Professor Maggie Tallerman
Professor of Linguistics

Qualifications

1987 Ph.D., University of Hull, "Mutation and the syntactic structure of Modern Colloquial Welsh". Supervisor: Nigel B. Vincent (Professor, University of Manchester). External examiner: Professor R.D. Borsley, University of Essex.

1979 B.A. (Hons.) Linguistics, Class 1, University of Hull.

Previous Positions

Department of Linguistics, University of Durham, 1983-2004 (as Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader)

Memberships

o Linguistics Association of Great Britain
o Linguistic Society of America
o Philological Society

Research Interests

Celtic linguistics, language typology, language origins and evolution, morphology, morphosyntax.

Particular Interests include:

o Brythonic Celtic: The syntax, morphosyntax and morphology of Welsh (Modern and Middle Welsh) and Breton. Morphosyntax of functional elements, syntax of Soft Mutation, and syntax of infinitival clauses.

o Language Evolution: The origins, evolution and development of syntax and morphology. The evolution of Language from protolanguage. The properties of Initial Syntax and the evolution of the mental lexicon.

Current Work

On the evolutionary linguistics side, recent work includes papers on the origins of the lexicon and on holophrastic protolanguage. Specifically, in a series of papers I have considered the question of whether the evidence best supports a synthetic or an analytic model of protolanguage. Currently, I am looking at proposals that kin selection is an important driving force behind the evolution of language. Together with Kathleen Gibson, I am editing the Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution, to be published by OUP in 2011.

On the Celtic side of my work, along with Bob Borsley (Essex) and David Willis (Cambridge), I published "The Syntax of Welsh" (Cambridge University Press) in 2007. I have recently published a paper in Journal of Linguistics on Welsh soft mutation, which compares a phrase-based account of syntactic soft mutation with a dependency account. My next project will probably be on Welsh dialect syntax.

Postgraduate Supervision

I welcome applications from suitably-qualified students who are interested in postgraduate work in the following fields :
a) Evolutionary linguistics: the origins and evolution of syntax and morphology; the evolution of the mental lexicon; selection pressures in language evolution.
b) the syntax and morphosyntax of Brythonic Celtic (Welsh in particular)

I would also be interested in supervising dissertations on any aspect of cross-linguistic syntax or morphosyntax, particularly within a typological or Principles-and-Parameters framework, and any other aspects of language evolution.