Joseph A Sabbagh

Joseph A Sabbagh is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics and TESOL at The University of Texas at Arlington's College of Liberal Arts. He has been at UT Arlington since 2009, teaching courses in syntax, morphology, and typology. Previously, he held positions as Visiting Assistant Professor at Reed College (2008-2009) and Visiting Lecturer at UC Berkeley (2007-2008), and was a Richard H. Tomlinson Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill University (2005-2007).

Dr. Sabbagh received his PhD in Linguistics from MIT in 2005, where his dissertation focused on "Non-verbal argument structure: Evidence from Tagalog." He earned his BA in Linguistics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2000, where he received Highest Honors in the Major and the Steck Family Award for Most Worth Undergraduate Senior Thesis.

Dr. Sabbagh's research focuses on theoretical syntax with particular interest in Austronesian languages, especially Tagalog. His work explores the interfaces between syntax and phonology/semantics, clause structure and word order, argument structure, existential constructions, and Right Node Raising. He takes a cross-linguistic perspective to understand universal principles of human language, with fieldwork experience in Austronesian languages of Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

His publication record shows a consistent focus on syntactic theory informed by data from understudied languages, particularly Tagalog. Over time, his work has evolved from detailed analyses of specific constructions (existentials, copular clauses) to broader theoretical questions about movement operations, interfaces, and the architecture of grammar. His recent work continues to investigate Tagalog syntax while expanding to more general theoretical questions about agreement, case, and syntactic movement.

Dr. Sabbagh has received several honors including the Wright Accolades Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts (2019), and has been nominated for the College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Teaching Award (2017) and the Academy of Distinguished Teachers (2015). Earlier in his career, he received the University of California Regents Scholarship (1999) and the Steck Family Award for Most Worth Undergraduate Senior Thesis (2000).

• Wright Accolades Endowment in the College of Liberal Arts, UT Arlington, CoLA (March 3, 2019)
• Nominee, College of Liberal Arts Outstanding Teaching Award, UT Arlington (January 2017)
• Nominee, Academy of Distinguished Teachers, UT Arlington (January 2015)
• Recognized Professor, The Honor Society of Phi Kapa Phi, UT Arlington Chapter (2011)
• Highest Honors in the Major, Department Linguistics, UC Santa Cruz (2000)
• Steck Family Award for Most Worth Undergraduate Senior Thesis, UC Santa Cruz (2000)
• University of California Regents Scholarship, UC California Regents, Santa Cruz (1999)

As an advisor, Dr. Sabbagh has supervised 5 PhD students to completion and is currently supervising 3 more. He serves on numerous dissertation committees across the Linguistics and TESOL program. His federally-funded research includes an NSF grant for "Doctoral Dissertation Research: Clauses and clause types in Jarai" ($10,618, 2011-2013). He is active in professional service as a reviewer for major linguistics journals and the National Science Foundation, and has organized conferences including the Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association meetings.