Erik Zyman

Erik Zyman is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 2018. His research focuses on theoretical syntax, particularly the principles governing syntactic structure formation, crosslinguistic variation, and the cognitive foundations of syntactic operations.

His work explores elementary operations like Merge (external and internal), constituency, selection, projection, adjunction, phases, and antilocality, with case studies in English, Latin, and P’urhepecha. His recent publications analyze phase constraints, argument/adjunct distinctions, and movement phenomena.

He teaches foundational and advanced courses in syntax, including Introduction to Syntax (LING 20201), Advanced Syntax (LING 20202), and a graduate seminar on derivationalism vs. representationalism. His research integrates empirical data with theoretical frameworks to address universal and language-specific syntactic properties.