Coppe van Urk

Coppe van Urk is a Reader in Linguistics at Queen Mary University of London, holding a PhD from MIT and affiliated with the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film. His academic profile shows active engagement with theoretical linguistics and regular office hours in ArtsOne 1.17B.

Dr. van Urk's research centers on minimalist syntax with particular focus on understudied languages, especially Dinka and Austronesian languages. His work spans multiple linguistic domains including:

• Syntactic theory and operations
• Morphological systems across diverse languages
• Austronesian and Nilo-Saharan language families
• Constructed languages and their theoretical implications
• Cross-linguistic variation in syntactic phenomena
• Theoretical implications of language documentation

His publication record demonstrates consistent theoretical engagement with syntax while drawing evidence from diverse linguistic sources. Van Urk frequently uses understudied languages like Dinka to reveal insights about universal grammar through language-specific phenomena, showing how syntactic operations interact with other components of grammar across diverse language families. His research bridges theoretical syntax with morphological and typological considerations.

Dr. van Urk maintains an active research agenda with publications spanning from 2010 to 2024. His recent work including 'Constraining predicate fronting' (2024) continues his exploration of core syntactic operations. His research demonstrates methodological consistency in using language-specific phenomena to address broader theoretical questions in generative grammar.