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Prof. Hilda KoopmanUCLA Linguistics Dept. |
General Research Interests:
· Syntactic Theory, comparative syntax, morphosyntax, syntax phonology interface.
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fieldwork, African languages (Kru languages, Gur
(Nawdem), Mande (Bambara), Kwa (Abe), Grassfield Bantu (Nweh, Ncufie..), West
Atlantic (Wolof, Fulani), Nilotic (Maasai), Austronesian (Malagasy, Javanese, Samoan), Creole languages
Jump to ..
African
Linguistics School, summer 2009
Current interests:
How much mileage can we get from purely local structure building Merge and (Re)merge?
What are the underlying atoms that the system manipulates? How tiny are these (really tiny)?
What do we really mean by the feature composition of lexical items? How do we learn these?
How exactly is surface constituency build?
What determines where elements can be merged and how much variability can be accounted for by variable heights of merger?
My current research projects center around:
· Mirror order violations, morpheme ordering, and their proper understanding: what can become a word
· The Syntax of Voice and Voice stacking
· Agreement phenomena
· Ergativity (Samaon: yes, double passivization!) and accusativity (how can you ever get an accusative?)
· Restrictions on recursion
· Relative clauses and N/V asymmetries…
· Accounting for differences in the distribution of floated quantifiers in varieties of Dutch, German, English and Malagasy
· subject-object asymmetries that-t phenomena
· developing modern tools to gather data on individual grammars; variability in individual grammars and clustering of patterns: testing theoretical predictions for the grammar of individual speakers in the domain of verbal complexes.
Recent Manuscripts.
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2008. Samoan ergativity as double passivization http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000768
· 2008. with Dominique Sportiche The que/qui alternation: new analytical directions http://ling.auf.net/lingBuzz/000638
· 2007. Topics in imperatives, in Wim van der Wurff, Imperative clauses in Generative grammar, Studies in Honor of Frits Beukema, Linguistic Actuell/Linguistics Today 103. John Benjamins. click here
· 2006. Agreement: in defense of the “Spec head configuration”. in C. Boeckx (ed) agreement systems. John Benjamins For a version of this paper click here
· 2006 “When to pied-pipe and when to strand in San Dionicio Octotepec Zapotec” in Hans Broekhuis et al. Organizing Grammar Mouton de Gruyter. For a pre-published version click here.
· 2005 Malagasy Imperatives http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/faciliti/wpl/issues/wpl12/papers/Koopman_AFLA12.pdf
· 2005. “On the parallelism of DPs and clauses in Kisongo Maasai”. In Carnie, Andrew, Sheila Dooley, and Heidi Harley (2005) Verb First. John Benjamins Philadelphia:. For a version of this paper click here
· 2004. “Agreement-lite”. A short summary of judgment patterns of 17 speakers for plural agreement in English there-insertion constructions, depending on interveners. Click here
· 2003/2004. Korean and Japanese morphology from a syntactic perspective: a reply to Sells. appeared in LI (2005). For a 2004 version, click here
· Inside the Noun in Maasai, in Anoop Mahajan (ed) Syntax at Sunset 3, http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/faciliti/wpl/issues/wpl10.htm To download the pdf file, click here
· 2002. Derivations and complexity filters. To download an earlier version, click here
· 1997. published in 2000. I spend quite a lot of time working on mapping out the structure of PPs. Here is one version pp.pdf.
· 1995 A precursor to verbal complexes: There is a 1995 Dutch version (Tabu), and here is an English version that appeared in Syntax at Sunset: squib.pdf
· 1997 This paper was supposed to appear in a volume that never materialized. It is an attempt to apply the doubly filled filter and the principle of projection activation to historical data from English. I would love to have feedback on this paper. digs.pdf
· 1997 This paper deals with predicate cleft in Vata and Nweh. (click here) An idea about how to approach language variation in an antisymmetric framework where everything moves overtly, pied-piping is the norm, and underlying hierarchies are universal.
· 1996 The Spec Head configuration. Also published in Koopman (2000)For a version click here
Selected Handouts
- Vienna (Samoan) powerpoint, pdf (slides)
- Venice 2006
- Sienna 2006
- Tilburg Henk van Rieksdijk fest
- Venice PPs workshop
- Glow Asia
- Remnant movement conference, october 2003. On The form of Mirror Principle Violations.
- Castl conference, Tromsoe, october 2003. How to construe the parallellism between DPs and clauses. For a copy of the slides click here . This handout compares a traditional head movement account with a relative clause account for the Maasai DP. The latter
- Digs IV (keynote speaker), digs.pdf Montréal 1995. Antisymmetry and historical change.
- Jena. May 1997. jena.pdf (key-note speaker) Heavy pied-piping.
- Cortona May 2000. On subject wh-extraction and partial wh-movement as remnant CP Movement cortana.pdf
- Irvine: pied-piping and subject extraction. Irvine.pdf
- VSO conference (Tucson, feb 2003). For a copy of the slides of the talk click here. For a copy of background information on Maasai click here.
Books:
- 1984 The Syntax of Verbs: from Verb Movement rules in the Kru Languages to Universal Grammar, Foris Publications. (out of print)
- 2000 The Syntax of Specifiers and Heads. Leading Linguist Series. Routledge. For ordering information click here
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2000, with Anna
Szabolcsi Verbal complexes . Current series in Linguistic
Theory. MIT Press. |
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Edited books:
- 1983. Current Approaches to African Linguistics, with J. Kaye, D. Sportiche and A.Dugas (eds), Foris Publications, Dordrecht.
Textbooks:
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Coauthor of V. Fromkin (2000)
Linguistics. |
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- with Dominique Sportiche and Ed Stabler Introduction to Syntactic analysis and theory (isat). http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/sportich/papers/isat.pdf
Other Links
Fieldwork related material and publications.
Under constructon
Nawdem (Gur):
The classdata and data from individual sessions have been
entered into a database. Dan Albro turned this into a searchable database that
can be accessed at http://kallpa.ling.ucla.edu/nawdem/
See Dan Albro's webpage for a squib on the DP in Nawdem http://www.linguistics.ucla.edu/people/grads/albro/squib1.pdf
Other papers soon to be added..
Material related to Maasai
(under construction)
- For datafiles from the 1999-2000 fieldmethods class, click here for data from the first quarter, and here for data from the second quarter.
- For information about the tones of approximately 500 nouns (singular/plural/nominative/accusative), and some raw statistics click here
- For a squib about what we can learn about Maasai tonology from Swahili borrowings, click here
- Maasai “past tensed” forms and imperatives are homophonous. For a short squib on what Maasai imperatives and “past tensed” forms could possibly have in common click here
Malagasy
Ask Kie Zuraw or myself for datafiles;
Javanese
[add links to Katie Tang, Tomoko Ishizukka, and a handout on voices and causatives]
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Intro to Linguistic Theory (Ling 20)
- Syntax I (120B)
- Syntax II (165b)
- Survey of African Languages.
- Undergraduate Field Methods
Graduate
- Syntax 1 (2 and 3)
- Field methods 1 and 2
- Research Seminars
Lot
2002 (Leiden)
Cluj 2004 (Egg summerschool)
Ealing 2005, 2006, 2007
2009 Upcoming teaching at the
African linguistics school
(for details http://als.rutgers.edu/)
African Linguistics School
Application Deadline: April 15, 2009
The School: During the summer of 2009, there will be a two week school that focuses on the study of African languages and linguistic theory. One of the biggest challenges most African countries face is the maintenance and management of linguistic diversity. In order to meet these challenges, it is necessary to have access to advanced linguistic tools. This school aims at offering African students the possibility of becoming familiar with new advances in linguistic description and theory. The school will be held in Accra, Ghana and will center around four major linguistic domains: Syntax, Phonology, Semantics, and Language Contact.
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