Prof  Kersti Börjars - Research

I am interested in the areas of syntax and morphology, including general theoretical issues, as well as issues relating to particular languages. I also work on language change. My research has focused on Germanic languages, in particular the Scandinavian ones and Pennsylvania German, but a number of my publications have a wider comparative aim. Among other things, I have worked on noun phrases, complementation, agreement, the role of morphology in theories of syntax and I have argued against claims in the literature that examples of 'degrammaticalisation' can be found in Germanic languages. Most recently, I have considered changes to word order over time, testing the hypothesis that there is a change from word order being determined by information structure to the constraints being syntactic in nature.

Jointly with David Denison I have recently worked on a project entitled Germanic possessive -s : an empirical, historical and theoretical study project page funded by the AHRC.

I have run an ESRC funded project on Pennsylvania German as spoken in Waterloo County: Modelling syntactic change in Pennsylvania German.

Click the highlighted link to view a list of selected publications.