Caroline Heycock

Caroline Heycock is a Professor of Syntax at the University of Edinburgh, affiliated with the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences and the Department of Linguistics and English Language. She is currently on research leave until January 2025. Her teaching includes courses on syntax at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. She actively supervises PhD students and has advised numerous scholars in syntactic theory and related fields.

Her research focuses on syntactic theory, variation, and change, with particular attention to copular clauses, Faroese syntax, and Scots dialectal features. Key projects include investigations into nominal predication structures, verb movement in Faroese, and sociolinguistic aspects of Scots syntax. She has secured funding from major bodies like the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the European Union.

Recent work explores the theoretical and empirical dimensions of copular clauses, including appositional boundaries and cross-linguistic agreement patterns. Her research integrates formal syntax with sociolinguistic methodologies, as seen in studies on Scots dialectal variation and experimental analyses of Icelandic agreement phenomena.

Caroline Heycock has supervised over 25 PhD students and has led or co-led 15 research projects, including major initiatives like the Scots Syntactic Atlas and the EU-funded AThEME project. Her contributions span theoretical syntax, language acquisition, and historical change, with a focus on under-researched languages like Faroese and Scots.