Lisa Lai-Shen Cheng is a Professor of General Linguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, with a focus on comparative syntax and its interactions with semantics, prosody, and processing. She co-founded the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) and is a member of KNAW, Academia Europaea, and LSA Fellow. PhD in Linguistics from MIT (1991) Assistant/Associate Professor at UC Irvine (1991-2000) Her research explores language variation through comparative syntax , wh-questions , and interdisciplinary approaches involving the brain. Key projects include Ellipsis Licensing Beyond Syntax (NWO), Understanding Questions (NWO), and Advancing the European Multilingual Experience (FP7 EU). Her work spans Chinese , Bantu , and other languages, addressing phenomena like intervention effects and scope fixation . Her publications include studies on wh-in-situ in Chinese, French, and Bantu languages, emphasizing the role of interfaces and cognitive processes. Awards include membership in KNAW (2017), Academia Europaea, and LSA Fellow status. She has supervised over 20 PhD students and teaches syntax and syntax-semantics interface courses at Leiden University. Her affiliations include the Theoretical Linguistics and Experimental Linguistics groups.
Prof. dr. Norbert Corver is a Professor of Dutch Linguistics at Utrecht University , affiliated with the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication and the Institute for Language Sciences . He chairs the Dutch Linguistics division and leads the Mind your Manner Adverbials! (MiMA) project funded by an NWO Open Competition grant (2021-2025). He was a Visiting Professor at the University of Connecticut (2019) and serves as editor of Studies in Generative Grammar . Education: PhD in Linguistics (1990, Tilburg University) Research Interests: Syntax, generative grammar, language variation, syntactic interfaces, and affective language structures Key Projects: MiMA (syntax of adverbials), AThEME (multilingualism in Europe), Syntax of Idioms (NWO-FWO collaboration), DiDDD (Dutch noun phrase diversity) Scientific Recognition: Member of Academia Europaea Current Work focuses on the syntax of adverbials through comparative Germanic studies, while his broader research explores curse expressions, numerical expressions, and dialectal variation. He maintains active collaborations across Europe and contributes to digital resources like the Taalportaal (Dutch/Frisian grammar portal).
Prof. dr. Enoch O. Aboh is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam , Faculty of Humanities, Department of Literature and Linguistics. His office is located at Spuistraat 134, room 647, and he can be contacted at e.o.aboh@uva.nl . Research Interests: Prof. Aboh’s work lies at the intersection of formal syntax, language contact, and learnability. He investigates creole formation , multilingual ecologies , Gbe and Kwa syntax , cartographic approaches to clause structure , and sign language morphosyntax . A recurring theme is the emergence and evolution of grammatical systems under contact, approached through both descriptive fieldwork and formal theoretical modelling. His publications reveal a methodological breadth spanning experimental studies with kindergarteners on statistical learning, computational detection of loanwords, and fine-grained syntactic analyses of serial verb constructions, predication patterns, and determiner systems. This spectrum underscores his commitment to integrating cognitive, typological, and formal perspectives on language. Awards & Recognition: While no specific prizes are listed in the current material, Prof. Aboh’s extensive editorial and collaborative work—evidenced by numerous co-edited volumes and Festschrift contributions—attests to his standing in the field. Students & Grants: Details on PhD advisees or funded projects are not provided in the source text. Labs & Teams: No dedicated laboratory or research group names are mentioned, yet his affiliation with the Amsterdam Center for Language and Communication (ACLC) can be inferred from the institutional context.
Dr. Caitlin Meyer is an Assistant Professor of Dutch Linguistics at the Faculty of Humanities, University of Amsterdam (UVA), specializing in language acquisition and theoretical linguistics. Her research focuses on syntactic development, numerical cognition, and pragmatic particle usage in Dutch, with significant contributions to understanding verb clusters and ordinal number acquisition. Education: PhD in Linguistics from UVA Research: Language acquisition, Dutch syntax, cognitive development, experimental linguistics Collaborations: Engaged with Leiden University Centre for Linguistics (LUCL) for interdisciplinary research Her recent publications analyze Dutch verb cluster acquisition (2015-2020), ordinal number learning strategies (2016-2021), and pragmatic particle development (2017). She employs experimental methods and cross-linguistic comparisons in her work, leveraging LUCL's Phonetics, EEG, and Eye-tracking labs. While no formal awards are listed in this dataset, her research has been published in key academic outlets. She contributes to teaching through formal programs at University of Amsterdam and participates in LUCL's educational initiatives.
Dr. Angeliek van Hout is a faculty member at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Arts, where she leads the Acquisition Lab within the Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG). Her academic profile centers on experimental research into first language acquisition in typically developing monolingual children, employing a crosslinguistic perspective to investigate fundamental aspects of language development. Her research expertise spans multiple interconnected domains of linguistic development: Temporal reference (tense and aspect, telicity, event culmination) Nominal reference (definiteness, quantification) Syntactic structures (questions, passives, pronouns) Pragmatic reasoning (scalar implicatures, theory of mind) Dr. van Hout's methodological approach integrates formal linguistic theory with empirical experimentation, examining how children acquire complex linguistic structures across different languages. Her recent work demonstrates particular focus on logical operators and their interpretation in child language, with extensive crosslinguistic comparisons examining how children process disjunction under negation in Dutch, French, Hungarian, and Italian. She investigates the cognitive mechanisms underlying these linguistic phenomena, bridging theoretical linguistics with cognitive science. Her publication record shows consistent productivity with 89 research outputs including 25 articles, 23 conference contributions, and 20 book chapters. Notable recent publications include work on prosodic disambiguation in Dutch, free choice interpretation in French children, and crosslinguistic patterns in quantifier acquisition. Dr. van Hout actively contributes to the academic community through: Supervision of PhD students (4 supervised works documented) Editorial work including the TABU Festschrift for Jack Hoeksema Organizing academic events such as "Novel Semantic Research in Theory, Processing and L1 Acquisition" Presenting research at international conferences including the Boston University Conference on Language Development Her research has practical applications in understanding typical language development trajectories, which she communicates to broader audiences through public engagement activities. She has presented on language development in twins at multiple public events and participated in the NEMO Science Live initiative from 2016-2018, demonstrating commitment to knowledge transfer beyond academic circles. As leader of the Acquisition Lab, Dr. van Hout directs research examining how children develop linguistic competence across various domains, with particular attention to the interface between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics in early language development.
Peter Hagoort is a renowned cognitive neuroscientist and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Radboud University Nijmegen. He serves as Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Founding Director of the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour. His research focuses on the neural basis of language, employing techniques like ERP, MEG, PET, and fMRI to study language processing in health and disorders such as aphasia, dyslexia, and autism. He holds multiple prestigious awards, including the NWO-Spinoza Prize (2005), the Yuen Ren Chao Prize (2024), and the Silver University Medal from Radboud University (2023/2024). He is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the National Academy of Sciences (USA). Current research interests include the neurobiological mechanisms of language comprehension and production, inter-brain synchrony in communication, and the cognitive neuroscience of spoken language using animal models like bats. He supervises PhD students exploring topics such as vocal learning in bats and neural dynamics of communication in autism spectrum conditions. Awards: Over 10 major prizes, including the Spinoza Prize and Yuen Ren Chao Prize. Grants & Leadership: Programme director of the Gravitation program Language in Interaction; steering roles in national and international initiatives. Labs/Teams: Donders Institute Neurobiology of Language group; Max Planck Psycholinguistics Institute.
Prof. Sergey Avrutin is a Professor of Comparative Psycholinguistics at Utrecht University's Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, within the College of Humanities. His research integrates information theory into language processing studies, focusing on typically and atypically developing children, adults, and individuals with aphasia. He previously led the NWO-sponsored PIONEER research program (2000-2005) and current projects explore rule induction from partially ordered input and entropy-driven models. Prof. Avrutin has held academic roles such as Research Leader, Promoter, and Executor across multiple NWO and EU-funded projects. His research spans syntax-discourse interface, language acquisition disorders, bilingualism diagnostics, and special registers like headlines and TV commentary. He collaborates with international institutions including Berlin's Zentrum für Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft and Russia's Herzen State Pedagogical University. His teaching includes courses on Cognitive Science, Language and Law, and the Syntax-Discourse Interface. Recent work highlights contributions to understanding lexical access in aphasia, the role of prosody in anaphora resolution, and statistical learning mechanisms. His articles and projects reflect a focus on interdisciplinary methods, combining experimental and theoretical approaches to linguistic phenomena.
Dr. Hanneke Loerts is an Assistant Professor at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Arts, specializing in Neurolinguistics and Language Development. She holds a position in the Department of Neurolinguistics and Language Development (NLD) and focuses on research areas including psycholinguistics, applied linguistics, cognitive aging, and neurolinguistics. Her work often explores the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying language processing, particularly in multilingual contexts. Dr. Loerts has contributed to studies on the impact of language learning on cognitive functioning in older adults, the role of musical abilities in second language prosody perception, and the effects of bilingualism on cognitive reserve. Her research employs methodologies such as ERP studies, eye-tracking, and meta-analyses, addressing topics like grammatical gender processing, relative clause comprehension, and social aspects of minority language use. She is involved in projects funded by the University of Groningen, including a study on language of instruction and language-learning aptitude in higher education. Dr. Loerts teaches courses on applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, and research methodology, emphasizing statistical methods and multilingual language processing. She has been recognized with a PhD scholarship co-promotor award for her work on music perception and second language prosody. Her collaborative research extends to interdisciplinary teams, investigating topics ranging from cognitive flexibility in depression to the sociocultural dimensions of language use in multilingual societies. Key contributions include systematic reviews on ERP responses to gender stereotypes, meta-analyses on musical abilities and prosody perception, and randomized controlled trials assessing language learning interventions. Her work bridges neuroscience, psychology, and education, with implications for healthy aging, language policy, and cognitive health.
Dr. Monique Flecken is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam, specializing in neurolinguistics and multilingualism. Her research investigates how language shapes event perception, focusing on dynamic situations like motion events and cross-linguistic cognitive differences. Current affiliation: University of Amsterdam, Faculty of Humanities Prior role: Senior Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Her work explores the interplay between linguistic structures (e.g., grammatical aspect, verb semantics) and cognitive processes such as perception, memory, and attention. Methodologies include ERP studies, eye-tracking, and virtual reality experiments. Notably, she examines how languages with varying grammatical systems (e.g., Dutch, Turkish, Persian) influence event conceptualization. Recent publications highlight her research trends, including language-specific effects on motion perception, the role of syntax in telicity judgments, and neural mechanisms underlying linguistic influence on cognition. She actively engages with interdisciplinary approaches, bridging linguistics and cognitive science.
Dr. A.M.H. van Hout is a Professor in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Groningen, leading the Acquisition Lab within the Center for Language and Cognition Groningen (CLCG). Their research focuses on first language acquisition in monolingual children, particularly exploring temporal and nominal reference, tense/aspect, telicity, definiteness, and crosslinguistic variation. Key areas include syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and theory of mind reasoning in child language development. Research activities include cross-linguistic studies in Dutch, French, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, and others, with emphasis on disjunction interpretation, negation scope, and tense systems. Collaborations involve international teams and comparative studies. Publications span 89 works, including peer-reviewed articles and conference contributions. Van Hout actively participates in academic events, editorial work, and public engagement initiatives on child language topics. Supervision activities include mentoring students in language acquisition research. The Acquisition Lab serves as a hub for experimental studies on child language development, integrating formal linguistic theories with empirical methods.
Leticia Pablos Robles is an Associate Professor at Leiden University's Humanities Centre for Linguistics (LUCL), specializing in Experimental Linguistics with a focus on sentence comprehension , prediction in the brain , and processing of long-distance dependencies . Her work integrates syntax, semantics, and prosody to explore how linguistic structures are processed across languages like Basque, Spanish, Mandarin, Dutch, French, and English. PhD in Linguistics (University of Maryland, 2006) BA in English Philology (University of Deusto, 1999) Her research employs event-related potentials (ERPs) , eye-tracking , and self-paced reading to analyze language comprehension. She investigates: Syntactic processing (e.g., clitic left dislocation, wh-dependencies) Syntax-semantics interface (e.g., Negative Polarity Items) Syntax-prosody interface (e.g., Wh-in-situ questions) Cognitive control in bilingualism and code-switching Recent publications highlight trends in cross-linguistic interference , bilingual reading , and ERP-based syntactic validation . She also contributes to replication studies and statistical methodology in linguistics. Scientific Awards : Teaching Excellence Award, University of Maryland (2002) Basque Government Post-doctoral Grant (2006-2008) Basque Government Pre-doctoral Grant (2002-2006) She supervises PhD candidates Zhenlin Chen and Ou Ourilige , and collaborates with projects like BRAINGLOT (Bilingualism and Cognitive Neuroscience). Her work bridges theoretical linguistics and experimental validation , emphasizing the competence-performance dichotomy.
Schuyler Laparle is a Lecturer at Tilburg University's Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences (TSHD), affiliated with the Department of Communication and Cognition. His research focuses on gesture studies, cognitive linguistics, metaphor analysis, and discourse analysis. He teaches courses such as Nonverbal Communication and Academic English. His research explores how gestures shape conversation coherence, metaphor use in climate communication, and semiotic complexity in multimodal interaction. Recent publications analyze gestural discourse markers, multimodal AI challenges, and frame-based gesture semantics. He has received the LOT Grotevragenprijs (2023) for collaborative work on linguistic AI questions. Laparle actively participates in academic activities, including organizing conferences like 'Communicating Climate Hope' (2024) and presenting at international forums on gesture analysis and metaphor studies. His work bridges theoretical linguistics with practical applications in discourse and multimodal communication.
Marta Massaia is a Researcher at Utrecht University's Faculty of Humanities, Department of Languages, Literature and Communication. She is affiliated with the Institute for Language Sciences and conducts research under the NWO-funded Mind your Manner Adverbials (MiMA) project. Education: BA and MA from Ca' Foscari University of Venice Research Interests: Marta specializes in comparative Germanic syntax, focusing on similative constructions, adverbial clauses, and their syntactic interfaces (syntax/semantics/pragmatics). Her work examines the left periphery of adverbial clauses, dialectal variation in Dutch, and the morphosyntactic properties of manner adverbials. Publications: Her 2025 article on similative constructions in Dutch dialects synthesizes theoretical and comparative approaches to Germanic syntax. Her presentations explore topics like mood alternations in simulative clauses, decomposition of manner adverbials, and cross-Germanic adverbial clause structures. Collaborations: Co-supervised by Prof. Dr. Norbert Corver (Utrecht) and Prof. Dr. Denis Delfitto (Verona), Marta co-organizes the Syntax Interface Lectures and participates in the international network Adverbial Clauses and their Dependency Relationships . She has held visiting researcher positions at MIT (2024) and the University of Verona (2023). Academic Engagements: Marta has presented keynote talks at the MiMA-workshop, Germanic Sandwich, and the Crete Summer School of Linguistics. She actively participates in workshops like LOT Summer School, MIT's SyntaxLab, and conferences on adverbial clause dependency relationships.
Henriette de Swart is a full Professor of French Linguistics and Semantics at Utrecht University , affiliated with the Institute for Language Sciences . Her research spans cross-linguistic semantics , focusing on tense and aspect , negation , and bare nominals , while integrating artificial intelligence methodologies. She has made significant contributions to bidirectional optimality theory and language evolution studies.
Jerry Spanakis is an Assistant Professor at Maastricht University with dual affiliations: the Department of Advanced Computing Sciences (Faculty of Science and Engineering) and the Maastricht Law+Tech Lab (Faculty of Law). His roles include leading the EU Horizon project VOXReality, researching for NSMD/HumanAds/RegTech4AI initiatives, and serving as a technical expert for the European Commission’s e-enforcement academy. He coordinates MaastrichtNLP (NLP research group) and participates in the Open Science Community Maastricht. Education: PhD in Computational Intelligence (2007–2012) from the National Technical University of Athens, School of Electrical & Computer Engineering. Research Focus: Social Machine Learning: Developing responsible AI systems for societal challenges, including interpretable models for consumer protection and regulatory compliance. Computational Social Media: Analyzing social media data to detect online harms (e.g., misleading ads, content moderation failures) and model user behavior. Structuring Unstructured Data: Semantic organization of legal texts, social media, and multimodal data for applications in law, aviation, and public health. Publication Trends: Jerry's recent work (2023–2025) emphasizes NLP innovations for legal and regulatory domains, multilingual information retrieval, and ethical AI frameworks. Key themes include Large Language Model applications in law, influencer marketing compliance, and cross-lingual neural machine translation. Scientific Awards: None reported. Advising & Grants: Jerry supervises 7 PhD candidates and 100+ Master’s/Bachelor’s students in NLP, machine learning, and social computing. He leads the €2.8M EU project VOXReality (voice-driven XR interactions) and contributes to NWO/Philips grants on mental health analytics. Current grants focus on: AI-driven legal process automation (RegTech4AI) Dark pattern detection in e-commerce (NSMD) Influencer marketing transparency (HumanAds) Labs & Teams: Jerry founded MaastrichtNLP, a university-wide NLP research group, and co-leads the Law+Tech Lab, which develops computational tools for legal compliance. His teams collaborate with Deloitte, the European Commission, and healthcare institutions on applied AI projects.
