Luís López (Ph.D., Cornell
University) Last update: May 2008
Professor of Hispanic Linguistics
luislope@uic.edu
Current areas of interest: Syntactic theory and comparative syntax. Interfaces of syntax with phonology and information structure. The linguistic ideologies of linguists.
My main interest is the study of the syntactic structure of natural language and how a structure is interpreted. My approach is mostly comparative/contrastive and is inserted within a theoretical framework loosely labeled "transformational-generative". I am particularly intrigued by the set of hypotheses that constitute the Minimalist Program and, within this framework, I have sought to make my contribution to our understanding of how syntactic dependencies are set up and how syntactic configurations affect interpretation.
I am currently concerned with two main areas of research. The first area is information structure: roughly, how the structure of sentences reflects and adjusts to the information contained in the previous discourse. For instance, the sentences 'beans, I like' and "I like beans' convey the same meaning, in the sense that they refer to the same state of affairs, their difference lying in the fact that fronting 'beans' reflects an anaphoric connection with a previously mentioned entity. I have a manuscript titled "A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure" in which I try to develop a theory of how syntax goes about discourse-appropriate sentences using data mostly from the Romance languages. This manuscript is scheduled to appear within the Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics series in December 2008. I am currently working on a second manuscript that discusses architectural issues in more detail.
As an of-shoot of my interest in information structure, I became more preoccupied with the issue of PF linearization of syntactic constituents. In the manuscript "Ranking the LCA" I argue that c-command plays a role in the linear ordering of constituents, as Richard Kayne originally argued, but prosodic principles that seek to maintain the integrity of prosodic constituents may overrule the LCA. This manuscript will appear in Linguistic Inquiry in Spring 2009.
My second area of research, carried out in collaboration with Kay González-Vilbazo, involves the syntax of code-switching. A manuscript in preparation discusses the properties of light verbs in code-switching and shows that these light verbs provide us with a wealth of data relevant for current theoretical issues concerning the nature of predicates and predication.
As a secondary line of work, I have been interested in how language ideologies influence the work of linguists, in particular the narratives presented by historical linguists. The manuscript "The Origins of Spanish Revisited: Linguistic Science, Language Ideology and Nationalism in Contemporary Spain" is about to appeared in the Bulletin of Spanish Studies. A paper on how contemporary Spanish film reflects language ideologies is in the works.
Another focus of my research has been the morphosyntax of agreement and case systems and the dependencies generated by these, looking for the common ingredients of apparent diversity. I have been interested in this topic since my already remote years in graduate school and it has led me to study the grammatical systems of languages as typologically diverse as Eskimo, Basque or Icelandic. For the time being, this line of research is closed, the results presented in Locality and the Architecture of Syntactic Dependencies. This book develops a crash-proof derivational theory as well as detailed and contrastive analyses of quirky subjects, expletive constructions and other phenomena.
For my graduate and post-graduate work I wrote about ellipsis in natural language. For example, when an English speaker says "I have not', she is leaving out a lot of information which is, nonetheless, readily and unconsciously filled in by her interlocutors without apparent effort. I am fascinated by the mental processes that allow human beings to do things like this with language. Secondly, I am fascinated by the language variation one encounters. For instance, a word by word translation of "I have not" would be ungrammatical in Spanish or Basque; instead, in these languages one can say "I not", which is impossible in English. More interestingly, this variation can be studied systematically and ultimately can be accounted for using linguistic principles of universal validity, In my thesis I was able to present detailed analyses of Spanish and English showing how this framework of assumptions can be put to work in the area of ellipsis.
Since generative-transformational grammar kicked off, some 50 years ago, we have learned a lot about natural language and our theory has grown unexpectedly deeper. However, we are barely beginning. The future promises to be exciting.
Complete list of publications, all of them available upon request
Forthcoming:
A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure. Book manuscript. To appear in Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics, Oxford University Press. Publication expected Fall 2008.
“Ranking the LCA”. Article manuscript. To appear in Linguistic Inquiry.
"Zur Analyse der Rechtsversetzung im Romanischen". Book chapter. To appear in Natascha Pomino and Eva Remberger (eds) Romanische Syntax - Minimalistisch. Tübingen: Narr. Publication expected Spring 2008
Books:
2007 Locality and the Architecture of Syntactic Dependencies.
London: Palgrave-MacMillan.
http://www.palgrave.com/newsearch/Catalogue.aspx?is=0230507727
2004 Language Knowledge and Language Use: Selected Papers from LSRL XXXI.
Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Edited volume with Rafael Núñez-Cedeño and Richard Cameron.
Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters:
2008 “The [person] restriction: why and why not”. In Agreement Restrictions, edited by Roberta D’Alessandro, Gunnar Hrafbjargarsson and Susann
Fischer. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp 129-157.
2007 “The Origins of Spanish Revisited: Linguistic Science, Language Ideology and Nationalism in Contemporary Spain” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 84, 3:
287-313.
2003 “Steps for a Well-Adjusted Dislocation” Studia Linguistica 57.3: 193-231.
2003 “Variation at the Syntax-Semantics Interface: Evidence from Gapping” With Susanne Winkler. In Kerstin Schwabe and Susanne Winkler (eds) The Interfaces: Deriving and Interpreting Omitted Structures. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, Linguistik Aktuell 61, pp 227-248.
2002 “On Agreement: Locality and Feature Valuation” In Artemis Alexiadou (ed) Formal Approaches to Universals. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, Linguistik Aktuell 49, pp 165-209.
2001 "On the (non)Complementarity of Theta Theory and Checking Theory", Linguistic Inquiry 32.4: 694-716.
2001 “Head of a projection”. Linguistic Inquiry 32.3: 521-532.
2001 “The causee and the theory of bare phrase structure”. In Javier Gutierrez-Rexach and Luis Silva-Villar (eds) Current Issues in Spanish Syntax and Semantics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, Studies in Generative Grammar 53, pp 221-241.
2000 "Focus and Topic in VP-anaphora Constructions" With Susanne Winkler, University of Tübingen. Linguistics 38-4: 623-664.
2000 "Verb Phrase Ellipsis and Discourse-Linking". Lingua 110:183-213
1999 "Verb Phrase Ellipsis in English and Spanish and the Features of Auxiliaries" Probus 11.2: 263-297.
1997 "Theories of VP-Structure and the Typology of Structural Case"
With Jennifer Austin, Cornell University. Linguistic Analysis 27:186-219
1994 "The Internal Structure of Absolute Small Clauses" Catalan Working Papers in Linguistics 4.1: 45-92.
Other Publications:
2003 “Complex Dependencies: the Person-Number Constraint in Icelandic” Working Papers in Scandinavian Syntax 72: 55-90.
2002 “Toward a Grammar without TopP or FocP” In A. Meinunger, P. Portner and R. Zanuttini (eds) Proceedings of the ZAS/Georgetown Workshop on the Syntax and Semantics of the C-Domain. Georgetown Working Papers in Theoretical Linguistics, pp 181-209.
2001 Spanish Entry in Encyclopedia of the World's Languages edited by Jane Garry. Holt. New Haven, Connecticut.
1999 "The Syntax of Contrastive Focus: Evidence from VP-Ellipsis" Advances in Hispanic Linguistics. Proceedings of the 2nd Symposium on Hispanic .
Linguistics. Somerville, Mass: Cascadilla Press. pp 412-427
1998 "The Causee in Causative Constructions" Proceedings of 1st Symposium on Hispanic Linguistics, published by Ohio State University. pp 62-78.
1995 "Nominative, Absolutive and Dative Languages" With Jennifer Austin, Cornell University. Proceedings of the North Eastern Linguistic Society (NELS) XXV:1-16 GLSA, published by the Linguistics Department, University of Massachussets.
1995 "The Hierarchy of Negation and Tense: The Case of English" Proceedings of the Eastern States Conference on Linguistics (ESCOL) X:186-197, . published by Cornell University.
1995 "Guess so" Proceedings of the Student Conference in Linguistics (SCIL) VI:207-226, published by MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.
1994 "The Hierarchy of Negation and Tense in English" Cornell Working Papers in Linguistics 12:72-93.
1994 "The Syntactic Licensing of Verb Phrase Ellipsis: a Comparative Study of Spanish and English" In M.Mazzola (ed) Issues and Theory in Romance
Last update: May 2008