Johan Pedersen

Johan Pedersen is an Associate Professor of Spanish Linguistics at the Department of English, Germanic and Romance Studies, University of Copenhagen. He is also the Chairman of the Kirsten Schottlænder’s Foundation board, which funds research in Spanish, Catalan, and Portuguese language and culture, and serves as Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Revue Romane (John Benjamins, Amsterdam) for Spanish linguistics.

Education:

• MA in Spanish language and culture, University of Copenhagen (1992)
• Minor in Economics, University of Copenhagen (1993)
• Graduate Diploma in International Business, HD1, CBS (1995)
• Ph.D. in Spanish linguistics, University of Copenhagen (2000)

Research interests span cognitive and functional linguistics, usage-based approaches to grammar, contrastive linguistics, and language typology. His work focuses on clause structure organization, motion event expressions, Spanish reflexive/impersonal constructions, and the interplay between research, teaching, and learning. He is a member of the research platform Variation and Change in Language and co-directs projects like Cognitive modeling and meaning construction across languages (granted by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness).

Key trends in recent publications include analyses of parasynthetic constructions in Spanish, comparative studies of Danish and Spanish verb prefixes, and construction grammar applications to typological differences in motion event framing. His work often integrates corpus linguistics, cognitive modeling, and functional grammar frameworks.

Supervision and grants include mentoring PhD candidates such as Alexandra Donoso (motion events, Spanish-Swedish) and Henriette Baleau (causative alternations in Spanish). He has led or co-led projects like the Cogmod grant (Spanish Ministry) and Construction Grammar meets Typology (Marie Curie grant).