My research has two strands: I try to work out how questions actually work (what is their structure? Are all questions answerable? What do people do with their hands, bodies and faces when they ask questions? How do we report questions to other people?) and I investigate how children learn to ask questions.
Both strands are a bit controversial on the structure side of things, as I work in mainstream generative linguistics (stemming from Noam Chomsky’s work but now a much broader church!). My first strand challenges the limits of what can be considered “syntax” – do elements of language that are very much about speaker and addressee relationships have a (formal) place in sentence structure? (Spoiler: I think some of them do.) My second strand deals with the issue of what child language learners bring to their language learning puzzle – do they use the same processes and mechanisms to learn language as they use for any other type of learning, or do they have some cognitive mechanism that is specialised for language learning? (Spoiler: both.) But plenty of people disagree, which is exciting for theorising and probing the characteristics and limits of the capacities of humans for language.
As well as reading and writing a lot about these topics, I present my work to audiences of other linguists and I pass it on to the next generation of linguists through my teaching. To jump to my most recent activities in each category, click the headings below or click to download my CV.
Writing — Presentations — Teaching
Writing
In prep. Everyone’s been wondering what are the mechanisms for clause attachment of embedded root clauses in Germanic… Manuscript.
Submitted. Everyone’s been wondering what are the mechanisms for interpreting embedded root clauses in Germanic… Submitted to a special issue for Journal of Pragmatics (ed. Andreas Trotzke). Pre-print.
Submitted. (with Christine Cuskley and Molly Flaherty). Language is more than text: The limitations of large language models for understanding human language and cognition. Submitted to Open Mind. Pre-print.
Resubmitted. (with Johannes Heim, Christine Cuskley, Heike Pichler, Jay Barber, Harrison Donnelly, Ruizhe Hu and Avika Sharma). A flexible model for exposing and mitigating the hidden curriculum in the transition to Higher Education. Submitted to Open Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. Pre-print.
In press. (with Tom Roeper) Biased questions in English: an acquisition path. Invited submission to Manfred Krifka et al. (eds), Biased Questions: Experimental Results & Theoretical Modelling, to appear with Language Science Press. Pre-print.
In press. (with Johannes Heim and Joel Wallenberg) Input beyond the threshold: Explaining auxiliary-initial assertions in a British English early talker. Proceedings of West Coast Conference in Formal Linguistics 39. Pre-print.
2023. (with Liliane Haegeman) Removing question force from interrogative clauses: the West Flemish particle kwestje. In Tommaso Balsemin, Irene Caloi, Jacopo Garzonio, Nicolas Lamoure, Francesco Pinzin and Emanuela Sanfelici, eds. Festschrift in honor of Cecilia Poletto’s 60th Birthday, vol. 2. Quaderni di lavoro ASIt 25, 821-860. DOI: https://doi.org/10.57711/gy76-g337
2021. (with Tom Roeper) The acquisition path of ‘high’ negation in English. In Danielle Dionne and Lee-Ann Vidal Covas, eds. Proceedings of the 45th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development (pp. 761-775). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Pre-print.
2021. (with Luis Vicente) Metacommunicative-why fragments as probes into the grammar of the speech act layer. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 6(1):84, 1–32. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1169. Final formatted version.
2021. Towards a model of the syntax-discourse interface: a syntactic analysis of please. English Language and Linguistics 25(1), 121-153. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1360674319000510
2020. A different perspective on embedded V2: unifying embedded root phenomena. In Rebecca Woods and Sam Wolfe (eds), Rethinking Verb Second (pp. 297-322). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Uncorrected proof. [Submitted for REF2021]
2020. (with Tom Roeper) Rethinking auxiliary-doubling in adult and child language: how verb movement turns propositions into illocutionary acts. Rethinking Verb Second (pp. 835-861). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pre-print.
2020. (with Sam Wolfe) Introduction. Rethinking Verb Second (pp. 1-11). Oxford: Oxford University Press
2019. (with George Tsoulas) Predicative possessives, relational nouns and floating quantifiers, Linguistic Inquiry 50(4), 825-846. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00320.
2018. Embedded inverted interrogatives: investigating the acquisition of non-canonical embedded questions. In Bart Hollebrandse, Jaieun Kim, Ana T. Pérez-Leroux and Petra Schulz (eds), UMOP 41: Thoughts on Mind and Grammar (T.O.M. and Grammar): A Festschrift in Honor of Tom Roeper, pp. 179-194. Amherst, MA: GLSA. Final version.
2016. Investigating the Syntax of Speech Acts: Embedding Illocutionary Force. PhD dissertation, University of York. Final version.
2016. Embedded inverted questions as embedded illocutionary acts. In: Kyeong-min Kim, Pocholo Umbal, Trevor Block, Queenie Chan, Tanie Cheng, Kelli Finney, Mara Katz, Sophie Nickel-Thompson and Lisa Shorten, eds. Proceedings of the 33rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, pp. 417-426. Somerville, MA.: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Available online here
2016. Modelling the syntax-discourse interface: a syntactic analysis of please. In: Kate Bellamy, Elena Karvovskaya, Martin Kohlberger and George Saad, eds. ConSOLE XXIII: Proceedings of the 23rd Conference of the Student Organisation of Linguistics in Europe (7-9 January 2015, Paris), pp. 360-382. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available online here
2015. The acquisition of dative alternation by German-English bilingual and English monolingual children, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 5(2), 251-283. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/lab.5.2.04woo.
2014. The syntax of orientation shifting: evidence from English high adverbs. In: Kate Bellamy, Eleanor Dutton and Martin Kohlberger, eds. ConSOLE XXII: Proceedings of the 22nd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (8-10 January 2014, Lisbon), pp.205-230. Leiden: Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Available online here
2012. Thoughts on multiple wh-movement in Czech, York Papers in Linguistics Series 2, 12a, 68-79. Available online here
Presentations
Invited Presentations
2024. Title TBC. Ulster University Linguistic Research series, May 2024.
2023. To respond or not to respond…is this a question? Questions at the Interface closing workshop, 12th-14th June 2023, Universität Konstanz. Slides here.
2023. Building a world: the acquisition of speech acts (Commentator: Dr Dan Goodhue). Speech Acts in Grammar and Discourse (SPAGAD) Lecture Series, 24th February 2023, Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Wissenschaft [online]
2023. The syntax and semantics of biased questions: insights from child acquisition of English (joint work with Tom Roeper, UMass Amherst). Meaning and Grammar Research Group, 24th January 2023, University of Edinburgh
2019. Embedded inverted questions: their contribution to discourse and their distribution, SPAGAD-1:Syntactic and Semantic Modeling, 30th October 2019, Leibniz Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS), Berlin
2019. Is this a question? AuxSVO order in a monolingual English-acquiring child and the role of input (joint work with Robyn Orfitelli), LAGB 2019, 10th September 2019, Queen Mary University of London
2018. Non-adult questions in child language: a window onto pragmatic development (joint work with Tom Roeper), Faculty of Linguistics and Philology General Linguistics Seminar Series, 29th October 2018, University of Oxford
2018 Non-adult questions in child language: a window onto pragmatic development (joint work with Tom Roeper), Retreat for Students in Semantics and Pragmatics, 6th October 2018, La Garrotxa (Catalonia)
2018. Towards a model of the syntax-discourse interface: a syntactic analysis of ‘please’, Hogg Prize presentation at ISLE5 conference, 19th July 2018, University College London
2018. Non-adult questions in child language: manipulating bias and Questions Under Discussion, 12th July 2018, Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen
2018. Questions in and on child language acquisition, English Grammar Day, 9th July 2018, British Library
2018. Non-adult questions in child language: manipulating bias and Questions Under Discussion (plenary address), Manchester Forum in Linguistics, 27th April 2018, University of Manchester
2017. Embedded inverted questions as conventional implicatures, 14th November 2017, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
2017. Subject-auxiliary inversion, how movement blocks propositionality, and child language (joint work with Tom Roeper), Research Seminar Series, 1st February 2017, Newcastle University
2016. Language Acquisition into the 21st Century, “Talking English” A-level English Language CPD event, 25th November 2016, British Library
2016. A different perspective on embedded V2: unifying embedded root phenomena, Research Colloquium, 2nd March 2016, University of York
2015. Grammatical variation in questions in English dialects, Research Seminar Series, 9th October 2015, University of Huddersfield
2015. Embedded inverted questions and a new perspective on embedded root phenomena, Questions at the Syntax-Semantics Interface, 7th September 2015, University College London
2014. Embedded inverted interrogatives as embedded speech acts, talk at Syntax Project, 12th December 2014, University of Toronto
2014. Embedded inverted interrogatives as embedded speech acts, talk at Syntax Square, 4th November 2014, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2013. Acquisition of dative alternation by German-English bilingual and monolingual children, talk for the Sense and Meaning/TasteTeaching Initiative group, 1st March 2013, University of Salford
2011. Applying current psycholinguistic theories to bilingualism in Cicero’s letters, 20th May 2011, Graduate Interdisciplinary Seminar, Faculty of Classics, University of Cambridge
Peer-reviewed presentations
(with Johannes Heim, Franziska Busche and Sophie Repp) Gestural cues in negative questions: Evidence from American soap opera actors. Talk at DGfS 2024, Bochum.
(poster with Johannes Heim) What’s a question anyway? Many Paths to Languages, 26th October 2023, Max-Planck-Institute Nijmegen
(with Jozina Vander Klok and Johannes Heim) Javanese discourse particles: Interlocutor perspective is in the syntax, kok! Austronesian Formal Linguistics Association XXX, 22nd October 2023, Lunds Universitet
(with Liliane Haegeman) Interrogative clauses that don’t interrogate: the interpretation and the syntax of the West Flemish discourse particle ’kwestje’. Linguistics Association of Great Britain Annual Meeting 2023, 30th August 2023, Anglia Ruskin University
(with Johannes Heim and Joel Wallenberg) Auxiliary-initial declaratives: the Tolerance Principle and competing grammars in first language acquisition. Workshop on Child learners in syntactic change: theory and methods, Diachronic Generative Syntax (DiGS) 23, 8th June 2022, New York University
(with Tom Roeper) An acquisition path for expressions of commitment in US and UK English, Commit22, DGfS 44, 24th February 2022, Universität Tübingen [online]
(poster with Johannes Heim and Joel Wallenberg) Input frequency below the threshold: Explaining auxiliary-initial declaratives in one cognitively-typical child acquiring British English, West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics 39, 11th April 2021, University of Arizona [online]
(with Tom Roeper) Biased questions in English: an acquisition path, Workshop on Biased Questions: Experimental Results & Theoretical Modelling, 4th-5th February 2021, Leibniz Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) [online]
(poster with Tom Roeper) An acquisition path for Speech Acts in English and their interaction with negation, 45th Boston University Conference on Language Development, 7th November 2020, Boston University [online]
(poster with Tom Roeper) How the acquisition path reveals the syntactic design of speech acts, Semantics and Philosophy 10, 18th December 2018, Barcelona
Non-adult questions in English child language corpora, Big Data Workshop, 26th April 2018, University of Sheffield
(with Tom Roeper) Non-adult questions in child language: manipulating bias and Questions Under Discussion, Workshop on the grammar and pragmatics of interrogatives and their (special) uses, GLOW 41, 14th April 2018, Hungarian Academy of Sciences
(with Luis Vicente) Metacommunicative fragments as probes into the grammar of the speech act layer, 50th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguisticas Europaea, 10th-13th September 2017, Universität Zürich
(with Patrick D. Elliott) Polar questions and polarity sensitivity: a semantic account of if vs. whether, Subordinate Clauses in Generative Linguistics, 24th May 2017, University College London
Embedded Inverted Questions as Conventional Implicatures: a QUD-based approach, XPrag@UiO workshop on “Non-at-Issue Meaning and Information Structure”, 9th May 2017, Universitetet i Oslo
(with Tom Roeper) Subject-auxiliary inversion, how movement blocks propositionality, and child language, 31st Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop, 2nd December 2016, University of Stellenbosch
(with Luis Vicente) Metacommunicative fragments as probes into the grammar of the speech act layer, Workshop on “Fragments”, 14th October 2016, Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken
The embeddability of illocutionary force, Generative Linguistics in the Old World 39 (first alternate), 5th-8th April 2016, Georg-August Universität Göttingen
A different perspective on embedded V2: unifying embedded root phenomena, Rethinking Verb Second, 22th-24th March 2016, University of Cambridge
(with Tom Roeper) Separating Tense and Assertion: evidence from embedded V2 and child language, 38th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS), 24th-26th February 2016, Universität Konstanz
A different perspective on embedded V2: unifying embedded root phenomena, 38th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS), 24th-26th February 2016, Universität Konstanz
A different perspective on embedded V2: unifying embedded root phenomena, Forum for Germanic Language Studies, 8th January 2016, Aston University
Structural evidence for embedded speech acts: embedded inverted questions in dialects of English, West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL) 33, Simon Fraser University, 28th March 2015
Modelling the syntax-discourse interface: a syntactic analysis of ‘please’, ConSOLE XXIII, Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7, 8th January 2015
The syntax of embedded speech acts: a theoretical investigation with consequences for acquisition, Linguistics Association of Great Britain Annual Meeting, University of Oxford, 3rd September 2014
Illocutionary adverbs in quotative, reported and quasi-quotational speech contexts, (Re)presenting the Speech of Others, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen, 14th March 2014
Orientation shifting in English high adverbs: Evidence for the representation of discourse participants in the structure, ConSOLE XXII, University of Lisbon, 10th January 2014
(with George Tsoulas) Predicative possessives, relational nouns and floating quantifiers, EdiSyn Workshop on European Dialect Syntax, Universität Konstanz, 14th June 2013
Perspective shifting in interrogatives, 8th Newcastle-upon-Tyne Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics, University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 5th April 2013
Member of the ‘Language Acquisition’ panel, Postgraduate Linguistics Workshop, University of St Andrews, 25th March 2013
(with Samir Zarqane) Acquisition of dative alternation by German-English and French-English bilingual and monolingual children, Manchester Salford New Researchers Forum in Linguistics, University of Manchester, 3rd November 2012
Indirect object doubling constructions and the role of the Applicative head, Linguistics Association of Great Britain Annual meeting, University of Salford, 7th September 2012
Teaching
Current courses (at Newcastle)
SEL1008 Nature of Language (first year survey course)
SEL2230/8683 Multilingualism (second year UG/Masters course on multilingual language acquisition)
SEL3438 The Black Box (final year UG course on child language acquisition)
Previously taught
Introduction to the Structure of Language: Semantics (first year UG), Introduction to Describing English (first year UG, Huddersfield), Intermediate Syntax (second year UG, Huddersfield), Field Linguistics (second year UG, Huddersfield), Child Language Acquisition (final year UG, Huddersfield), Introduction to English Grammar (first year UG, York, seminars only), Introduction to Syntax (first year UG, York, seminars only), Neurolinguistics (final year UG, York, seminars only)