Projects
Functional and structural characterisation of the gamma secretase complex. KU Leuven
From Grammatical to Didactic Modelization: A Comparative Analysis of Early Romance Grammaticography (up to 1600) (French, Occitan, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese) KU Leuven
My research concerns the historiography of grammar as the descriptive 'hard core' (Swiggers 2012) of the history of linguistics, more specifically the earliest grammatical descriptions of the Romance languages. The time span chosen (13th century-1600), corresponding to the foundation of the vernacular traditions, provides us with a primary corpus of some 50 titles, representing 5 language areas (viz., Occitan, French, Italian, ...
The dynamics of correlated multiple grammatical changes in Early Modern English writers (MindBendingGrammars). University of Antwerp
A comprehensive cognitive-functional account of grammaticalised secondary CTP-clauses in English KU Leuven
The aim of this PhD project is to develop a new and comprehensive account of grammaticalised secondary complement-taking-predicate clauses (henceforth CTP-clauses) as in I am sure/I think/there's no way he has left. Secondary CTP-clauses have not yet been described as a full grammatical system offering complex meaning options to language users. Therefore what is lacking, and what the proposed PhD will provide, is an account of secondary ...
De koppelwerkwoorden ser en estar in het licht van recente taalkundige benaderingen en van het onderzoek in tweede-taalonderwijs The copulas ser and estar in the light of recent linguistic approaches and the research in second language teaching KU Leuven
Las cópulas ser y estar a la luz de enfoques lingüÃsticos recientes y de la investigación en la enseñanza de segundas lenguas
The copulas ser and estar in the light of recent linguistic approaches and the research in second language teaching
Key words: Spanish, copulas, adjectival predicates, evidentiality, grammar teaching
The copulas ser and ...
To do or not to do? A corpus-based study of cognitive economizing in grammatical change across the lifespan. University of Antwerp
Syndetic and asyndetic complementation in Spanish. A diachronic probabilistic account KU Leuven
My dissertation focuses on the alternation between syndetic and asyndetic finite complement clauses in Spanish. Syndetic complements, introduced by an explicit complementizer que ‘that’, as in (1a), are the most frequent patterns of complementation in Present‑day Spanish. Alternatively, a complement clause can also be introduced asyndetically, i.e. without the complementizer que, as shown in (1b), where the absence of the complementizer is ...
English phrases, French verbs: The interaction between loan word accommodation and grammatical change in Middle English KU Leuven
French heavily influenced the English lexicon, mainly during the Middle English period (1100-1500). However, it does not seem to have affected the grammar of English. This is because in Middle English society French functioned as a high-prestige but essentially second language. In such situations, transfer tends to mainly involve lexical borrowing. However, the effects of contact may go beyond direct transfer. Loan words need to be ...