Syntax and Semantics Research Group

Research Areas

Current areas of active research being pursued by members of this group include:

  • The syntax–morphology interface; agreement; incorporation; pro-drop; verb movement; lexical integrity effects; phrasal derivation (Peter Ackema)
  • Functional categories and functional expressions, case-marking, constructions involving have and be, cataphora, right periphery effects, grammaticality and acceptability, Dynamic Syntax (Ronnie Cann)
  • Non-finite predication; complex predicates; Word Grammar (Nikolas Gisborne)
  • The internal structure of noun phrases, pseudoclefts and equational sentences, the syntax and semantics of coordination, diachronic syntax, Germanic, Japanese (Caroline Heycock)
  • Dynamic Syntax; auxiliation and copular structures; tense and aspect; reference and indexicality; argument realisation; vagueness (Martha Robinson)
  • The syntax–semantics interface in the domain of split intransitivity; gradients in the syntax of unaccusativity/unergativity (with special reference to auxiliary selection in Western European languages); synchronic variation in Italo-Romance dialects; explanations of syntactic optionality in formal linguistic theory (Antonella Sorace)
  • The absence of determiners; verb reduplication and suppletion as pluractionality phenomena; verb movement; focus phenomena; all in Karitiana (a Tupian language spoken in Rondonia, Brazil) (Luciana Storto);
  • The syntax–semantics interface; event structure; locality; connectivity effects; the structure of noun phrases; historical syntax; animal communication (Robert Truswell)
  • The semantics-pragmatics distinction and its implications for syntactic analysis; information structure and its implications for grammatical theory; Relevance Theory; Dynamic Syntax; Hungarian (Dan Wedgwood)

The group has a strong commitment to cross-linguistic research: languages (and language families) that are particularly the subject of research done within this group include Germanic (including English), Greek (Ancient and Modern), Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Karitiana, Russian, and Welsh.

Last updated: September 2010