Projects
How extension works: Determinants of the extension of grammatical and lexical items in English and Dutch. KU Leuven
Extension is the process whereby a linguistic item spreads to new lexical or grammatical environments. This research plan lays out a model of extension, explaining why an item can extend to a given environment at a given time. It formulates three interrelated hypotheses on the starting point, course and end point of extension. The hypotheses are tested on four corpus−based case studies covering different domains of grammar. The focus is on ...
What can language variation tell us about insubordination? A comparative analysis of independent complement clauses in geographical and stylistic varieties of Spanish. University of Antwerp
Preverbal indefinite subjects in spoken and written French KU Leuven
1. Background and status quaestionis
Informal (mostly spoken) (henceforth IF) and formal (typically written) French (henceforth FF) are quite different. Some authors even speak of a diglossic situation and argue in favor of the co-existence of two different grammars in French (e.g. Klein 2012; Rowlett 2013). This opposition between IF and FF is particularly evident with the expression of the subject of the clause. Whereas in FF all ...