Find Academic Supervisors

• Construction Grammar
• Valency Theory
• Lexicography
• +7 more

Thomas Herbst serves as a Professor in the Department of English and American Studies within the Faculty of Humanities, Social Sciences, and Theology at Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU). With a distinguished career spanning over four decades, his research has significantly contributed to linguistic theory and practice. His current work focuses on advancing construction grammar frameworks and their practical applications in language learning and lexicography. Professor Herbst's research interests center on Construction Grammar, Valency Theory, and Lexicography, with particular emphasis on the intersection between lexical and syntactic patterns. His scholarly work explores how constructions—recurring patterns of language—shape meaning, communication, and language acquisition. He has pioneered approaches to constructing constructicons (comprehensive inventories of constructions) and has made significant contributions to understanding how valency patterns function in English and other languages. His research bridges theoretical linguistics with practical applications in language teaching, dictionary compilation, and translation studies, particularly examining how multimodal elements like gesture and accent contribute to meaning in audiovisual contexts. Analysis of his recent publications reveals a consistent trajectory exploring constructional networks, argument structure, and the practical implementation of construction grammar in language learning. His work increasingly focuses on digital applications of linguistic theory, including constructicon development and computational implementations. Herbst's research demonstrates a strong commitment to making linguistic theory accessible and applicable to language learners, teachers, and lexicographers, with particular attention to how constructions manifest in second language acquisition and dictionary usage. Throughout his extensive career, Professor Herbst has maintained an active role in academic service, editing journals and special issues that have shaped discourse in construction grammar and lexicography. His editorial work for publications like Zeitschrift für Anglistik und Amerikanistik and contributions to major reference works have provided essential platforms for scholarly exchange in his fields of expertise.

Claudia WegenerView profile

Researcher

• Language Documentation
• Speech-Gesture Interaction
• Morphosyntax
• +6 more

Dr. Claudia Wegener is a Researcher at the Department of Linguistics, University of Cologne, specializing in General Linguistics. Her work focuses on language documentation, speech-gesture interaction, and Papuan/Austronesian languages like Savosavo and Gela. She holds a PhD from Radboud University Nijmegen (2008) and has conducted extensive fieldwork in the Solomon Islands and Malaysia. Previous Positions: Research Assistant, University of Cologne (2017–present) Postdoctoral Researcher at MPI for Psycholinguistics, Radboud University (2002–2011) DoBeS Project Leader for Savosavo documentation Research Interests Her research spans: Socio-linguistic aspects of gesture systems Morphosyntactic typology of Papuan languages Lexical semantics and kinship terminology Documentation methodologies for endangered languages Publications Her work includes a landmark grammar of Savosavo (2012), co-edited volumes on language documentation (2011), and influential articles on gesture studies (2022) and motion event encoding (2022). Projects Leading the Savosavo-Gela Documentation Project (DoBeS-funded) Contributions to MPI's Endangered Languages Documentation Archive Collaborations with Australian National University and University of Manchester Her research bridges linguistic theory with applied documentation, emphasizing community-driven preservation strategies.

Jan PfisterView profile

Researcher

• Natural Language Processing
• Deep Learning
• Sentiment Analysis
• +5 more

Jan Pfister is a researcher at the Chair of Data Science (Informatik X) , affiliated with the Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science at the University of Würzburg . Holding an M.Sc. in Computer Science from 2021, he contributes to the DMIR group while maintaining the BibSonomy platform. His work bridges Natural Language Processing and Deep Learning , with a focus on structured sentiment analysis and German language modeling. His research explores the integration of Large Language Models with Pointer Networks to extract fine-grained sentiment information. He has developed ModernGBERT , a German-only encoder model, and LLäMmlein , advancing NLP capabilities for the language. Pfister's recent publications highlight trends in encoder-decoder architectures, model-agnostic hallucination detection, and multi-label classification frameworks that refine LLM outputs. He has taught courses including Information Retrieval (SS '22), Text Mining (WS '23), and Selected Topics in Machine Learning (SS'21, WS '21, WS'24). His collaborative projects span medical informatics, human-AI interaction, and social media analysis, often involving interdisciplinary teams and real-world data.

• Cognitive Semantics
• Construction Grammar
• Discourse Analysis
• +6 more

Alexander Ziem is a Professor of German Linguistics and Chair holder at the Institute of German Studies , Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, since 2016. His academic career spans institutions such as the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI) in Berkeley, Universität Basel, and Technische Universität Berlin. Research Focus: Cognitive semantics, construction grammar, FrameNet-Konstruktikon projects, discourse analysis, and socio-cognitive dimensions of language. Projects: Initiator of the long-term ' FrameNet and Constructicon of German ' project; co-editor of Diskursforschung and DiskursNetz handbooks. His recent publications emphasize constructional meanings, semantic frames, and multilingual frameworks. He leads the German Constructicon project and collaborates on digital humanities tools like SimilarCxns and FrameMap3D. Scientific Awards: Preis für Geisteswissenschaften , Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (2011). Research Fellow, International Computer Science Institute (ICSI), Berkeley (2013–2014). Ziem’s team at HHU includes 25 members, with 10 research assistants, and he contributes to curriculum development, including the upcoming Digital Cultures degree program. His methodological approach integrates corpus linguistics, frame semantics, and machine learning.

Luke AdamsonView profile

Researcher

• Syntax
• Morphology
• Grammatical Gender
• +5 more

Dr. Luke Adamson is a tenure-track Researcher in Research Area 3 'Syntax and Lexicon' at the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin. Previously, he held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Harvard University (2020–2022) and served as Lecturer at Rutgers University (2022–2023). He earned his PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania (2019) and holds dual degrees from Oberlin College: a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Music in Cello Performance (2010–2014). His research focuses on nominal features, grammatical gender, and syntactic modularity, with notable projects exploring gender locality hypotheses, coordination resolution in three-gendered languages, and suppletion phenomena. Collaborators include prominent linguists such as Elena Anagnostopoulou (University of Crete), Ruth Kramer (Georgetown University), and Stanislao Zompì (Universität Potsdam). Key contributions include work on gender assignment constraints in languages like Greek, Swedish, and Lithuanian, as well as syntactic interfaces in Jarawara and Italian. Recent presentations include invited talks at the University of Geneva (June 2025), Yale University (October 2024), and the Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (December 2024). He co-edits Linguistic Inquiry Squibs & Discussion and organizes the ZAS Brown Bag Lunches. His work has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the European Research Council. Adamson’s academic networks span formal linguistics and typological studies, with ongoing projects addressing politeness pronouns in Romance languages, emotive predicates in clausal complements, and allosemy in Greek gender systems.

Mingya LiuView profile

Professor

• Linguistics
• Syntax
• Semantics
• +8 more

Prof. Dr. Mingya Liu is a W1-Professor for Empirical English Linguistics (EEL) at the Department of English and American Studies, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Her research focuses on the intersection of lexicon, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, with applications to language processing, acquisition, and sociolinguistic variation. Key projects include investigations into polarity sensitivity, modality, negation, and register effects in language use. Her work employs experimental, cross-linguistic, and socio- and psycholinguistic methods. Notable contributions include studies on modal concord (e.g., 'must certainly'), negative concord variation, and the social meanings of linguistic constructions in English, German, and Chinese. She is a core member of the CRC 1412 'Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation,' contributing to interdisciplinary research on language variation and cognitive modeling. Publications emphasize experimental findings on linguistic and social meaning correlations, register sensitivity in language use, and the role of interlocutor relations in formality perception. Collaborative efforts with institutions like HU Berlin and international scholars further highlight her commitment to advancing theoretical and experimental linguistics.

• Formal ontology
• Mereology
• Mereotopology
• +10 more

Carola Eschenbach serves as an Academic Councillor at the University of Hamburg within the Department of Computer Science, Faculty of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Sciences. Her work bridges formal logic, linguistics, and cognitive science through rigorous theoretical frameworks. Her research centers on formal ontology—including mereology (part-whole relations, overlap, disjointness, and fusion) and mereotopology (topological structures grounded in mereology)—to model holism and integrity in conceptual systems. She investigates natural language semantics with emphasis on lexical compositionality and the syntax-semantics interface of quantification (e.g., "three liters of wine" vs. "three heads of lettuce"). Spatial reasoning constitutes another pillar, covering reference systems, trajectory representation, and movement formalization. Additional domains include discourse/event structures and grouping processes in linguistic cognition. Dr. Eschenbach has led decades of DFG-funded research, including CINACS (2006-2015) on multimodal comprehension, Language Production Priority Programme (1997-2003), ARK spatial axiomatics (1996-2002), Cognitive Science Graduate School (1990-2000), and GAP grouping processes (1987-1993). While student mentorship isn't explicitly documented, her project leadership implies extensive team supervision. Her office resides at Vogt-Kölln-Str. 30, Hamburg.

Peter ArkadievView profile

Researcher

• Linguistics
• Morphology
• Syntax
• +10 more

Dr. habil. Peter Arkadiev is a prominent linguist specializing in morphology, syntax, and typology, with a focus on Baltic, Slavic, and Northwest Caucasian languages. He holds a research position at the University of Potsdam, Institute of Slavistics, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since December 2024. Previously, he held roles including Visiting Professor at the University of Mainz, Senior Fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, and Marie Curie Senior Fellow. His academic credentials include a Habilitation in typological linguistics (2019) and a PhD from the Russian State University for the Humanities (2006). Research Interests: - Language Typology and Cross-Linguistic Comparison - Areal Linguistics and Language Contact - Case Systems and Argument Structure - Tense-Aspect-Actionality - Morphological Complexity and Polysynthesis - Baltic, Slavic, and Northwest Caucasian Languages Awards: Member of Academia Europaea (2023), Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences (2022), Marie Curie Senior Fellowship (2023–2024), and multiple DFG-funded projects. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with empirical fieldwork, particularly in the North Caucasus. Publications span over 30 peer-reviewed articles and edited volumes, focusing on topics like prefixal perfectivization, applicative constructions, and morphological borrowing. Current research includes the DFG-funded project 'Typology and Diachrony of Ambifixation' (2024–2027).

• Computer Science Education
• Logic Programming
• Ontology Engineering
• +2 more

Laura Andrea Cecchi is an active researcher specializing in computer science education, logic programming, and ontology engineering. Her work focuses on developing innovative pedagogical approaches for teaching computational thinking at early educational stages, with significant contributions to gender-inclusive STEM education. Research Interests: Her primary research explores: Logic programming curriculum development for primary education Visual tools for ontology engineering and knowledge representation Eye-tracking and HCI applications in programming pedagogy Gender-inclusive strategies for computer science education Automated reasoning in ontology-based systems Publication Trends: Her recent work (2020-2024) shows a strong focus on educational technology and democratizing programming education, while earlier publications (2015-2019) centered on formal methods and ontology engineering. She consistently publishes at premier computer science conferences including ICLP, CLEI, and IJCAI. Collaborations: Frequent collaborations with Jorge Pablo Rodríguez and Verónica Dahl appear across her publication record, particularly in education-focused research.

Florian HaasView profile

Senior Lecturer

• Linguistics
• Corpus Linguistics
• Historical Linguistics
• +5 more

Florian Haas is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at the Institute for English and American Studies , Friedrich Schiller University Jena , where he has taught since 2009 across BA, MA, and teacher training programs. His research focuses on recent morphosyntactic changes in English , contrastive linguistics , typology , and usage-based construction grammar , with a notable Habilitation thesis on the history of human impersonal pronouns in English. Education : PhD in Linguistics (2008, Free University of Berlin, summa cum laude), MA in European Master's Degree in Linguistics (2002), MA in English Studies (2002). His research interests span corpus-driven analysis of language change, cross-linguistic contrasts (particularly English-German), and cognitive approaches to grammar. His publications emphasize diachronic shifts in pronouns, genre-specific linguistic patterns, and constructionist analyses of syntax. He has supervised numerous student theses on topics like political framing, bilingualism, and sociolinguistic variation in English. Academic service includes roles as Erasmus coordinator, reviewer for journals like Journal of Pragmatics , and memberships in societies such as the Association for Linguistic Typology .

• Word Formation
• Language Change
• Foreign Words
• +3 more

Dr. Carmen Scherer is a Senior Academic Councilor at the German Institute of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, specializing in German linguistics with a focus on descriptive and historical linguistics. Her academic journey includes a BA in Business Administration, followed by studies in German, French, philosophy, and German as a foreign language. She has held visiting professorships in Göttingen (Historical Linguistics) and Bonn (German Linguistics). Her research emphasizes word formation processes, language change dynamics, foreign word integration, and punctuation studies. Education highlights include degrees from universities in Marburg and Poitiers, followed by a doctorate on 'Word Formation Change and Productivity' (2004). She has authored/co-edited influential books like Introduction to Corpus Linguistics and The Interface of Morphology and Written Language . Key research interests involve morphological productivity, loanword adaptation, and the interplay between orthography and word structure. Her extensive publications (over 20 essays/reviews since 2003) explore topics such as the history of verb suffixes, apostrophe usage, and compound word spelling. She actively participates in international conferences, delivering lectures on linguistic topics like foreign word gender assignment and temporal prefixation in German. She also serves on academic boards and contributes to research projects focusing on language variation and corpus linguistics. Professional roles include leadership in the Mainz Linguistics Circle and collaborations across European academic networks. Her work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical applications in language teaching and normative standards, addressing contemporary issues in German language evolution and multilingual influences.

Lisa HofmannView profile

Researcher

• Formal Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Syntax
• +4 more

Lisa Hofmann is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Stuttgart in the Department of English Linguistics , working with Judith Tonhauser’s group. Her research focuses on how humans interpret language meaning by integrating information from multiple sources, blending formal semantics, pragmatics, syntax, and psycholinguistics. University: University of Stuttgart Department: Department of English Linguistics Her work addresses projective content (e.g., presupposition, anaphora, ellipsis) in counterfactual and hypothetical discourse, combining theoretical rigor with experimental methods. Recent projects include collaborations on at-issueness diagnostics and dynamic approaches to presupposition projection. Lisa’s publications span topics like anaphoric accessibility in counterfactuals and the semantics of anaphora, with a focus on connecting theoretical frameworks to psycholinguistic evidence. She actively participates in workshops and conferences, such as XPRAG FEST 2025 and the workshop on (a)symmetries in presupposition projection.

• Historical Linguistics
• Chinese Syntax
• Morpho-Syntax
• +5 more

Barbara Meisterernst is an Honorary Professor at the Institute of Linguistics, National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan, specializing in Chinese historical syntax, morpho-syntax, syntax-semantic interfaces, and Buddhist Chinese linguistics. Her academic career spans prestigious institutions including Humboldt-University Berlin and the University of Ghent. Habilitation, University of Hamburg (2012) PhD in Chinese Studies, Münsterische Sinologische Mitteilungen (1998) MA in Chinese Studies, German and Linguistics (1992) Her research focuses on diachronic evolution of Chinese grammar, particularly tense-aspect-modality systems from Classical to Medieval Chinese. Key contributions include analyses of modal expressions, negation cycles, and syntactic changes in Buddhist Chinese texts. She employs formal syntactic frameworks to examine historical developments while integrating semantic and pragmatic dimensions. Her publications reveal strong trends in modality research (25% of output), diachronic syntax (30%), and Buddhist Chinese linguistics (15%). Recent work increasingly examines cross-linguistic comparisons with Vietnamese and Sogdian, reflecting broader typological interests. Methodologically, she combines corpus-based analysis with theoretical syntax to reconstruct historical grammatical systems. Meisterernst has presented at over 50 international conferences including IACL, EACL, and specialized workshops across Asia, Europe, and North America. Her extensive fieldwork includes collaborations with Academia Sinica, Tsing Hua University, and the International Dunhuang Project. She leads major research projects on pre-Tang Chinese verb phrase development and Silk Road linguistic interactions, securing continuous funding for collaborative work between European and Asian institutions since 2010.

Benjamin C. PierceView profile

Professor

• Programming Languages
• Type Systems
• Language-based Security
• +5 more

Benjamin C. Pierce is the Henry Salvatori Professor of Computer and Information Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania. As a Fellow of the ACM, he has made significant contributions to programming language theory and formal methods. His academic leadership includes previous editorial roles as co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of Functional Programming and Managing Editor for Logical Methods in Computer Science. His research spans multiple interconnected domains in programming language theory, with particular emphasis on type systems and their applications to security and verification. Pierce's work bridges theoretical foundations with practical implementations, most notably through his development of the Unison file synchronization tool and contributions to the Clowdr virtual conference platform. His research interests form a cohesive trajectory from foundational type theory to applied security and verification techniques. Pierce's scholarly output shows consistent focus on property-based testing, type systems, and formal verification methods. His recent publications demonstrate evolving interests in differential privacy verification, synchronization technologies, and the practical challenges of implementing formal methods in real-world systems. The progression of his work reflects both theoretical depth and practical relevance to software development challenges. Fellow of the ACM Author of influential textbooks Types and Programming Languages and Software Foundations Lead designer of the Unison file synchronizer Co-developer of the Clowdr virtual conference platform Former editorial leadership for multiple prominent programming languages journals As an educator and mentor, Pierce has contributed to the Programming Languages Mentoring Workshop (PLMW) and has served on numerous conference program committees. His academic service extends to SIGPLAN leadership roles including SIGPLAN Vice Chair and Steering Committee membership. His textbook Software Foundations has become a standard resource for teaching formal methods and proof assistants.

Antje CasarettoView profile

Researcher

• Historical Comparative Linguistics
• Germanic Linguistics
• Indo-European Linguistics
• +7 more

Dr. Antje Casaretto is a researcher in Historical-Comparative Linguistics at the Department of Linguistics, University of Cologne. She maintains an office in Room 3.04 and can be contacted via email at antje.casaretto@uni-koeln.de or antje.casaretto@linguistik.uni-freiburg.de. Her research and teaching focus on Historical-Comparative Linguistics, Germanic and Indo-Iranian languages, with special expertise in Vedic Sanskrit and Gothic language. Her primary research interests include: Historical-Comparative Linguistics Germanic Linguistics Indo-European Linguistics Vedic Sanskrit Gothic Language Word Formation Language Contact Suppletion Local particles and adverbs Case syntax Dr. Casaretto's scholarly work demonstrates a consistent focus on the syntax and semantics of ancient languages, particularly examining how spatial concepts are encoded in Vedic Sanskrit through local particles. Her research bridges historical-comparative approaches with cognitive linguistics, analyzing how language structures evolve while maintaining functional relationships between form and meaning. She has made significant contributions to understanding grammaticalization processes, suppletion patterns, and language contact phenomena in Germanic and Indo-Iranian language families. Her current project, VedaWeb 2.0 (2022-2024), continues her investigation into Vedic language structures. Previously, she led major research initiatives including 'Agent prominence and the diachrony of predication in Indo-Aryan' (2017-2020) funded by CRC 1252 Prominence in Language, 'Multiheadedness in cross-categorial perspective' (2014-2016) supported by a UoC Postdoc Grant, and 'The Function and Development of Local Particles in Vedic' (2009-2014) funded by DFG.