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
Sections: Linguistics and Philology
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

Publications

Language Unlimited

David Adger - Published in 2020 by Oxford University Press

A Syntax of Substance

David Adger - Published in 2014 by MIT Press

Mirrors and Microparameters: Phrase Structure Beyond Free Word Order

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

Part of 'Cambridge Studies in Linguistics'

Phi Theory

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

Peripheries: Syntactic Edges and Their Effects

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

Core Syntax: A Minimalist Approach

David Adger - Published in 2003 by Oxford University Press

Part of 'Oxford Core Linguistics'

Related Fellows

Professor Janet Watson FBA

The documentation and morpho-syntactic description of modern Arabic dialects and Modern South Arabian languages; theoretical phonology and morphology with reference to Arabic and Modern South Arabian

Professor Nicholas Sims-Williams FBA

Philology Central and Inner Asia

Professor Deirdre Wilson FBA

Linguistics

Professor David Adger FBA

Current post

Queen Mary University of London Professor of Linguistics

Past appointments