Focus of current research and publications

"Interface" between syntax, semantics, and pragmatics

My main research revolves around the relationship between syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and the structure of the lexicon, which I approach from a contrastive perspective (English/German). The theoretical frameworks I work with are primarily Construction Grammar and Frame Semantics with a strong bias towards corpus-based research methods. Most recently, I have worked on Argument Structure Constructions such as Resultative Constructions, Passive Constructions, and the Locative Alternation, among others (see my list of publications). Together with members of the FrameNet team, I am currently investigating how the FrameNet-methodology can be applied for constructional annotation. My current book project in his area investigates different ways of defining verb classes using frame-semantic principles. The goal is to develop a model that is capable of identifying syntactically relevant units of meaning that can be used to predict a verb's range of conventionalized and non-conventionalized argument realization patterns. At the moment I am also editing two theme volumes on Construction Grammar, one entitled "Contrastive Construction Grammars," the other "Sign-based Construction Grammar."

Design and structure of multilingual lexical databases

My secondary research focus is concerned with implementing FrameNet principles in the design of corpus-based lexical databases for languages other than English. This research interest grew out of my postdoctoral fellowship with FrameNet at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley (funded by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service)) As a first step, I have looked into the feasibility of adopting this approach for German by working on the design of lexical entries for German motion and communication verbs. Currently, I am working on the linguistic design of the German FrameNet database as well as a corresponding multilingual representation language that will be useful for information retrieval, text summarization, machine translation, and foreign language education. Together with colleagues from Japan, Germany, Spain, and France I am developing a system of semantic frames that will allow for inter-language transfer of morpho-syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic information.The first set of results of that research are presented in my edited volume "Multilingual FrameNets in Computational Lexicography: Methods and Applications" (Mouton de Gruyter , 2009).

Language Contact and Language Death / Documentary Linguistics

In September 2001, I founded the Texas German Dialect Project (TGDP) in order to record, archive, and analyze the remnants of Texas German. This endangered dialect will become extinct within the next 25-30 years. To date, I have interviewed more than 280 speakers of Texas German. The recordings, together with their transcriptions and translations, are stored in the web-based multi-media Texas German Dialect Archive after being processed by a web-based set of tools I developed between 2002-2005. My research on Texas German has been honored with a one-year fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as the Hugo-Moser Prize for Germanic Linguistics from the Institut für Deutsche Sprache ("Institute for the German Language") in Mannheim (Germany). For the 2009 TGDP-newsletter, click here. My latest book The Life and Death of Texas German was published with Duke University Press in March 2009. My next book project in this area is a frame-semantic analysis of discourse markers in Texas German. Based on a corpus of more than 300,000 words, this project aims to identify the specific semantic and pragmatic factors that determine the contexts in which English-based discourse markers get borrowed into Texas German and German-origin discourse markers are retained in Texas German.

Morpho-phonology

In recent work I analyzed the phonological and morphological constraints governing wanna-contraction in English. The Construction Grammar analysis I provide illustrates how morpho-syntactic phenomena interact with phonological and semantic restrictions. Working within the framework of Optimality Theory, I also examined a variety of diminutive patterns in Yiddish. I proposed a unified analysis that accounts for the phonological constraints on Yiddish diminutive formation including d-epenthesis.

Tense-Mood-Aspect Markers in Seychellois Creole

As part of my work on the architecture of Construction Grammar, I am investigating the system of Tense, Mood, and Aspect Markers in Seychellois Creole. At the moment, I am working on developing a model that recognizes each marker as an individual construction with syntactic as well as semantic constraints on the types of markers with which it may be unified. The analysis will eventually be expanded to cover other Creole languages

Language and Law

Based on my training in law and frame semantics I am currently working on discovering the principles that underlie the lexical organization of words in the semantic domain of crime in English and German legal texts. A second project investigates how the legal concept of separation of church and state is expressed in the constitutions of the United States and Germany and how it is interpreted differently in the two countries. Over the last four years, I have traced the linguistic, legal, and educational effects of the reform of German orthography that took place in 1998. In particular, I am investigating whether the educational advantages predicted by proponents of the controversial reform have materialized. In addition, I am in the process of determining the linguistic and cultural effects that the English-only laws passed during and after WW I had on Texas German.

For more information, please see publications and my C.V.