Professional
Research
My early work is mainly in the field of computational linguistics. Over the last fifteen years, my research has concentrated on issues in theoretical linguistics. Currently, the following areas are central:
A. Language Typology, mainly agreement, alignment systems, constituent order, grammaticalization, and canonical typology.
B. Language Contact and Change, more specifically between Spanish as a source language and several typologically different Amerindian languages as the target languages (currently Otomi, Quechua and Guarani)
C. Linguistic data bases and computational tools for language sampling, data collection and exploration, lexical analysis, simulation and monte carlo methods
D. Language classification, especially lexicostatistics and mass comparison
Publications
The link below gives access to a list of publications.
Link
Some downloadable articles
The links below give access to some recently published articles.
- LINFER: inferring implications from the WALS database
- Spanish meets Guaraní, Otomíand Quichua: a multilingual confrontation
- Grammatical relations
- Language sampling
- From lexical to grammatical perspective: an other take on Subject in F(D)G
- Case and alternative strategies; word order and agreement marking
- Explorations in automated language classification
- Adding typology to lexicostatistics: a combined approach to language classification
- Weighing semantic distinctions
Databases
The link below gives access to the Agreement Database, built and maintained by Anna Siewierska and myself over the last ten years. It is embedded in the Typological Database System, to which the second link gives access. The third one links to the homepage of the Automated Similarity Judgment Project, and the available resources.
+ Agreement Database
+ TDS Project
+ ASJP Project
Software
I have developed a number of computer applications which support research in language typology, language contact and the simulation of linguistic processes. Most of these require data input formattedaccording to the .CSV format of Excel files, and run on a Unix machine. Linguists interested in their use are free to contact me via electronic mail. The links below give output examples of some of the programmes.
* Language Sampling
* Inference of linguistic implications
* Stability of linguistic parameters
* Loan Word Analysis
* Automated Similarity Judgment Program
Presentations
Under the links below one finds the powerpoints of some more or less recent conference presentations.
# Berlin 2006: How impersonal can you get?
# Joensuu 2007: Typological Stability
# Leipzig 2008: ASJP: Lexical Classification
# Bejing 2009: Language Contact and Change
# Bejing 2009: Lexical Classification
# Berkeley 2009: Canonical Passives
# Berkeley2009: ASJP and WALS
# Edinburgh 2009: LanguageTypology at School
# Lisboa 2009: Multiple Passives
# Pavia 2010: Language contact in the Americas
# Vilnius 2010: Clause Combining
# Vilnius 2010: Borrowing Morphology
Teaching
The links below give access to some of the courses I have taught recently.
= Introduction to General Linguistics
= Syntax
= Introduction to Linguistic Typology
= The Theory of Functional Grammar
= Language Universals:from data to theory
= Computational Methods in Typology (SLE Summer School)
Powerpoints Santiago de Chile
The files below are adapted versions of the powerpoint presentations used for the courseat the Universidad Chileno-Britanica de Cultura, Santiago de Chile 23-27 October 2007
References
Day 1 Introduction Language Typology
Day 2 Word Order
Day 3 Anaphora and Deixis
Day 4 Voice
Powerpoints Campobasso
Below you find the powerpointpresenations related to the summer course on the use of the computer in language typology, Campobasso 23 - 27 july 2007
Day 1 Introduction
Day 1 Passives
Day 2 Sampling
Day 3 Questionnaires
Day 4 Corpora
Day 5 Other applications
Organizational
I am the secretary-treasurer of the SocietasLinguistica Europaea. The link below connects to the home page of the SLE.
SLE