Phil Branigan

In the Fall 2012 term, I am teaching Linguistics 4100/6100 and Linguistics 7001.

I've had the privilege of supervising some very fine graduate students, as the following list demonstrates.

• MA theses
  

  Li Li Ma. 1995. Duration and Frequency NPs and the Chinese Verb Phrase.

  Chantal Jourdaan. 1995. The structure of partitive NPs in French. (MPhil thesis paper.)

  Douglas Wharram. 1996. In the Event of an Event: a Minimalist Account of Subjects.

  Kenneth Matthews. 2000. The Syntax of Object Shift in Icelandic.

  Jane Bannister. 2004. A description of preverb and particle usage in Innu-aimûn narrative.

  Angelina Bursey. 2004. Acquisition of Wh-movement in L1 German.

  Will Oxford. 2007. Towards a Grammar of Particles in Innu-aimun.

  David Bowden. 2010. On Quirky Oblique Subjects and ECM Complementation in Icelandic.

• Ph.D theses
  

  Julie Brittain. 2000. The Distribution of the Conjunct Verb Form in Western Naskapi and Related Morpho-Syntactic Issues. (Dr.~M. MacKenzie was co-supervisor.)

  Ahmad Assiri. 2011. Arabic Adjectival Phrases: An Agree-Based Approach.

  Osama Omari. 2011. Grammatical Subjects of Jordanian Arabic: Syntactic and Discourse Functions.

Most of my active research falls into two broad categories: syntactic theory and Algonquian linguistics. They aren't mutually exclusive, but when I'm doing hard-core theory, as likely as not I'm looking into issues of A-bar movement in Germanic languages (including English). Much of my research in this area over the past few years is consolidated in Provocative Syntax. I'm continuing on with my investigations in this model of morphosyntax.

When I'm focused on Algonquian, I'm often investigating the factors which control word order and agreement in Innu-aimûn. Much of my work on Algonquian is done with my Memorial colleagues: Marguerite MacKenzie, Julie Brittain, and Carrie Dyck.

Together with Paul De Decker and Gerard Van Herk, I've recently started examining syntactic variation in Newfoundland English, in hopes of finding a way to integrate the generative modeling of syntactic derivations into a description of the non-linguistic forces which influence some aspects of speakers' language use.

I've also published work on the nature of ergativity (with Jonathan Bobaljik) and on quotative inversion (with Chris Collins).

Provocative Syntax. MIT Press. January 2011.

"Eccentric Agreement and Multiple Case-Checking." (Co-author, with Jonathan Bobaljik.) In Ergativity, edited by Alana Johns, Diane Massam and Juvenal Ndayiragije. Kluwer. 2006.

"Balancing Prosody and Syntax in the Algonquian Verb Complex." (Co-author, with Julie Brittain and Carrie Dyck.) Proceedings of the 36th Algonquian Conference. February 2005.

"Altruism, A-bar movement and object agreement in Innu-aimûn." (Co-author, with Marguerite Mackenzie.) Linguistic Inquiry 33.3, 2002.

"Binding Relations and the nature of pro in Innu-aimûn." Proceedings of NELS 29. (Co-author, with Marguerite Mackenzie). 2000.

"Binding effects and covert movement." Linguistic Inquiry 30.3, 2000.

"Quotative Inversion." (co-author, with Chris Collins), Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 15, 1997.

"Verb-second and the A-bar syntax of subjects." Studia Linguistica 50.1, p. 50-79. 1996.