Prof Ad Neeleman

Research summary

My research explores the nature of the human language faculty. It has two main strands. One concerns theoretical syntax, and in particular the question of how the human language faculty encodes grammatical dependencies (relations between words or groups of words, such as 'subject of', 'object of', and so on). The other strand concerns the interaction between syntax and the systems with which the syntax interfaces (phonology and semantics). Issues I have worked on in this area include the status of word formation, the effects of stress assignment on word order and on interpretation, and semantic restrictions on the stacking of degree expressions.

Teaching summary

I teach undergraduate as well as postgraduate courses in linguistics. These deal mainly with issues in theoretical and comparative syntax. I also supervise PhD students working on problems in this area or in the relation between syntax and syntax-external systems.

I  received a Faculty of Life Sciences Teaching Award in 2006 and was nominated for a UCL Student Choice Award for Outstanding Teaching in 2016.

Education

Universiteit Utrecht

PhD, Linguistics | 1994

Universiteit Utrecht

MA, Dutch | 1989

Konigin Wilhelmina College

Dip-HNWO, Natural Sciences | 1984

Publications