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| Academically speaking, I'm a linguist in the Linguistics Department at the University of California San Diego. My main interest as a teacher and a researcher is the study of how different languages assemble words to form sentences (syntax) and how sentences can be used to convey meaning (semantics and pragmatics). If you like linguistic jargon, I'm a linguist who is interested in crosslinguistic formal semantics and its interfaces with formal pragmatics and formal syntax.
Wovon man nicht sprechen kann, darüber muß man schweigen.
'What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence.'
or 'Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent.'
- Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-philosophicus, Prop. 7 - |
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Richard Montague (1930-1971) |
I'm currently working on an intellectual and personal biography of Richard Montague (1930-1971), a brilliant philosopher and logician, who, among other achievements, fathered formal semantics of natural languages just a few years before he was murdered. I have been conducting archival researches and interviews since 2013. I have been awarded an APS Research Grant, an NEH Summer Stipend Award, an ACLS Fellowship and a CASBS Fellowship at Stanford University to work on this project. The biography is under contract with Oxford University Press. Some preliminary findings, including photos, video clips, and audio clips are available at the project web page. |
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Headless Relative Clauses
in Mesoamerican Languages |
 I've lead a project a project on the morpho-syntax and semantics of Headless Relative Clauses in Mesoamerican Languages together with Harold Torrence and Roberto Zavala Maldonado. The project is supported by grants from UC MEXUS-CONACYT, UC San Diego Social Sciences, and UCLA Academic Senate. A book by Oxford University Press with the results of our investigation was published in 2020 (Publisher's book webpage). Final drafts of Front Matter and Chapter 1, the introductory chapter I wrote, can be accessed freely on the book webpage within the project website, which also cointains detailed information about the project and video clips with interviews to each of the participants. |
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S-Babble
I co-organize Syntax and Semantics Babble (S-Babble), a weekly informal discussion group at UC San Diego on theoretical and experimental aspects of syntax and semantics and their interfaces with morphology, pragmatics, and philosophy of language. |
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