Acrisio Pires

Acrisio Pires is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. His research program focuses on syntactic theory and comparative syntax within the Minimalist framework, with significant contributions to understanding language acquisition and bilingualism. Professor Pires explores fundamental questions about linguistic knowledge, cross-linguistic variation, and the relationship between syntactic theory and language change, with particular expertise in Portuguese, Spanish, and other languages.

His educational background includes a Ph.D. from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Professor Pires' research investigates how syntactic theory can explain linguistic variation across human languages and what contribution comparative syntax makes to scientific models of language. His work examines how linguistic theory and language acquisition research contribute to explaining language change mechanisms and what factors lead to differences in bilingualism and second language acquisition outcomes. Current projects include a book on syntactic theory from a comparative perspective for Cambridge University Press and collaborative studies with PhD students examining differential object marking in L2 Spanish, constraints on wh-movement, acquisition of Indian English by Bengali-English bilinguals, and Chinese syntax acquisition by English-Chinese bilinguals.

Analysis of Professor Pires' publication record reveals a consistent focus on syntactic theory within the Minimalist framework and its applications to language acquisition across diverse language pairs. His work spans comparative syntax of Portuguese, Spanish, Chinese, Greek, Sinhala, Berber, Russian, Hawaiian, Croatian, Korean and Arabic, with particular attention to phenomena like differential object marking, wh-movement, null subjects, and the syntax-semantics interface. A significant thread throughout his research is the examination of how theoretical syntax interfaces with experimental and acquisition data to build comprehensive models of human language knowledge.

Professor Pires has advised numerous PhD students who have secured academic positions worldwide, including at Taipei Medical University, University of New Hampshire, National Taiwan Normal University, University of North Texas, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and the University of Michigan. His current PhD advisees include Will Nediger, Sujeewa Hettiarachchi, and Tridha Chatterjee (co-advisor), with research focusing on various aspects of syntactic theory and language acquisition. He has also mentored many undergraduate honors students whose work centered on syntactic theory, Minimalism, and syntactic change, including Natasha Abner, Emily Coppess, Charles Crissman, Nayana Dhavan, Ed Cormany, Lauren Friedman, and Shang Kong.

Professor Pires is affiliated with the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (LACS) at the University of Michigan, reflecting his research focus on Portuguese and Spanish linguistics. His teaching portfolio includes courses in syntax (introduction to syntax, graduate syntax, syntactic theory, Minimalism, comparative syntax), semantics, language and cognition, and language acquisition and bilingualism.