Professor Kersti Börjars
Professor of Linguistics
Address: Room N1.11, Samuel Alexander Building
Phone: +44 (0)161 275 3042
Email: k.borjars@manchester.ac.uk
Research specialisation
I am interested in the areas of syntax and morphology, including general theoretical issues, as well as issues relating to particular languages. I also work on language change, in particular on grammaticalisation. My research has focused on Germanic languages, in particular the Scandinavian ones and Pennsylvania German, but a number of my publications have a wider comparative aim. I have worked on noun phrases, complementation and word order and the role of information structure. Within morphology I have published on phenomena such as suppletion and periphrasis the role of features and on morpho-syntactic categories like 'affix' and 'clitic'. As part of this, I have also worked more generally on the role of morphology in theories of syntax. With respect to language change, I have considered the development of functional markers such as complementisers or definiteness markers. I have also argued against recent claims in the literature that examples of 'degrammaticalisation' can be found in Germanic languages.
Outside the University I am the President of The Linguistics Association of Great Britain.
I am also a member of the RAE 2008 Panel for Linguistics.
Jointly with David Denison I hold an AHRC grant to investigate the 'Germanic possessive -s: an empirical, historical and theoretical study'
I have run an ESRC funded project on Pennsylvania German as spoken in Waterloo County: 'Modelling syntactic change in Pennsylvania German'.
Publications
Click the highlighted link to view a list of selected publications.
Professional biography
I did an undergraduate degree in English Language and Literature (Doctorandus) at the University of Leiden, The Netherlands and then went on to do an M.A. in Linguistics at the University of Manchester. Before starting my degree in Leiden, I had studied for two years in Uppsala, Sweden and thanks to the modular system in operation in Sweden, I was able to complete a degree (Filosofie Kandidat) there by topping it up with three semesters of Dutch. In 1994, I completed my Ph.D. thesis on 'Feature distribution in Swedish noun phrases', which has since been published by Blackwell. For four years I worked for the Subordination and Complementation group of EUROTYP, a large European typological project. Since then I have been a full member of staff in the Department.
I am currently on sabbatical and from January 2009, I will be Head of School.
Teaching Areas
Since I am on sabbatical, I don't do any teaching at the moment.
Recent and present research students:
Pauline Harries
The history and current distribution of the genitive in Insular Scandinavian
Pauline investigates the expression of possession in Faroese, including the development of the sa-possessive. As part of this project, she is also aiming to provide an analysis of Faroese noun phrases more generally within Lexical-Functional Grammar.
Sophie Guile (within AHRC funded project on the Germanic possessive)
English possessive constructions in the 18th century: precept and usage.
This thesis examines the choice of possessive constructions in a range of 18th century English texts, and considers the extent to which this distribution correlates with the nature and extent of contemporary grammatical thought regarding the prepositional 'of', pronominal 'his' and s-possessive constructions.
Peter Andersson (University of Göteborg)
The Swedish verb må: (de)grammaticalisation and modality
The Swedish verb må has figured in the literature as an example of degrammaticalisation, but without any detailed study of the historical data accompanying it. As part of this thesis a detailed study of all instances of the verb in the early preserved sources is carried out. The aim is to be able to sketch the development in order to ascertain whether it is indeed an example of degrammaticalisation. The early indications are that it is not. A sample of more modern texts will also be studied in order to understand more recent changes.
Aveah Nsoh (the University of Manchester/the University of Ghana)
Lexical-functional syntax of the adjective: a morpho-syntactic study of the Farefare language (Northern Ghana)
Typological and language specific criteria for establishing the category of adjective are applied to establish a set of prototypical adjectives and to delineate this category from other categories. An account for the behaviour of adjectives, and the noun phrase more generally, will be provided within Lexical Functional Grammar.
Oliver Bond
Aspects of Eleme verbal morpho-syntax
The Eleme (Ogonoid, Benue-Congo) language of the Niger Delta exhibits a range of morphosyntactic phenomena which are both typologically unusual and structurally diverse. This descriptive investigation into the verbal morpho-syntax of the language discusses fieldwork data from a functional-typological perspective. Particular attention is paid to the domains of verbal negation and participant reference, including applicative morphology and bound logophoric pronouns.
Rob O'Connor
Information structure in Lexical-Functional Grammar: the discourse-prosody correspondence in English and Serbo-Croatian
This thesis concerns the relation between discourse (or information) structure and prosody in English and Serbo-Croatian. A formal approach to the mapping between the two dimensions is developed within Lexical Functional Grammar.
Katrin Hiietam
Definiteness and grammatical relations in Estonian
The thesis explores how typologically based criteria for grammatical relations such as subject and object can be applied to criteria and how marking for (in)definiteness interacts with different ways of marking grammatical relations.