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 and Irina Morozova.
Upcoming talks
Fall/Winter 2024
12 Sept Jesús Olguín Martinez (Illinois) 19 Sept Gert-Jan Schoenmakers (UU) 10 OctThomas Grano (Indiana)17 Oct Fábio Bonfim Duarte
(Minais Gerais)31 Oct Jenneke van der Wal (LUCL) 21 Nov Richard S. Kayne (NYU) 5 Dec Thomas Grano (Indiana) ComSyn talks are on Thursdays from 16:15-17:30. All talks except for the last two are in Lipsius 0.01. The talk by Richard Kayne on 21 Nov is in Lipsius 1.33 and starts half an hour earlier (15:45-17:00). The talk by Thomas Grano on 5 Dec is in Lipsius 2.08. All talks are livestreamed on Zoom.
Category Archives: Linguistics
Thursday 9 February – Seid Tvica
Speaker: Seid Tvica (UvA) Title: The Rich Agreement Hypothesis beyond Indo-European Date: Thursday 9 February Venue: Lipsius 30 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs It is well-established in the literature that many Germanic and Romance languages differ in the placement of adverbs, appearing either before … Continue reading
Wednesday 14 December – Vera Gribanova
Speaker: Vera Gribanova (Stanford University) Title: On head movement and the verbal identity condition in ellipsis Date: Wednesday 14 December Venue: Matthias de Vrieshof 2/001 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs In this talk I present recent developments in our understanding of the mechanisms … Continue reading
Thursday 8 December – Metin Bağrıaçık
Speaker: Metin Bağrıaçık (Ghent University) Title: Relative Clauses in Asia Minor Greek Date: Thursday 8 December Venue: Matthias de Vrieshof 4/012 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs In this talk I will provide a synchronic and a diachronic account of the micro-variation in headed … Continue reading
Thursday 10 November – Lieven Danckaert
Speaker: Lieven Danckaert (CNRS/Université de Lille 3) Title: The syntax-prosody mapping in a dead language, the case of Late Latin BE-periphrases Date: Thursday 10 November Venue: Matthias de Vrieshof 4/012 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs In this talk I will be concerned with … Continue reading
Thursday 27 October – Olaf Koeneman
Speaker: Olaf Koeneman (Radboud University) Joint work with: Hedde Zeijlstra (University of Göttingen) Title: The Rich Agreement Hypothesis: a language universal? Date: Thursday 27 October Venue: Lipsius 235C Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs Abstract After its initial success, the hypothesis … Continue reading
Thursday 20 October – Sjef Barbiers
Speaker: Sjef Barbiers (Leiden University) Title: Restructuring Bridges Date: Thursday 20 October Venue: Van Eyckhof 2/005 Time: 15.15-16.30 hrs Abstract In the sentences in (1a,b) the MoodSpeechAct adverb eerlijk gezegd/honestly is surfacing in the embedded clause but must … Continue reading
Thursday 29 September – Probal Dasgupta
Speaker: Probal Dasgupta (Indian Statistical Institute) Title: Arbitrariness at the agreement-classifier boundary Date: Thursday 29 September Time: 15.15-16.30 Venue: Lipsius 235C Abstract: Classifiers may initially strike an agr[eement] language speaker as expressing Number plus obscure content. Once we put Gender in the picture, however, new … Continue reading
Thursday 15 September – Pavel Rudnev
Speaker: Pavel Rudnev (University of Groningen) Title: PPI-disjunctions in Russian Date: Thursday 15 September Time: 15.15-16.30 Venue: Lipsius 235C Abstract: We know since at least Szabolcsi (2002) that disjunction markers in certain languages display remarkable similarities with some in English, similarities attributable to both groups of … Continue reading
Comparative Syntax Meetings resume!
Our meeting resume after the summer break! We are happy to announce our preliminary schedule: 15-9 Pavel Rudnev 29-9 Probal Dasgupta 13-10 TBA 27-10 Olaf Koeneman 10-11 TBA 24-11 Alexandra Rehn (8-12) (TBA) 14-12 Vera Gribanova
Thursday 2 June – Jakub Dotlačil
Speaker: Jakub Dotlačil (University of Groningen) Title: Intermediate traces in mind Date: Thursday 2 June Time: 15.15-16.30 Venue: Eyckhof 2-003 Abstract: Since Chomsky (1973), it has been argued extensively in syntactic research that movement spanning two or more clauses proceeds in successive cycles. Furthermore, it … Continue reading