Team
Prof. Dr. Aria Adli
Aria Adli specializes on grammatical variation. He tries to explain why certain grammatical forms (such as word order or pronouns) are preferred or used more frequently than others by speakers. He does so by taking into account language-internal as well as language-external factors. With regard to language-internal factors, he works on the syntax of a sentence in its speech context and on information structure. With regard to language-external factors, his research focuses on the role of social stratification, lifestyle according to Bourdieu, and register. His approach builds on language comparison (with emphasis on French, Spanish, Catalan, and Persian) and on cross-cultural analysis. His empirical methods include field work, corpus analysis, acceptability judgments, statistics, and computer simulations.
Mail: aria.adli
uni-koeln.de
Eric Engel
My research interests lie in the relation between variation and grammar. Focussing on phenomena at the syntax-semantics interface, I investigate the influence of discourse and speaker-related variables on the structure of utterances in spontaneous speech. This work is integrated in the larger question of how such influences can be in accordance with a representation of grammar as a rule system.
Mail: eric.engeluni-koeln.de
Amalia Canes Nápoles
I work in the syntax-semantics-pragmatics interface, which addresses (from various vantage points) questions of how communication works in context. My current work focuses on the discourse structuring and information packaging factors that condition the choice of certain discourse markers, and seek to provide clues to our understanding of the syntax-to-discourse relation. I have worked on topics such as reported speech, polysemy of functional words and disambiguation through statistical methods.
Mail: amalia.canesnapolesuni-koeln.de
Zahra Farokhnezhad
I am interested in syntactic variation and its interaction with social constraints. I try to investigate how the combination of different linguistic constraints and social factors lead speakers to chose among different choices in their speech. My current work is focused on studying register-related variations. I study post-verbal constituents to clarify their range of variation and to see how these variations are related to register. I also look into the language contact between minority and majority languages to understand how the speakers of the minority language I study are influenced by the dominant language of the country and how these influences are represented in different registers.
Mail: zfarohkn@uni-koeln.de