Affiliates

Directors

• Andrew Carnie Linguistics, SLAT, Cognitive Science, ANLI (Assoc. Prof. Ph.D., MIT 1995) Andrew Carnie's research focuses on generative approaches to syntactic theory. In particular he has worked primarily on the syntax of Verb-initial languages, including Irish and various Mayan languages. He also has a major interest in case systems, including Ergative/Absolutive and multiple case systems, and the notion of "hierarchy" in syntactic theory. His current research concentrates on deriving semantic/relational hierarchies from syntactic structure. He has also worked on a hyperminimalist theory of phrase structure, copular constructions, the syntax-pragmatics interface, and the grammar of the Celtic Languages in general. Current projects include a reference tool for Irish nominal declensions, a book on phrase structure and research into multiple case systems.
• Heidi Harley Linguistics, SLAT, Cognitive Science(Asst. Prof., Ph.D., MIT 1995) Heidi Harley's research program focuses on the interaction between morphology, syntax, and semantics, with special attention to complex predicate constructions of various sorts (causatives, resultatives, and verb-particle constructions, for example). She has examined phenomena in English, Japanese, Icelandic, and Irish. She is a proponent of the Distributed Morphology framework, and in addition to the above has worked on Case, antecedent-contained deletion, and word learning.

Faculty Fellows

• Dalila Ayoun, French, SLAT (Assoc Prof. Ph.D. U Florida) My research interests lie in the second language acquisition of syntax/morphology, tense/aspect, grammatical gender from a generative/minimalist perspective, as well as applied French linguistics in general. I am particularly interested in the psycholinguistic processes which underlie the acquisition of languages past the age of puberty, as well as web-based and computerized experimental research.
• Andrew Barss, Linguistics, SLAT and Cognitive Science (Assoc. Prof. Ph.D., MIT 1986) My research interests are in several interacting areas of syntax and (sentence-level) semantics. In particular, I'm interested in areas of syntax that have implications for semantics (so-called A' syntax) areas of semantics interacting a lot with syntax, and the broad question of how, in a derivational, movement-based theory of grammar, the syntactic component feeds into the rules of semantic computation. I work predominantly on English, but I've done extensions of this work to Spanish, Italian, Japanese, and (collaboratively) Navajo. Some of the specific research topics I have worked on include: binding theory and bound-variable anaphora, and their interaction with movement (i.e. "reconstruction") and ellipsis scope of WH-phrases, and the issue of LF movement of WH-in-situ scope of quantifiers and definites, especially in prepositional attitude contexts scope of event quantification "timing" effects in syntax and semantics reference transfer and shift in English and Japanese circularity of reference (with Mario Montalbetti) I also have a longstanding interest in, and have published on, the formal connection of grammatical and processing theories; issues in acquisition, especially of anaphora (collaborative); and ERP (event-related potential) measures during processing of ungrammatical structures (collaborative).
• Tom Bever Linguistics and Cognitive Science (Prof., Ph.D., MIT 1967) My overall research program involves exploring intrinsic and extrinsic sources of linguistic universals, with the goal of better specifying what is and is not uniquely innate to language. This requires me to be an avid consumer of syntax with some modest pretensions of being an historian of it as well (See second half of Chapter three of Townsend and Bever, 2001). Characteristically, I borrow a syntactic universal, and attempt to show that it is an example of a cognitive or perceptual process available to humans in other domains, or to animals. A critical aspect of this involves ongoing studies of the "psychological validity" of syntactic constructs. This is critical to focusing us on the basis for structures that are "real" - if some syntactic device has no behavioral support other than its role in explaining grammaticality facts, it is a weaker candidate for innateness. Most of my research on the validity of syntactic processes is based in the study of sentence comprehension. Recently, Townsend and I developed the analysis-by-synthesis model of sentence understanding: on this model, meaning is apprehended twice, the first time via statistically valid surface cues, the second by regenerating a syntactic derivation. This model leads to a number of surprising predictions. Currently, with the help of Heidi Harley, Raffaella Folli, Montse Sanz, Erin O'Bryan and others, I am concentrating on evidence for the early processing of event structure as part of the first phase of apprehending meaning. This involves a variety of paradigms.
• Ferdinand De Haan (Adj Lecturur, Ph.D. USC) Typology, Semantics, Pragmatics, Modality, Evidentiality, Functionalist syntax.
• Sheila Dooley Linguistics (Adj Prof, Ph.D. Lund University 1991) Sheila Dooley is a syntactician and typologist with special interest in Verb-initial languages and in different syntactic theories (esp. HPSG, LFG, Relational Grammar). She is completing research with Swedish colleagues at Lund University on the PARATYP Project (Parametric Typology). For that project, she has worked with Irish, Maori, and Icelandic, and examined in particular negation and case-marking. She has also done research on acquisition of negation in Swedish by first and second language learners. At the moment she is working with Terry, Natasha and Mike to develop the computational linguistics curriculum in the department into our Human Languages Technologies Program
• Sandiway Fong, linguistics & Computer Science (Asst. Prof. Ph.D. MIT) Computational linguistics, minimalist syntax, parsing, semantics, lexical semantics
• Eloise Jelinek Linguistics (Adj. Prof. Emerita, Ph.D. University of Arizona, 1981) Eloise Jelinek: currently working on the dependencies between argument structure and information structure (Topic/Focus Structure) in some Native American languages where Topic/ Focus is overt in the morphosyntax. I also plan to work this semester on a revised and expanded version of a teaching grammar of the Yaqui language, for use by the Yaqui Tribe
• Simin Karimi, Linguistics Cognitive Science, SLAT (Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. U of Washington 1989) My research program is focused on syntax and its interaction with semantics, discourse, and morphology. I am specifically interested in issues related to complex predicate constructions; the syntax and semantics of DPs; cross-linguistic distribution of object DPs with respect to specificity and Case; syntactic characteristics of so-called 'free word order' languages, in particular properties concerning scope determination, binding relations, as well as the role of focus in word order rearrangements. My work concentrates on Persian, but involves other languages including German, Dutch, Hindi, Urdu, Russian, Japanese, Korean, and a number of other Iranian languages.
• Terry Langendoen Linguistics, Cognitive Science, SLAT, ANLI (Prof., Ph.D. MIT 1964) Terry Langendoen's syntax interests include [1] coordinate structure, preposition phrase attachment, and related problems, [2] formal theory of grammar, [3] anaphora, particularly reflexivity and reciprocity, [4] modality, [5] syntactic problems in various languages, and [6] text encoding.
• Cecile McKee Linguistics, SLAT, Cognitive Science (Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. UConn 1988) I emphasize inter-disciplinary approaches in my General Education course, and I often teach cross-listed courses. I also regularly include students in my lab. My research concerns how children acquire syntax, using linguistic theories of knowledge representation on one hand and psychological models of language processing on the other. Three branches of my work reflect this: cross-linguistic comparisons of language structures (e.g., English, Italian, ASL), children's processing mechanisms, and developmental language impairments (e.g., Down Syndrome). These areas are united by questions about both universals and particulars that are evident during children's convergence on the adult grammar. My main collaborators are Sam Supalla (SERSP, U. of Arizona), Dana McDaniel (Linguistics, U. of Southern Maine), and Maria Emiliani (USL, Imola, Italy).
• Mario Montalbetti Spanish and Portuguese, Linguistics (Assoc. Prof. Ph.D. MIT 1986) Spanish Syntax, Semantics, Philosophy of language.
• Janet Nicol Psychology, SLAT, Cognitive Science and Linguistics (Assoc. Prof., Ph.D. MIT 1988) The focus of my research is on language processing (comprehension and production) in various populations (college-aged and older adults, bilinguals, aphasic individuals, and children). The majority of this work has examined the processing of discontinuous dependencies, specifically, verb agreement and pronoun resolution and the factors that interfere with these processes. In recent years, I have extended my research to bilinguals and second language learners, exploring whether bilinguals exhibit performance patterns typical of monolinguals or fundamentally different from monolinguals. In addition, I have begun to examine early stages of second language acquisition, including the learning of new labels for concepts, and the implicit learning of distributional patterns.
• Antxon Olarrea Spanish (Asst. Prof., Ph.D. University of Washington, 1997) Antxon Olarrea is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Hispanic linguistics. He is also a member of the Second Language Acquisition and Teaching program and holds a courtesy appointment in the department of Linguistics. His research interests are in the area of formal syntax, specially in issues related to word order and agreement patterns in Romance languages. He has published a few articles about Spanish syntax within the Minimalist framework, is the co-author of the book "Introducción a la Lingüística Hispánica", published last year by Cambridge University Press, and right now is finishing a book about origins of language and natural selection.
• Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini Linguistics and Cognitive Science (Prof., Ph.D Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini's research and teaching in the domain of linguistic theory is mainly centered on the biological foundations of language, the evolution of language, the interface between syntax and lexical semantics, and the philosophical foundations of linguistic theories, with special emphasis on Generative Grammar.
• Rudy Troike English (Prof. Ph.D. UTexas 1959) English Syntax, Syntactic Theory, Native American Languages
• Mary Willie Linguistics and American Indian Studies(Assoc. Prof, Ph.D. U. of Arizona 1991) As a native speaker of Navajo and a linguist, my research focus has been and will continue to be on the Navajo language. Currently I am working on a pilot study with Joyce McDonough (U of Rochester) to get a glimpse of morphological knowledge that native speakers of Navajo might possess. Most of the data for this study comes from my accumulated data of speech and written errors of my students at this university and the University of New Mexico. I also continue to work on my teaching text for Navajo

Student Affiliates

• William Alexander
• Luis Barragan
• Phil Cash Cash
• Dan Siddiqi
• Lika Chtareva
• Meg O Donnell
• Shannon Bischoff
• Charles Lin
• Azita Taleghani
• Jianyuan Wang
• Polly O'Rourke
• Sumayya Racy
• David Medeiros
• Jason Ginsburg
• Shannon Bischoff
• Jerid Francom
• Mercedes Tubino-Blanco
• Leila Lomashvilii
• Jeff Punske
• Lindsay Butler
• Selene Gardner
• Michael Anderson
• Scott Jackson
• Jeongrae Lee
• Yosuke Sato