Education
1999-2004: PhD in Linguistics (University of Leiden), cum laude
1999-2000: MPhil in Linguistics (University of Leiden)
1996-1998: MA in Linguistics and Literature (KU Leuven), maxima cum laude
1994-1996: BA in Linguistics and Literature (Catholic University of Brussels), magna cum laude
Employment
2022-present: senior researcher Meertens Institute, Amsterdam
2019-present: professor KU Leuven
2014-2019: associate professor KU Leuven
2018-2022: guest researcher Meertens Institute, Amsterdam
2011-2014: associate professor KU Leuven, campus Brussels
2005-2015: invited professor (part-time) Université Saint-Louis
March-April 2010: syntax guru University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Fall semester 2008: visiting assistant professor New York University
2005-2011: assistant professor Catholic University of Brussels
2004-2005: postdoctoral researcher (part-time) Catholic University of Brussels
2004-2005: teaching assistant (part-time) Catholic University of Brussels
2004-2005: research assistant Catholic University of Brussels
Professional areas
area of expertise: morphosyntax and microvariation
specializations: ellipsis (sluicing, swiping, spading, VP-ellipsis), verb clusters, expletives, complementizer agreement, pronominal doubling, the clausal left periphery, lexical and functional morphology
languages studied: Dutch, Dutch dialects, Frisian, English, Hungarian, Northern Italian dialects
Research projects & funding
2020–2024: The grammar of imperatives and the imperatives of grammar, Global PhD-Partnership KU Leuven–Stellenbosch University (role: main applicant at KU Leuven, budget: €96,000)
2020–2024: Comparatives under the microscope, C1-project KU Leuven (role: main applicant, together with Guido Vanden Wyngaerd and Dany Jaspers, budget: €675,000)
2020–2024: Re-examining dialect syntax, FWO grant for a Scientific Research Network (WOG) (role: main applicant, budget: €57,500)
2019–2021: Towards a typology of clausal prolepsis, Central European Leuven Strategic Alliance (CELSA) grant (role: main applicant at KU Leuven, budget: €110,678)
2019–2021: Gender and Number Microvariation, FWO–Marie Curie Seal of Excellence 2019 grant (role: supervisor, budget: €158,121)
2015–2019: Quantity and quality in linguistics, C1-project KU Leuven (role: main applicant, budget: €180,000)
2012–2016: The syntax of idioms, NWO-FWO-project (role: main applicant on the Flemish side, budget: €450,000)
2012–2014: Online platform for academic writing, OOF-project (role: co-applicant, budget: €129,900)
2009–2012: The morphosyntax of countability, BOF-project Catholic University of Brussels (role: main applicant, budget: €169,200)
2007–2008: Alternatives to cartography, small research budget Catholic University of Brussels (role: main applicant, budget: €7,000)
2004–2009: The formal licensing requirements of ellipsis, BOF-project Catholic University of Brussels (role: co-applicant, budget: €140,000)
phd Supervision
as supervisor:
Engela De Villiers: 2020–2024
Cora Pots (2020) Roots in progress
Adrienn Jánosi (2014) Long split focus constructions in Hungarian
Tanja Temmerman (2012) Multidominance, ellipsis and quantifier scope
Marijke De Belder (2011) Roots and Affixes: Eliminating lexical categories from syntax
Lobke Aelbrecht (2009) You have the right to remain silent. The syntactic licensing of ellipsis
as co-supervisor:
Anastasiia Vyshnevska: 2020–2024
Amélie Rocquet (2013) A nanosyntactic analysis of object agreement
as member of the supervision committee:
Anthe Sevenants (2026) It's all frequency? Testing usage-based theories of language change using agent-based models
Jolijn Sonnaert (2018) The atoms of person in pronominal paradigms
Liesbeth Augustinus (2015) Complement raising and cluster formation in Dutch. A treebank-supported investigation
Karen De Clercq (2013) A unified syntax of negation
Anneleen Vanden Boer (2011) Sprachkonfliktforschung in Sprachkontaktgebieten: die öffentliche Meinung zur Position der deutschsprachigen Belgier im belgischen föderalen System
as member of the defense committee:
Robbert De Troij (2023) Natiolectal variation in Dutch grammar
Stefano De Pascale (2019) Token-based vector space models as semantic control in lexical sociolectometry
Chenchen Song (2019) On the formal flexibility of syntactic categories
Franca Wesseling (2018) There is more. Variation in expletive constructions in Dutch
Elena Callegari (2018) Understanding word order in the left periphery
Lotte Dros-Hendriks (2018) Not another book on Verb Raising
Erin Pretorius (2017) Spelling out P. A unified syntax of Afrikaans adpositions and V-particles
Mirjam Hachem (2015) Multifunctionality. The Internal and External Syntax of D- and W-Items in German and Dutch
Enrico Boone (2014) The syntax and licensing of Gapping and Fragments
Marlies Kluck (2011) Sentence amalgamation
Huib Kranendonk (2010) Quantificational constructions in the nominal domain. Facets of Dutch microvariation.
Erik Schoorlemmer (2009) Agreement, dominance and doubling. The morphosyntax of DP
Astrid Houthuys (2007) Work in progress. De kladautograaf van de Brabantsche Yeesten, boek VI (vijftiende eeuw)
workshop & conference organization
December 2024: co-organizer of The Seventeenth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL17), theme: Categories & categorization, KU Leuven
June 2023: main organizer of REEDS 2023, Meertens Institute
March 2023: co-organizer of the Sociolinguistics Circle, Meertens Institute
March 2023: co-organizer of the Dag van de Nederlandse spraakkunst, Meertens Institute
October 2023: co-organizer of The Sixteenth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL16), theme: The morphosyntax of speaker and hearer, KU Leuven
October 2022: co-organizer of The Fifteenth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL15), theme: Argument structure, theta-roles, and their realization, KU Leuven
December 2021: co-organizer of The Fourteenth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL14), theme: Where syntax and phonology meet, KU Leuven
December 2020: co-organizer of The Thirteenth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL13), theme: The syntax and semantics of clausal complementation, KU Leuven
December 2019: co-organizer of The Twelfth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL12), theme: Suppletion, allomorphy, and syncretism, KU Leuven
December 2018: co-organizer of The Eleventh Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL11), theme: The syntax and semantics of aspect, KU Leuven
September 2018: co-organizer of the workshop Perspectives on productivity
December 2017: co-organizer of The Tenth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL10), theme: The morphology and semantics of person and number, KU Leuven
December 2017: co-organizer of the workshop Logic now and then 4, KU Leuven
December 2016: co-organizer of the workshop CRISSP 10, KU Leuven
December 2016: co-organizer of The Ninth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL9), theme: Phase theory, KU Leuven
August 2015: co-organizer of the SLE-workshop The syntax and semantics of numerals. Leiden University.
June 2015: co-organizer of The eighth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL8), theme: The grammar of idioms, KU Leuven.
June 2015: main organizer of the LOT Summer School
February 2015: co-organizer of the workshop Logic now and then 3: The semantics and pragmatics of logical constants, KU Leuven.
April 2014: co-organizer of The 37th annual meeting of Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW 37), KU Leuven HUBrussel
December 2012: co-organizer of The seventh Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL7), theme: The Morphology-Syntax Interface, HUB-KUBrussel
December 2011: co-organizer of The sixth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL6), thema: Configurations of agreement, HUB-KUBrussel
January-February 2011: co-organizer of a lecture series by prof. Guglielmo Cinque in the context of the Francqui-chair, HUB-KUBrussel
December 2010: co-organizer of The fifth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL5), thema: Case at the interfaces, HUB-KUBrussel
November 2009: co-organizer of The fourth Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL4), thema: Ellipsis, HUB-KUBrussel
November 2009: co-organizer of the DP-day, HUB-KUBrussel/UGent
July 2009: co-organizer of the workshop Atoms and Laws of the Noun Phrase: a multi-comparative perspective, HUB-KUBrussel/Universiteit Utrecht
May 2009: co-organizer of The 24th Comparative Germanic Syntax Workshop (CGSW24), HUB-KUBrussel
October 2008: co-organizer of the workshop Logic now and then, University College Brussels
May 2008: co-organizer of the Annual meeting of the Belgian Circle of Linguistics
May 2008: co-organizer of The third Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL 3), theme: Trees and beyond, University College Brussels
June 2007: co-organizer of The second Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL 2), theme: Alternatives to cartography, Catholic University of Brussels/Arts & Sciences College, Vlekho campus/University of Tilburg
January 2007: co-organizer of the 15th annual Conference of the Student Organisation of Linguistics in Europe (ConSOLE), Catholic University of Brussels/Arts & Sciences College, Vlekho campus
June 2006: co-organizer of The first Brussels Conference on Generative Linguistics (BCGL 1), theme: Quantification in syntax and the lexicon, Catholic University of Brussels/Arts & Sciences College, Vlekho campus
October 2004: organizer of a workshop on ellipsis and empty categories, University of Leiden
December 2001: co-organizer of the 10th annual Conference of the Student Organisation of Linguistics in Europe (ConSOLE), University of Leiden
December 2000: co-organizer of the Morphology days, University of Leiden
teaching
at BA-level:
current: Dutch Linguistics I (grammar/morphology), Dutch Linguistics III: formal syntax
past: Dutch Linguistics I (grammar), Dutch Linguistics II (phonology/morphology), Dutch Linguistics III (syntax), General Linguistics III (semantics), Language and Technology, Written proficiency of Dutch, General Linguistics I (phonetics/syntax/semantics)
at MA-level:
current: Dutch Linguistics: Syntax, Dutch Linguistics: Morphology
past: General Linguistics (syntax), Philosophy of Language
at PhD-level:
past: Syntax I, Variation in Ellipsis
professional service
as editor:
2023–present: editorial board member of the Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics
2018–present: editorial board member of Linguistic Variation
2012-present: editorial board member of Linguistic Inquiry
2008-present: editorial board member of Syntax
2017-2018: editorial board member of Folia Linguistica
2008-2016: editorial board member of Natural Language and Linguistic Theory
2010-2018: general editor of Linguistic Variation (John Benjamins)
2006-2010: general editor of Linguistic Variation Yearbook
2004-2006: associate editor of Linguistic Variation Yearbook
as reviewer:
article reviewer for Glossa, Lingua, Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Linguistics in the Netherlands, Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics, Journal of East Asian Linguistics, Journal of Germanic Linguistics, Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics, Going Romance Proceedings, Nederlandse Taalkunde, The Linguistic Review, Poznan Studies in Contemporary Linguistics, Syntax
abstract reviewer for GLOW, ConSOLE, Going Romance, NELS, CGSW, Amsterdam Biosemantics Conference
project reviewer for National Science Foundation, Research Council of Norway, Leverhulme Trust
as administrator:
2017-2021: head of the Research Group of Formal and Computational Linguistics, KU Leuven
2017-2021: head of the Dutch section of the Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven
2006-present: co-founder and vice-president of the Center for Research in Syntax, Semantics and Phonology (CRISSP)
2007-present: member of various evaluation and selection committees
2009-2017: secretary of the board of GLOW (Generative Linguistics in the Old World)