Jenneke van der Wal
Associate professor
- Name
- Dr. G.J. van der Wal
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 3658
- g.j.van.der.wal@hum.leidenuniv.nl
- ORCID iD
- 0000-0003-1136-5884
Jenneke van der Wal is Associate professor at the Centre for Linguistics. She is interested in the interface between morphosyntax and pragmatics, and the crosslinguistic variation in this area. Her research focusses on information structure in the Bantu languages.
Research
My research is inspired by the question ‘what determines our grammar and its variation across languages?’. Formulating our thoughts in sentences is for a large part restricted by the syntactic rules of the language we speak. Another force that shapes our sentences, however, is the packaging of information: what is the most important bit of information, and how do I convey that to my interlocutor? This interface between morphosyntax and pragmatics, and particularly the crosslinguistic variation in this area, keeps fascinating me.
My Vidi project ‘Bantu Syntax and Information Structure’ (BaSIS) aims to discover how information structure in various Bantu languages influences nominal licensing.
For more information, please visit my personal website.
Fields of interest
Comparative generative morphosyntax, information structure, Bantu languages, grammaticalisation, formal typology.
Curriculum vitae
|
2017-current |
Associate professor at Leiden University |
|
2016-2017 |
Lecturer on Linguistics at Harvard University |
|
2011-2016 |
Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, on the ERC-funded project ‘Rethinking Comparative Syntax’ |
|
2012-2016 |
Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. |
|
2009-2011 |
Post-doctoral researcher at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren (Belgium), on the Interuniversity Attraction Pole ‘Grammaticalization and (Inter)Subjectification’. |
|
2004-2009 |
PhD at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics; PhD thesis ‘Word order and information structure in Makhuwa-Enahara’ (supervisors Lisa Cheng and Thilo Schadeberg). |
|
2000-2004 |
MA in African linguistics at Leiden University; |
Selected publications
- Van der Wal, Jenneke. 2020. The AWSOM correlation in comparative Bantu object marking. In Katharina Hartmann, Johannes Mursell, and Peter W. Smith (eds.), Agree to agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Program, 199-234. Open Generative Syntax, Language Science Press.
- Holmberg, Anders, Michelle Sheehan, and Jenneke van der Wal. 2019. Movement from the double object construction is not fully symmetrical. Linguistic Inquiry 50(4). 677-721.
- Sheehan, Michelle and Jenneke van der Wal. 2018. Evidence for nominal licensing in caseless languages. Journal of Linguistics 54. 527-589.
- Van der Wal, Jenneke and Larry Hyman (eds). 2017. The conjoint/disjoint alternation in Bantu. Trends in Linguistics series. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Van der Wal, Jenneke. 2016. Diagnosing focus. Studies in Language 40(2), 259-301.
Under review:
- Van der Wal, Jenneke. A featural typology of Bantu agreement. Book contract at Oxford University Press
Associate professor
- Faculty of Humanities
- Leiden Univ Centre for Linguistics
- LUCL T&C van Afrika
No relevant ancillary activities