Research philosophy

To me, there is not much that is more exciting than ideas. I feel so fortunate to be able to get inspired by ideas and to pursue my own. No matter how crazy they might appear at first. I am interested in what we know when we know a language. This reveals my generative roots and I still identify as a generativist, though perhaps not a very orthodox one. The questions the generative enterprise has raised, and the kinds of answers it has produced have inspired me immensely. But at the same time, I have been inspired by other approaches, and especially by the goal to bridge seemingly incompatible approaches. This has defined my work on variation in categories, where I tried to combine insights from descriptive (and functionalist) typology with the universalist approach of generative grammar. It also defines my work on interactional language, where I got inspired by work in conversation analysis. I believe that we can make much progress by staying open-minded towards other ways of thinking and by trying to engage with them. I take great pleasure in the fact that I do get invited to talk by people and organizations that are sometimes considered anti-generative.

Areas of research

I have classified my research into several areas that define in broad strokes my research agenda (past and present). Interactional language Language and emotions Language and cognition Human-Machine-Interaction Variation in grammatical categories Pronouns Other

You will also find a page for recent papers and recent and upcoming talks. (Though bear with me as I am updating). In addition, I write about what interests me at the moment, new ideas, new areas of exploration, as well as new papers and talks on my blog

In contradiction and paradox, you can find truth. -- Denis Villeneuve