Syntax, Semantics & Formal Linguistics
Formal linguistics dissertation research — generative syntax (Minimalist Programme — Chomsky, Merge, Phase Theory, c-command, movement and traces/copies, EPP, Case Theory), syntactic trees and X-bar theory, cross-linguistic variation and Universal Grammar, semantics (compositional semantics, Frege/Montague — truth conditions, model-theoretic semantics, lambda calculus, quantifier scope, presupposition vs entailment, implicature), pragmatic-semantic interface (scalar implicature, neo-Gricean and relevance-theoretic approaches), lexical semantics (semantic fields, semantic roles — Fillmore frame semantics, Levin verb alternations), and cognitive linguistics (conceptual metaphor — Lakoff & Johnson, blending theory, construction grammar — Goldberg, prototype theory — Rosch).