Current research:
My research is in theoretical linguistics, more specifically in comparative syntax. My work is set against the background assumptions argued for by Noam Chomsky: that there exists a specific human cognitive capacity for language which is present at birth and requires simple environmental stimulation in order for linguistic competence in the mother tongue to develop during the early years of life. The theory of this capacity is known as Universal Grammar. Accepting this nativist approach to language raises the challenge of accounting for the existence of seemingly very diverse grammatical structures in the languages of the world. My work, along with that of a very active worldwide community of linguists, is concerned with showing how these grammatical systems differ along relatively simple lines in such a way that the central distinguishing features are accessible to children acquiring language on the basis of primary linguistic data. To this end, I have worked on the comparative and historical syntax of many of the Germanic, Romance and Celtic languages. I currently hold an AHRB grant, jointly with a colleague at the University of Newcastle, which investigates the possibility that one kind of logically possible arrangement of words is in fact unattested in the languages of the world. If our hypothesis, which we are actively investigating, is correct, then we will have discovered a true language universal, one piece of Universal Grammar.
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Some recent publications:
- 2009 “The Return of the Subset Principle,” in P Crisma & G Longobardi (eds) Historical Linguistics and Linguistic Theory. Oxford: Oxford University Press (with T Biberauer, University of Cambridge)
- 2008 “Movement and Agreement in Italian Past Participles and Defective Phases,” Linguistic Inquiry 38: 477-491 (with Roberta D’Alessandro, University of Leiden).
- 2008 “Cascading Parameter Changes: Internally-driven Change in Middle and Early Modern English,” in T. Eythórsson (ed) Grammatical Change and Linguistic Theory: The Rosendal Papers. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 79-114 (with Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge).
- 2008 “Structure and Linearisation in Disharmonic Word Orders,” in C. Chung and H. Haynie (eds) Proceedings of the 26th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press, pp. 96-104 (with Theresa Biberauer, University of Cambridge, and Anders Holmberg, Newcastle University).
- 2007 Diachronic Syntax. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- 2007 Comparative Grammar: Critical Concepts (6 volumes). London: Routledge.
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