I am a specialist in theoretical syntax, which means that I study how words are joined together to form sentences in particular languages, with an eye towards creating a model of how this works in human language in general. I have worked especially on Spanish, English and Chinese, dealing with issues such as the syntactic representation of argument structure, the interplay between wh-movement and the subject position, and the formal representation of phrase structure.

Current research projects:

        ■      Wh-movement and inversion phenomena

        ■      Processing effects in syntax

        ■      Experimental methods for studying syntax

Downloadable papers:

        ■     Syntactic satiation and the inversion effect in English and Spanish wh-questions (draft)

        ■     Inversion in wh-questions in child Romance and child English (Proceedings of LSRL 36, 2006)

        ■     The limits of syntax in inversion (Proceedings of CLS 41, 2005)

        ■     On the syntax and processing of Spanish wh-questions  (Proceedings of WCCFL 23, 2004)

        ■     Contraction (in The Syntax Companion, Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.). Blackwell, Oxford. In press.)

        ■     From the archives: SPEC of IP and SPEC of CP in Spanish wh-questions (Proceedings of LSRL 1991)

Downloadable presentations:

        ■     Experimenting with wh-movement in Spanish (Presented at LSRL 38, University of Illinois, April 2008)