Professor David Adger FBA

Syntactic theory; grammatical variation across and within languages; interactions between syntax and other areas of grammar, including morphology, semantics, and sociolinguistics; syntax in cognitive science

Elected 2020

Fellow type: UK Fellow
Year elected: 2020
Subjects: Linguistics
Website: https://davidadger.org/

David Adger’s research ranges across linguistic topics but is connected by a concern with syntax: understanding the basic organising principles behind the way that languages build meaning through structure. His work connects syntax to issues in sociolinguistics and cognitive science, as well as contributing to the basic question of what kinds of structures are possible in human languages and why. His most recent book, Language Unlimited, tried to present some of the arguments and results from that field in an accessible way. He was President of the Linguistics association of Great Britain from 2015 to 2020, was co-editor in chief of the journal Syntax from 2007 to 2013, and founded and is series co-editor of Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics. He was one of Queen Mary’s LGBT role models in 2018, while he was Head of the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film there.

Current post

Queen Mary University of London Professor of Linguistics

Past appointments

Queen Mary University of London Reader in Linguistics

Sep 2002 - Jul 2006

University of York Lecturer in Linguistics

Sep 1993 - Jul 2001

Top picks

The power of words

What’s the shape of a word? How do you save a dying language? How is studying languages a science anyway? David Adger tackles these questions.

Talking Is Throwing Fictional Worlds at One Another

A linguist exposes the inner truths about language.

Language Invention and Language Structure

David Adger talks about how to build a language from scratch, and how thinking about this can provide us with insights into how real languages work:

Publications

Language Unlimited

by David Adger - Published in 2020 by Oxford University Press

A Syntax of Substance

by David Adger - Published in 2014 by MIT Press

Mirrors and Microparameters: Phrase Structure Beyond Free Word Order

by David Adger, Daniel Harbour and Laurel J. Watkins - Published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press

Part of 'Cambridge Studies in Linguistics'

Phi Theory

by editors Daniel Harbour, David Adger, and Susana Béjar - Published in 2008 by Oxford University Press

Peripheries: Syntactic Edges and Their Effects

by editors David Adger, George Tsoulas, Cécile de Cat - Published in 2004 by Springer

Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach

by David Adger - Published in 2003 by Oxford University Press

Part of 'Oxford Core Linguistics'

Related Fellows

Professor John Wells FBA

Linguistics

Professor Clive Holes FBA

Middle Eastern and African Languages and Literatures

Professor Terttu Nevalainen FBA

The history of the English language, particularly of the Early Modern English period; historical sociolinguistics; language variation and change; corpus linguistics; design and compilation of digital text corpora