Projects
Functional and Cognitive Linguistics (grammar and typology). University of Antwerp
Sabbatical Jean-Christophe Verstraete: Paman languages of Princess Charlotte Bay (northeastern Australia): typology and diachrony KU Leuven
The planned research focuses on the study of Paman (< Pama-Nyungan) languages from Princess Charlotte Bay in north-eastern Australia, from a typological and historical-comparative perspective. In the past five years I have made a number of breakthroughs in the historical-comparative study of these languages, including new evidence for genetic subgrouping (Verstraete 2018a) and a new model for the evolution of phonotactic structure ...
A semantic typology of present-tense constructions. University of Antwerp
Counterfactuals in the History of Greek: An Enriched Diachronic Typology using a Context-Sensitive Evolutionary Model. Ghent University
This project analyses counterfactual constructions in the history of Ancient Greek (from 750BCE to 100CE). These counterfactuals are largely unstudied and more diverse in types than analysed before in linguistics. Previous research has yielded premature generalizations on the nature and evolution of counterfactuals. Therefore I will develop a quantifiable context-sensitive evolutionary model to provide an enriched diachronic typology of ...
Towards a typology of clausal prolepsis KU Leuven
A typology of the passive voice in Bantu Ghent University
Whether you say in English ‘the policeman caught the thief’ or ‘the thief was caught by the policeman’, you convey the same message. However, the way you pack this message differs with regard to the importance given to the active participant. In the first sentence, the policeman is the clause subject and he plays an active role in the process denoted by the event. In the second sentence, the thief, who undergoes the action, is raised to the ...
A historical and typological linguistic study of Bantu influence in Malagasy. KU Leuven
The interaction between information structure, syntax and semantics: a comparative linguistic and interdisciplinary analysis. KU Leuven
One of the major functions of language is to convey information between speakers and hearers. Speakers have several linguistic means at their disposal to structure the information they want to communicate, e.g. active (Nous avons pris la décision) vs passive sentences (La décision a été prise) refer to the same referential content but the way in which the information is structured differs. Information Structure (IS) is a basic ingredient of ...
Verbal periphrases in Greek: a typological and diachronic research from cognitive- linguistic perspective Ghent University
This project researches the use of verbal periphrases in postclassical Greek, based on a corpus of early Christian biographical (narrative) texts. The project is embedded in the theory known under the umbrella term " Cognitive Linguistics". The main objectives are: (1) definition and typology (2) description of the position in the verbal system (3) description of the use in context (pragmatics),