuguese in their comprehension of null object constructions. Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. [manuscrip]

Pañeda, C., Kandel, M. Bahmanian, N., Martinez Bruera, M., Phillips, C. & Lago, S. (2025): Linguistic representations matter for pronoun production: evidence from grammatical number and gender attraction in Spanish.. Journal of Cognition. [manuscript]

Martinez Bruera, M (2022): ¿Competencia o Ilusión? El desgaste de la lengua segunda después de la educación bilingüe en Argenitna. [on line] Bachelor's Thesis. Universidad Católica Argentina

Presentations

Peer-reviewed presentations

Martinez Bruera, M., Calmejane, M., Gattei, C., Álvarez Gonzalez, C.J., Barber, H., Weingärtner, D., Listanti, A., Lago, S. (2025). Similar meaning does not always mean similar processing. Poster at AMLaP 2025, Prague, Czech Pepublic, September 4–6

Martinez Bruera, M., Calmejane, M., Gattei, C., Álvarez Gonzalez, C.J., Barber, H., Weingärtner, D., Listanti, A., Lago, S. (2025). Are the different variants of an optional structure processed differently?. Poster at HSP 2025, Maryland, USA, March 27-29

Martinez Bruera, M. & Lago, S. (2025) Invariable le affects comprehension of clitic-doubled sentences. Talk at Hispanistiktag, Hamburg, Germany, March 11–14

Martinez Bruera, M., Listanti, A. & Lago, S(2024) Heritage speakers do not always accelerate language change. Poster at AMLaP 2024. Edingurth, Scotland, September 5-7. [poster] [abstract]

Martinez Bruera, M., Weingärtner, D., Flores, C., Lago, S. & Rinke, R. (2023) EVOLVE: relating diachronic change and heritage languages. Talk at Romanistentag, Leipzig, Germany, September 24–27.

Pañeda, P., Kandel, M., Bahmanian, N., Martinez Bruera, M., Phillips, C. & Lago, S.,(2023) Linguistic representations matter for pronoun production: evidence from grammatical gender attraction. Poster at AMLaP 2023, San Sebastian, Spain, August 31–September 2.

Kandel, M., Pañeda, C., Bahmanian, N., Martinez Bruera, M., Phillips, C. & Lago, S., (2023). Number and gender attraction in Spanish pronoun production. Poster at HSP 2023, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, March 9–11.

Martinez Bruera, M (2022): Diachronic change and bilingualism: acceptability of clitic doubling in monolingual and heritage Spanish. Poster at Workshop on L2 sentence and discourse processing. University of Cologne. November 18th.

Invited talks

Martinez Bruera, M. (2024) El cerebro y el lenguaje: ¿Qué es la psicolingüística? Talk at Universidad Católica Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 11th.

Martinez Bruera, M. (2024) ¿Podemos predecir el cambio lingüístico en poblaciones de hablantes de herencia? El caso del doblado de clíticos de acusativo. Talk at Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina, April 5th.

Martinez Bruera, M. (2023) ¿Podemos predecir el cambio lingüístico en poblaciones de hablantes de herencia? El caso del doblado de clíticos de acusativo. Talk at Predoctoral colloquium on Spanish as a heritage language in Germany. Heidelberg University. June 23rd.

Contact me!

MartinezBruera@em.uni-frankfurt.de
Office
Institut für Romanische Sprachen und Literaturen
IG Farben, room 6.155
Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1
60629 Frankfurt am Main