KU Linguistics
@kansaslinguistics.bsky.social
The official account of the Linguistics Department at the University of Kansas. ɹɑk̚ ʧʰɔk̚ ʤeɪhɔk̚ <!> https://linguistics.ku.edu/
The abstract is available here:
![While non-finite null subjects (PRO) occur in both controlled complement and adjunct clauses, a longstanding generalization regarding differences in its possible antecedent, or "controller," has been established in the previous literature. Unlike complement control structures which can be interpreted as, or controlled by, a matrix subject or object, adjunct control clauses have been observed as only being controlled by the matrix subject (e.g., Hornstein 1999, Landau 2013). However, my research finds that Spanish displays an unexpected pattern: when an object is realized as a preverbal pronominal clitic, object control into temporal adjuncts is attested in several varieties of Spanish (VanDyne 2023, 2024). The goal of this talk is to examine the range of these empirical patterns, drawn from both grammaticality judgments and corpus data, and to explore their theoretical implications not only for the previous work on adjunct control, but also for discussions concerning the size and position of Spanish moved objects. I situate these patterns within three minimalist approaches to adjunct control. First, I show that Landau's (2015, 2021) theory of control as predication is able to accommodate these clitic control patterns. I further argue that within this framework, the adjunct control data also provide a diagnostic for the precise phase edge position of Spanish clitics, as compared to other moved objects, revealing a broader correlation between the size of a moved item and its specifier position. The second approach I examine is the theory of control as movement (e.g., Hornstein 1999, 2001). This theory relies on the economy principle of Merge-Over-Move to exclude in-situ object control, which I argue is incompatible with concurrently allowing for the possibility of control by an object clitic. Finally, I examine a more recent approach to control via the operation Form Copy (e.g., Chomsky 2021, Chomsky et al. 2023). [Alt text truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:3n6ziztviwk4kl2dukpntitl/bafkreicczghx62tkcmaumkm35cnzfyv7tmkdt72oqewydpxztef5tcjsnu@jpeg)
October 22, 2025 at 2:45 PM
The abstract is available here:
They presented two talks: "Polar question prosody in Dzə: A first look" (Peace Benson, Phil Duncan), and "Social meaning of Kinyarwanda morphosyntactic variation" (Adam An).
October 20, 2025 at 8:02 PM
They presented two talks: "Polar question prosody in Dzə: A first look" (Peace Benson, Phil Duncan), and "Social meaning of Kinyarwanda morphosyntactic variation" (Adam An).
Please join us in Stauffer-Flint Hall room 100, or contact linguistics@ku.edu for a Zoom link.
October 1, 2025 at 2:54 PM
Please join us in Stauffer-Flint Hall room 100, or contact linguistics@ku.edu for a Zoom link.
While there, he also ran into Prof. Joan Sereno, who is currently heading the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the National Science Foundation 🌻
September 16, 2025 at 5:02 AM
While there, he also ran into Prof. Joan Sereno, who is currently heading the Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences at the National Science Foundation 🌻
As for next steps, Dr. Nobuki will be moving soon to begin a new position at Bates College! We wish her all the best 🎉🌻
July 17, 2025 at 9:21 PM
As for next steps, Dr. Nobuki will be moving soon to begin a new position at Bates College! We wish her all the best 🎉🌻
A big thanks as well to her other committee members: Profs. Rob Fiorentino, Steve Politzer-Ahles, Alison Gabriele, and (not pictured) Margarethe McDonald from KU SPLH.
July 17, 2025 at 9:21 PM
A big thanks as well to her other committee members: Profs. Rob Fiorentino, Steve Politzer-Ahles, Alison Gabriele, and (not pictured) Margarethe McDonald from KU SPLH.
In this episode, he discusses his recent paper, ‘Can the mismatch negativity really be elicited by abstract linguistic contrasts?’, co-authored with Dr. Bernard Jap of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This paper was recently published as a Registered Report in Neurobiology of Language.
May 17, 2025 at 4:26 AM
In this episode, he discusses his recent paper, ‘Can the mismatch negativity really be elicited by abstract linguistic contrasts?’, co-authored with Dr. Bernard Jap of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This paper was recently published as a Registered Report in Neurobiology of Language.