Research Projects

My dissertation focuses on the interfaces between semantics/pragmatics and research on variation and change. I approach the question of how intra-individual variation in synchrony relates to language change through the lens of pragmatic reasoning. I focus on data from the aspectual domain in Icelandic. More specifically, I investigate the emergence of the perfect construction with búinn að and the ensuing consequences of a language having two semantically overlapping expressions for expressing perfect meanings. I approach this question from a number of perspectives, drawing on formal semantic theory, statistical modelling of historical corpora, and game-theoretic modelling.

My dissertation work is situated more broadly within Project A05 “Modeling meaning-driven register variation”, directed by PIs Uli Sauerland and Stephanie Solt, based at the ZAS. The project deals with so-called non-equivalent alternatives: situational alternations between linguistic expressions that have functional overlap but are logically distinct. For instance, “7:53” as opposed to “8 o’clock”. These differ from prototypical sociolinguistic variables, which are logically equivalent. Logical overlap, however, necessitates the activation of pragmatic reasoning, which makes certain predictions. We are interested in the relationship between this pragmatic reasoning, on the one hand, and the social meaning evoked by the choice of a given expression, on the other.