Projects
The relation between positive and negative affect in depression KU Leuven
How positive and negative feelings are interrelated in everyday emotional experience is a question that has intrigued affective scientists for decades. Can we experience levels of positive affect (PA) irrespective of the experienced level of negative affect (NA; i.e., affective independence), or do these emotional states represent the mutually exclusive ends of a single bipolar continuum (i.e., affective bipolarity)? The overarching premise ...
Continuity or change? The post-cyclic development of preverbal negation in Continental West Germanic Ghent University
The proposed doctoral research project traces and accounts for instances of ‘post-cyclic’ stage I of Jespersen’s Cycle in the Continental West Germanic languages (single preverbal negation in languages which have otherwise already developed bipartite or single postverbal negation). This way, the project makes an important contribution to the only incipient research on linguistic continuity, i.e., the absence of expected language.
Non-deterministic semantics as a tool for modeling negation and modality. Ghent University
My research proposal provides a new perspective on the question of whether negation is a modality. According to one of the most popular approaches by Berto, negation is a particular kind of modality. He developed a formal framework based on possible worlds semantics. The first objective of this project is to use instead non-deterministic semantics and to develop an alternative framework that incorporates both negation and modality. To do so, ...
Onset and (De)Grammaticalization of Genitive of Negation in Germanic: A Historical and Typological Analysis Ghent University
The proposed project aims to determine the origins and diachronic development of “genitive of negation” (GenNeg) in Germanic, and to evaluate its relationship with GenNeg as found in Balto-Slavic and Balto-Finnic languages from a historical, and typological viewpoint. GenNeg is a morphosyntactic phenomenon whereby the argument (subject/direct object) of a verb is assigned the genitive/partitive case under negation. This phenomenon is ...
Explaining the dominance of postverbal negation in South American indigenous languages. University of Antwerp
Institutional translation in the British Legation in China (1861-1911) KU Leuven
This project aims to study the translation of the British Legation in China from 1861 to 1911. Established in Beijing in 1861 when China was forced to open to the outside world, the British Legation was the formal diplomatic mission representing the British Empire in its intercourse with the Qing dynasty. Traditionally, it has been treated as a diplomatic and political body in the studies of political and diplomatic history, and international ...
Diplomatic Encounters : A Cultural History of the Belgian Legation in Ottoman Istanbul (1865-1909). University of Antwerp
Holding on to negative self-thoughts at all cost: Modeling and examining negative self-referent thinking as a key vulnerability process in depression KU Leuven
Depressed people and those vulnerable to depression often think negatively about themselves (e.g., “I'm a failure.” “Why can’t I be happy?”); Positive self-thoughts, on the other hand, are rare. It should not come as a surprise that research shows that this imbalance is causal to (new) bouts of depression. But where does this imbalance come from, and why does it persist? At first, negative thinking may have some immediate perceived benefits ...