Franz d'Avis

PD Dr. Franz d'Avis is a Senior Lecturer at the German Institute of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, where he has worked since 2008. His research focuses on German grammar, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, particularly in areas like sentence types, normality in language, exclamative constructions, and concessive conditionals. He completed his habilitation in 2014 with a thesis on 'Normality and Language' and earned his doctorate in 1998 for work on wh-exclamatives in German. Prior to Mainz, he worked in Sweden at Lund University (1999–2003) and the University of Gothenburg (2003–2007), where he led a project on concessive conditionals funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet).

• Education: First State Examination in Music and German from Giessen (1986), Master's in German linguistics and computer science from Tübingen (1994), Doctorate in German linguistics from Tübingen (1998).

Research Interests: His work bridges syntax, semantics, and pragmatics, exploring how notions of normality influence linguistic constructions, the role of exclamatives in discourse, and the structure of parentheticals. He has co-edited volumes on Expressivity in German (2019) and Normality in Language (2016). His lectures address topics like language and normality, pseudo-vocative insults, and cross-linguistic comparisons between German and Swedish.

Publications: Franz d'Avis has authored and co-authored numerous publications since the 1990s, including studies on wh-exclamatives, parentheticals, and concessive conditionals. His 2016 work on 'Different Languages – Different Sentence Types?' examines cross-linguistic variations in exclamative sentences.

Collaborations: He has collaborated with scholars such as Rita Finkbeiner, Jörg Meibauer, and Jochen Geilfuß-Wolfgang, often in interdisciplinary projects linking grammar theory, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics.