Section "Theoretical and Comparative Linguistics"

This section is open to all PhD students working on the systematic analysis of language as a formal and cognitive system. This includes studies of individual languages and language groups as well as comparative studies.

The supervising professors in this group provide expertise in all major subfields of linguistics, including, but not limited to, syntax, semantics, phonology, psycholinguistics, morphology, language acquisition and (formal) pragmatics. Likewise, many theoretical approaches are represented in this section, such as generative grammar (Chomskian as well as non-transformational), functional approaches, government phonology, truth-conditional semantics, distributed morphology and optimality theory, to name just a few. Quantitative as well as qualitative methods are encouraged.

Points of connection to outside departments include phonetics, cognitive science, digital humanities, philosophy and all language studies, as well as computational studies; within the DocSchool, we are closely aligned with the section Language Variation, Language Change, Language Contact.

The section has a decidedly international perspective, including teaching, talks and conferences/workshops in English. Students are encouraged (and financially supported) to organize and participate in international meetings and networking.