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Rizzi LuigiView profile

Professor

• Generative Syntax
• Language Acquisition

Luigi Rizzi is a distinguished academic holding the position of Professor of General Linguistics at the University of Siena. He has held significant roles including Full Professor at the University of Geneva and Adjunct Professor at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris. His expertise spans Generative Syntax and Language Acquisition, with contributions to syntactic theory frameworks like Relativized Minimality and the Fine Structure of the Left Periphery. Current Affiliation: University of Siena (Professor) Past Roles: Full Professor at University of Geneva, Adjunct Professor at ENS Paris Research Interests: Rizzi’s work explores syntactic structures through generative approaches, focusing on null elements, movement constraints, and the interface between syntax and semantics. He has advanced theories on the Left Periphery hierarchy and relativized minimality principles. Publications Trends: His articles consistently address core syntax questions, with seminal works on null subjects (1986, 1994), locality conditions (2004), and syntactic cartography (1997, 2004). Themes include parameter setting, acquisition evidence, and formal syntactic representations. Awards: Honorary membership in Linguistic Society of America, British Academy fellowship, Academia Europaea membership Advising & Grants: While specific advisees are not listed, his influential publications suggest extensive mentorship in syntax research. No grant details provided in sources.

Maria Teresa EspinalView profile

Professor

• Syntax/semantics interface
• Romance languages (Catalan, Spanish)
• Semantics/pragmatics interface
• +6 more

Maria Teresa Espinal is a Full Professor of Linguistics at Autonomous University of Barcelona since 1999. She is affiliated with the Faculty of Arts and the Department of Catalan Philology, and a member of UAB’s Center for Theoretical Linguistics (CLT). She has held leadership roles including Vice Rector for Research (1994-98), CLT Secretary (2006-07), and CLT Director (2007-10). Her postdoctoral research includes stays at UC Berkeley, Stanford, Utrecht University, and Université Paris 7-CNRS, with invited professorships at UNAM (Mexico) and UNICAMP (Brazil). Bachelor’s in Hispanic Philology (UAB, 1978) MA in Linguistics (University College London, 1981) PhD in Theoretical Linguistics (UAB, 1985) Her research focuses on syntax/semantics and semantics/pragmatics interfaces, particularly in Romance languages (Catalan and Spanish). She explores phenomena like negation, negative concord, idiomatic constructions, bare nominals, and expletive elements. Her work combines formal linguistic theory with experimental methodologies. Her 15 most recent publications (2022-2025) span syntax-semantic interfaces, negation, Romance language comparison, and experimental linguistics. Key themes include Catalan/Spanish negation patterns, diachronic changes in discourse markers, and cross-linguistic analysis of definite/indefinite expressions. Narcís Monturiol medal (Catalan government, 2020) ICREA Academia Award (twice, 2016 and 2010) She has led nationally-funded Excellence Network on Meaning and Grammar and served on multiple national/international research evaluation panels. Her editorial work includes co-editing volumes on negation, linguistic interfaces, and experimental data's role in linguistic theory.

Jonathan GinzburgView profile

Professor

• Laughter and gestures
• Language acquisition
• Formal semantics and pragmatics
• +2 more

Jonathan Ginzburg is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Paris, holding a position in the Faculty of Anglophone Studies and the Laboratoire Linguistique Formelle (LLF), a research laboratory under the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He has been at the University of Paris since 2010, achieving exceptional class professor status in 2020, which represents the highest academic rank in the French system. Prior to this, he served as a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science at King's College London from 2000 to 2010. His academic journey includes: Habilitation á diriger des recherches, University of Paris 7 (2003) Ph.D. in Linguistics, Stanford University (1987-1992) B.S. in Mathematics (Cum Laude), Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (1985-1987) Ginzburg's research spans multiple interconnected domains within linguistics and cognitive science. His work fundamentally explores how language functions in interactive contexts, with particular emphasis on dialogue structures and pragmatic phenomena. He investigates how laughter and gestures function as linguistic elements within conversation, examining language acquisition processes with focus on question comprehension and development. His theoretical contributions to formal semantics and pragmatics have reshaped understanding of interrogatives and clarification sequences. Through computational linguistics approaches, he develops models that capture the dynamic nature of dialogue, bridging theoretical linguistics with practical applications in dialogue systems. His research integrates empirical data from cross-linguistic studies with formal theoretical frameworks to create comprehensive models of human interaction. Ginzburg's publication record demonstrates a consistent focus on dialogue and interactive language use, with recent work increasingly examining non-verbal elements like laughter as integral components of linguistic communication. His research shows strong continuity in investigating questions and clarification phenomena while expanding into multimodal communication analysis. The cross-linguistic dimension of his work has grown over time, incorporating data from diverse languages to build more universal models of dialogue. His notable recognitions include: Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (2016-2021) Visiting Scholar at Laboratoire de Linguistique Formelle, CNRS Paris (2011-2012) Senior Visitor for EU FP6 Project on Dealing With Uncertainty in Dialogue (2006-2007) Allon Fellowship from the Israeli Inter-University Planning and Budget Committee (1996-1999) Ginzburg has supervised 10 PhD students (7 graduated, 4 in progress) and 4 postdoctoral researchers, with several advisees now holding prominent academic positions. His successful grant acquisition includes the €400,000 DUEL project on "Disfluencies, Exclamations and Laughter in Dialogue" funded by ANR and DFG (2014-2017), and his coordination of three projects within the Laboratory of Excellence LabEx-EFL since 2011. His editorial leadership as Associate Editor of Dialogue and Discourse and Co-Editor of Cambridge Elements in Semantics demonstrates his significant contribution to scholarly communication in his field. As a key figure in the Laboratoire Linguistique Formelle (LLF), Ginzburg leads research on interactive language use, directing projects that investigate dialogue modeling, non-sentential utterances across the lifespan, and laughter in communication. His work connects theoretical linguistics with practical applications through collaborations with researchers across Europe, particularly within the LabEx-EFL network and through international projects like DUEL with Bielefeld University.

• General linguistics
• Romanian linguistics
• Formal syntax
• +2 more

Cornilescu Alexandra is a Professor of Linguistics at the Department of English, University of Bucharest. She has held leadership roles including Dean of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures (2004-2012) and Head of the English Department (1990-2004). Her research focuses on formal syntax, semantics, and Romanian/English linguistics. She has conducted postdoctoral work at Duke University, Ca'Foscari University of Venice, and University of California, Berkeley. PhD graduate since 1980 Recipient of the Timotei Cipariu Prize (2015) for co-authoring The Reference Grammar of Romanian Her scholarship includes over 10 authored books on syntax, semantics, and English grammar. She has held visiting professorships at universities in Paris, Tilburg, and Cluj-Napoca. Academic service roles include editorial positions for linguistics journals and national accreditation committees.

• Applied Linguistics
• Second Language Acquisition
• English Philology
• +3 more

Susana María Dovale Suárez is a Professor at the Department of English and German Philology at the University of Santiago de Compostela, affiliated with the Faculty of Philology. She holds a Doctorate from the same university, completing her thesis on "The acquisition of L2-English orthography by Galician learners: the encoding process" in 2002 under the supervision of Dr. Luis Iglesias Rabade. Her research interests revolve around applied linguistics and second language acquisition, with a focus on English orthography, contrastive discourse analysis, and learner language production. She is part of the research groups LAEAITDT (Linguistics Applied to the Teaching and Learning of English, Translation and Textual Design) and DI-1924 (Discourse and Identity: Multidisciplinary GI for the study of English language, literature, and culture). Her work integrates corpus linguistics and functional approaches to analyze language use in both native and non-native contexts. Her publications span topics ranging from online discourse strategies (e.g., concession and politeness in digital forums) to syntactic structures in learner writing. Recent contributions emphasize the application of corpus-driven methods to contrastive studies, while earlier works addressed spelling challenges faced by Spanish and Galician learners of English. Dr. Dovale Suárez actively contributes to pedagogical advancements in English language teaching, leveraging her expertise to bridge theoretical linguistics with practical educational strategies.

Eugenia CasiellesView profile

Associate Professor

• Syntax
• Information Structure
• Spanish Linguistics
• +4 more

Eugenia Casielles is an Associate Professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Wayne State University's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Her research focuses on the syntax-information structure interface, Spanish linguistics, and bilingualism. She holds a Ph.D. in Hispanic Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and has taught courses such as Spanish Phonetics, History of the Spanish Language, and Hispanic Linguistics seminars. Ph.D. : Hispanic Linguistics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1997) M.A. : Spanish Linguistics, University of Massachusetts-Amherst (1994) M.Ed. : University of Liverpool (1993) Licenciatura : English Philology, University of Oviedo (1988) Her research spans theoretical and applied linguistics, emphasizing topics like code-switching, subject expression in child language acquisition, and historical syntactic structures. Recent work analyzes gender assignment in Spanish-English mixed noun phrases and radical code-switching in literary contexts. She contributes to debates on nonsententials, protolinguistic fossils, and discourse functions in Spanish syntax. Her publications include a monograph on syntax-information structure interfaces and co-edited volumes in multidisciplinary syntax research. She has published extensively in journals and conference proceedings, with recent articles addressing bilingual babbling, Spanglish literature, and syntactic constraints in dual-language acquisition.

Constantijn van der BurghtView profile

Assistant Professor

• Prosody
• Neurolinguistics
• Psycholinguistics
• +4 more

Constantijn (Stan) van der Burght is an Assistant Professor in Experimental Linguistics at Leiden University’s Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), specializing in the Psychology of Language. He holds a dual affiliation with the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. His research focuses on prosody’s role in sentence processing and production, combining behavioral experiments and neuroimaging methods. Key interests include how prosodic cues (intonation, duration) guide syntactic and semantic expectations in listeners, and individual differences in prosody perception/production. Education: PhD in Psychology (2021), Leipzig University/Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences MSc Clinical Neuroscience (2014), University College London BSc Liberal Arts & Sciences (2012), University College Utrecht Research: Investigates neurolinguistic mechanisms of language processing, particularly prosody’s influence on syntax and semantics. Recent work emphasizes methodological rigor in cognitive neuroscience and brain regions involved in intonation-guided sentence comprehension (e.g., inferior frontal gyrus). Collaborations: Active collaboration with MPI for Psycholinguistics and institutions like Utrecht University and the Donders Institute. Research integrates EEG, fMRI, and behavioral paradigms.

• Sociolinguistics
• Intercultural Communication
• Corpus Linguistics
• +3 more

Cara Penry Williams is a Senior Lecturer in English Language at the College of Arts, Humanities and Education. Her research focuses on sociolinguistics, intercultural communication, and the structure of Australian English. She employs corpus-based methodologies to investigate topics such as language variation, pragmatic markers, and the sociocultural dimensions of language use. Her work often bridges theoretical linguistics with applied contexts, such as health communication and educational practices. Notable contributions include studies on the pragmatics of terms like 'youse' and 'sort of' in Australian English, and the role of language in system responses to family violence. She has also explored intercultural communication challenges and the linguistic portrayal of historical events, such as First World War soldiers' accounts of violence. Williams' publications span academic journals and edited volumes, addressing themes like folklinguistics, discourse analysis, and pedagogical strategies in EAL (English as an Additional Language) settings. Her interdisciplinary approach integrates sociolinguistic theory with real-world applications in healthcare, education, and cultural studies.

• Portuguese Linguistics
• Language Policy
• Functional Linguistics
• +3 more

Dr. Vania Cristina Casseb Galvão is a Senior Researcher at the Department of Humanistic Studies (University of Salento, Italy) and Full Professor at the Federal University of Goiás (Brazil). She specializes in Portuguese linguistics, language policy, and functional grammar. Her work focuses on Brazilian Portuguese grammar, historical linguistics, and applied linguistics in education. Education: PhD in Linguistics from Universidade Estadual Paulista (2001), M.A. in Linguistics from Universidade Estadual de Campinas (1999). Postdoctoral research at Sapienza University of Rome (2021) and other institutions. Research interests include: grammatical analysis of Portuguese, sociolinguistic policy, language change, and pedagogical applications of functional linguistics. Recent projects include leadership of the 'Grammar of Portuguese' initiative (2016–2019) and co-editing of multiple volumes on Portuguese syntax and heritage language. Publications span theoretical linguistics, historical grammar, and language education with a focus on cross-linguistic comparisons and practical teaching methodologies. Awards include CNPq Research Productivity Fellowship (2010–present) and ERC-funded research collaborations. Teaching includes Portuguese language courses at undergraduate/graduate levels and supervision of academic projects in linguistics. Active in academic organizations such as the Centro-Oeste Linguagem Group (2014–2017) and SIMELP (2013).

• Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Syntax-Semantics Interface
• +3 more

Paul H. Portner is a Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University, specializing in semantics and pragmatics with a focus on their interfaces with syntax. He holds a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of Massachusetts Amherst (1992) under Barbara Partee, following an A.B. in Philosophy from Princeton University (1987). His research explores mood systems, speech style particles, and the syntax-semantics interface, with funded projects on clause types and gradable modals. He has led summer schools on topics like 'Mood in Semantics and Pragmatics' (2018) and 'Tense and Aspect' (2022). Portner’s work appears in top journals like Language and Natural Language Semantics , and he authored Mood (Oxford, 2018). His funded research includes NSF grants exploring honorific meaning and speaker-addressee dynamics. Research Interests: Portner’s work centers on formal semantics and pragmatics, particularly mood variation, modality, and discourse semantics. He investigates how grammatical structures encode social relations, with contributions to understanding imperative clauses, deontic modals, and the syntax-pragmatics interface. His recent projects include a book on Social Relations in Semantics and Pragmatics (Oxford, under contract). Teaching & Outreach: Teaches courses like Semantics and Pragmatics and Syntax-Semantics Interface . Has organized summer schools at MIT, ENS Paris, and CreteLing, focusing on cutting-edge topics in linguistic theory. Advising & Grants: Co-PI on NSF grants (BCS-0234278, BCS-1053038). Advises graduate students in semantics/pragmatics and collaborates widely with researchers like Aynat Rubinstein and Miok Pak.

Peter PetersonView profile

Associate Professor

• Linguistics
• Syntax
• Second Language Acquisition
• +4 more

Associate Professor Peter Peterson holds academic positions in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, specializing in Linguistics. His roles include Assistant Dean (Teaching and Learning) in the Faculty of Education and Arts and Honorary Associate Lecturer. He has extensive administrative experience, including leadership in Linguistics departments and program development for Speech Pathology and Applied Linguistics programs. Dr. Peterson's research focuses on English syntax, particularly coordinate structures and relative clauses within a Lexical-Functional framework, alongside Second Language Acquisition (SLA) with a large learner English corpus. He has supervised 10 completed PhDs in areas like sociolinguistics and TESOL. His teaching spans undergraduate and postgraduate levels in Linguistics and Children's Literature, with notable course and program development contributions. Publications span syntax theory, SLA, and interdisciplinary topics like public diplomacy and wind energy. He has secured $10,110 in internal grants for linguistic research and conference support. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with applied contexts, emphasizing morphosyntactic development in learners and cross-disciplinary methodologies.

Anastasia GiannakidouView profile

Professor

• Linguistic Semantics
• Pragmatics
• Syntax-Semantics Interface
• +7 more

Anastasia Giannakidou is the Frank J. McLoraine Professor of Linguistics and the College at the University of Chicago, director of the Center for Hellenic Studies, and co-director of the Center for Gesture, Sign, and Language. She holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Groningen (1997) and has taught at the University of Chicago since 2001. Her research focuses on meaning, subjectivity, veridicality, syntax-semantics interfaces, and linguistic variation across languages like Modern Greek, German, Dutch, Spanish, Basque, Korean, and Mandarin. Giannakidou's work bridges semantics, pragmatics, and philosophy of language, exploring how truth judgments are shaped by objective and subjective perceptions. Recent projects include Truth and Veridicality in Grammar and Thought (Chicago Press, 2021), analyzing mood choice and propositional attitudes. She collaborates on bilingualism initiatives and modern Greek education. Key contributions include theories of polarity sensitivity, nonveridical dependency, and epistemic modality. Education: PhD in Linguistics, University of Groningen (1997) Classical Philology and Linguistics, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Awards: Fellow of the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences Her research trends emphasize cross-linguistic comparisons of epistemic modality, future tense semantics, and emotive predicates. She investigates how grammatical structures encode speaker subjectivity and knowledge/belief distinctions. Ongoing work with Alda Mari explores modal sentences and the interface between grammar and thought. Giannakidou directs interdisciplinary Hellenic Studies initiatives, fostering connections between linguistics, classics, and ethics. She supports Modern Greek education in diaspora communities and collaborates with institutions like the National Hellenic Museum.

• German Morphosyntax
• Written Language Analysis
• Grammar-Graphemics Interface
• +3 more

Prof. Dr. Roland Schäfer is a Professor at the Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, affiliated with the Institut für Germanistische Sprachwissenschaft. He holds a 'venia legendi' in German Linguistics and Theoretical Linguistics from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and is a Privatdozent. His research focuses on German morphosyntax, written language variation, and the interface between grammar and graphemics. He has led DFG-funded projects on web-based German grammar analysis and created the COW web corpora. Research interests include statistical methods, large-scale data analysis, and empirical approaches to linguistic variation. He emphasizes teaching methodology for future German teachers, particularly linguistic knowledge in language acquisition and register awareness. His work integrates corpus linguistic and experimental methods, with a recent focus on register variation across historical and modal contexts. Publications highlight studies on German noun+verb units, register phenomena in historical texts, and cognitive modeling of linguistic variation. While no specific awards are listed, his contributions to corpus development and register theory are widely recognized. He advises on projects like the CRC 1412 'Register: Language Users’ Knowledge of Situational-Functional Variation' and collaborates on initiatives such as the RegiL corpus for Martin Luther's texts.

Javier RivasView profile

Professor

• Usage-based grammar
• Discourse syntax
• Language variation and change
• +2 more

Javier Rivas is a Professor and Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of Colorado. His research focuses on usage-based grammar, discourse syntax, language variation and change, Hispanic linguistics, and Galician linguistics. He has collaborated extensively with co-authors like Esther L. Brown on projects analyzing syntactic patterns in Spanish and Galician dialects through corpus-based approaches. His work examines phenomena such as inflected infinitives in Galician, tense usage in Costa Rican Spanish, and the role of discourse markers in grammaticalization processes. Rivas has edited special journal issues and contributed to encyclopedic works on Hispanic linguistics. His research frequently integrates quantitative methodologies to explore morphosyntactic variation and functional motivations for syntactic structures. Publications span journals like Lingua , Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics , and Language Variation and Change , reflecting his engagement with both theoretical frameworks and empirical data. His scholarship bridges functional-typological and variationist approaches, emphasizing the role of language use in shaping grammatical systems.

• Syntax
• Semantics
• Japanese Linguistics
• +3 more

Shuichi Yatabe is a Professor of Language and Information Sciences at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University (1993) and specializes in syntax, semantics, and Japanese linguistics with a focus on formal grammar theories. His research explores phenomena like non-constituent coordination, scrambling, and linearization effects in Japanese syntax and semantics. Research Interests: Specializing in syntax-semantics interface, Yatabe's work addresses challenges such as quantifier scope, right-node raising, and honorific morphological paradoxes. He advocates for HPSG-based analyses and linearization theories to explain Japanese linguistic structures. His formalist approach bridges syntactic architecture with prosodic and semantic composition mechanisms. Publications: Over 30 key works include groundbreaking studies on medial left-node raising (2016), non-constituent coordination defenses (2021), and scrambling theories (1993 doctoral thesis). His 2001 analysis of left-node raising in Japanese became foundational for syntactic-prosodic interface studies. Labs/Teams: Active in theoretical linguistics research groups at the University of Tokyo, contributing to the Language and Information Sciences department's research agenda. Maintains a scholarly website with publications (http://phiz.c.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~yatabe/).