About ComSyn
ComSyn started out as discussion group about Comparative Syntax at Leiden University Center for Linguistics (LUCL). It has since grown into a series of lectures about (Comparative) Syntax. Speakers from all over the world are welcome to present their work in an informal setting. ComSyn is the perfect place to present work in progress, do a dry run for a conference, or simply share a syntactic puzzle with fellow linguists. If you have any suggestions, please contact one of the organizers—Maarten Bogaards, Irina Morozova and Stéphane Térosier.
Upcoming talks
Spring/Summer 2024
29 Feb Malte Koot (LUCL) 14 Mar Kyle Jerro (University of Essex) 4 AprGert-Jan Schoenmakers
(POSTPONED)18 Apr Karen De Clercq
(CNRS/Université Paris Cité)2 May George Walkden
(Universität Konstanz)16 May Jens Fleischhauer
(Heinrich-Heine Universität
Düsseldorf)6 Jun Marcel den Dikken
(Eötvös Loránd University)13 Jun Stéphane Térosier (LUCL) 21 Jun Bridget Copley
(CNRS/Université Paris 8)8 Jul Yu-Yin Hsu (許又尹)
(Hong Kong Polytechnic)11 Jul Jesús Olguín Martinez
(Illinois State University)The first two talks are in Lipsius 1.28, the talk on 21 June is in Lipsius 1.31, all other talks are in Lipsius 1.33. All talks will be livestreamed on Zoom—please join our mailing list for the links.
Author Archives: Elisabeth Kerr
Thursday 12 March – Georg Höhn
Speaker: Georg Höhn (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) Title: Demonstratives with participant readings Date: Thursday 12 March Venue: Wijkplaats 2/005 Time: 15.15 – 16.30 hrs (drinks afterwards at Café de Keyser) Abstract here
Thursday 27 February – Loes Koring
Speaker: Loes Koring (Leiden) Title: Disjointness in Child Language Date: Thursday 27 February Venue: Wijkplaats 2/005 Time: 15.15 – 16.30 hrs (drinks afterwards at Café de Keyser) Abstract: A word like ‘somebody’ introduces a novel referent to the discourse. Adult speakers of English … Continue reading
Monday 16 December – Kyle Johnson
Speaker: Kyle Johnson (UMass) Title: Rehabilitating Reinhart and Reuland Date: Monday 16 December Venue: Lipsius 2.35 (!) Time: 15.15 – 17.00 hrs (drinks afterwards at Café de Keyser) Abstract: One of the several innovations to Reinhart and Reuland’s binding theory is the idea that reflexives … Continue reading
Thursday 21 November – Elisabeth Kerr
Speaker: Elisabeth Kerr (Leiden University) Title: Clefts in Tunen: A biclausal account Date: Thursday 21 November Venue: Lipsius 2.28 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs (drinks afterwards at Café de Keyser) Abstract here
Thursday 24th October – Allen Asiimwe & Jenneke van der Wal
Speaker: Allen Asiimwe (Makerere/Leiden) & Jenneke van der Wal (Leiden) Title: Rukiga augments are like Greek Date: Thursday 24 October Venue: Lipsius 2.28 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs (drinks afterwards at Café de Keyser) Abstract Rukiga, a Bantu language spoken in Uganda, has augments not just … Continue reading
Thursday 7 March – Gurmeet Kaur
Speaker: Gurmeet Kaur (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) Title: Not all imperatives have a Jussive head- Insights from allocutive imperatives Date: Thursday 7 March Venue: Van Eyckhof 2/006 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs Abstract: According to the syntactic-pragmatic approach to imperatives, all imperatives contain a dedicated … Continue reading
Thursday 21 February – Katharina Hartmann
Speaker: Katharina Hartmann (Goethe-Universität Frankfurt am Main) Title: The interpretation of syntactic focus variation Date: Thursday 21 February Venue: Van Eyckhof 2/006 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs Abstract: In many West-African languages, non-subject focus in questions and answers is expressed in two … Continue reading