I am a comparative Romance linguist with both a strong interest in general linguistics and a semi-lay weakness for German dialectology. I am particularly interested in morphosyntax and semantics from a pan-Romance perspective (both synchronically and diachronically) and specialize in the noun phrase. At the same time, I work on the so-called ‘New Romania’ (especially Portuguese in Africa), on Romance minority languages and enjoy using theoretically-informed corpus-driven and experimental approaches, including social network and big data mining. A further focus of my research lies in the areas of language and migration, language and identity formation as well as in the acquisition of second languages. Last but by no means least, I am passionate about spreading linguistic knowledge from academia into society. Credo: People love linguistics – they just don’t know it yet!
Study and Internationalization Trip to Colombia (04/24)
Just came back from a 12-day study and internationalization trip to Colombia, where I spent a wonderful time together with 14 students of Spanish, Dr. José Carlos Huisa Téllez and Dr. Markus Häfner, Director of International Affairs at 
JGU. The trip to the JGU priority country was funded by DAAD's PROMOS-program as well as the Friends of Mainz University and JGU Mainz. After spending time at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia and the Universidad de los Andes (both in Bogotá), we were warmly welcomed at the renowned Universidad del Norte in Barranquilla, with which JGU has maintained a lively interdisciplinary exchange for 49 years. In addition to joint seminars with Colombian students and excursions to various museums, the journey also included numerous discussions aimed at expanding my own research foci as well as at deepening university-wide partnerships. Here you can find the official press release from UniNorte!
DRV-Summer School "Inner-Romance Migration & Multilingualism" (9.9.24–13.9.24)
Together with Beatrice Colcuc (University of Salzburg), Ruth Videsott (University of Bozen), and Gabriele Zanello (University of Udine), I will organize a multinational DRV-funded Summerschool on Inner-Romance Migration and Multilingualism. Prospects for Research, Careers and Young Linguists! More information on the program and on how to apply here and here!
Just published (02/24)
My paper together with Jonas Grünke on the usability of digital Romansh media for linguistic research has just been published as part of Romance Regional and/or Minority Languages in the Age of Digital Humanities, a special issue of Korpus im Text edited by Robert Hesselbach. To access the paper, click here!
Just published (01/24)
My chapter together with Benjamin Meisnitzer on Portuguese in Angola has just been published with de Gruyter in the Manual of Romance Languages in Africa! You can have a look at the paper here! A special thanks goes to the editor in-chief Prof. Ursula Reutner (University of Passau) and her team for their for dedication to the manual!
Just published (12/23)
My overview chapter "Differential Object Marking in the Romance Languages" has just been published as part of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Romance Linguistics. Let me know if you are interested in reading it and I will make sure to tell you how to get a copy! A special thanks goes to the editor in-chief Prof. Michele Loporcaro (University of Zurich) for his dedication to the manual!
Workshop Panchronic Language Contact – Angolan Scenarios (29 January, 2024, 10h–18h)
Together with Prof. Axel Fanego (African Linguistics, Goethe University Frankfurt), Prof. Nico Nassenstein (African Studies, JGU Mainz), and Prof. Alexander Cobbinah (African Linguististics, Universidade de São Paulo [USP]) I will be organizing the international workshop Panchronic Language Contact – Angolan Scenarios. The workshop is hosted by JGU Mainz and funded by Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Afrikaforschung of Goethe University. Taking both a Bantu and a Luso-Romance perspective, it aims to bring together scholars from differents fields who are working on the complex linguistic situation of post-colonial Angola. For the poster, click here; for the complete announcement and more information click here!
Just awarded (12/23): Linguistic variation and social exclusion: a German problem (?) – CRoSS-Fellowship by Stifterverband
Great news! My project Linguistic Variation and Social Exclusion: a German problem (?) has just been awarded a one-year CRoSS-Fellowship by Stifterverband!
Together with five other researchers from very different fields (law, history, medicine, educational sciences, consumer research & nutritional behavior sciences), I will be collaborating with the aim of working on different pressing issues of the present. The six of us will be teamed with five tailored experts each from organized civil society, science and business to develop innovative and effective contributions that strengthen society's trust in science through participation and communication.
Research topics | ArbeitsschwerpunkteBitte Button klicken, um Inhalt zu erweitern bzw. zu reduzieren
- diachronic and synchronic morphosyntax and semantics from a pan-Romance perspective (main working languages: Spanish, Portuguese, French, Galician, Catalan, Romanian)
- partitivity, nominal determination, clitics, modal particles, differential object marking
- corpus-based and experimental approaches
- Twitter and other social network big data mining
- Romance minority languages (particularly Galician, Romansh, and Francoprovençal) as well as Portuguese in Africa and Brazil
- language and identity
- linguistics at school, L2-acquisition
10/2022 –
W1ttW2-professor (‘Juniorprofessor’) of Ibero-Romance Linguistics and Second Language Acquisition at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz / Germany
10/2018 – 09/2022
Assistant at the Chair of Spanish and Portuguese Linguistics at University of Leipzig / Germany (Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer)
09/2020
Ph.D. at University of Zurich / Switzerland (title: Bare Partitives in Old Spanish and Old Portuguese [first supervisor: Prof. Johannes Kabatek, second supervisor: Prof. Elisabeth Stark]), grade: summa cum laude
- Elise Richter Prize of the German Association of Romanists
- Annual prize of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich 2020
02/2015 – 09/2018
PhD student University Research Priority Program Language and Space (University of Zurich / Switzerland)
02/2013 – 01/2015
M.A. in Comparative Romance Linguistics (major) and General Linguistics (minor), University of Zurich / Switzerland; scholar of the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes), M.A. thesis: Partitivity and related categories in the Romance languages with particular focus on Galician (including own fieldwork)
09/2009 – 01/2013
B.A. in Comparative Romance Linguistics (major), German and General Linguistics (minor), University of Zurich / Switzerland; full scholar of the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes)
10/2008 – 08/2009
Studies in Romanian Literature and Linguistics and Intercultural Business Communication, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena / Germany
03/2007
Abitur, Paul-Schneider-Gymnasium Meisenheim / Germany
Monographs
(under contract) Gerards, David Paul & Claudia Schlaak: Romanische Sprachen. Tübingen/Narr (= LinguS, Linguistik und Schule, edd. Sandra Döring & Peter Gallmann)
(under contract) Gerards, David Paul: Bare Partitives in Old Spanish and Old Portuguese. Berlin/New York: de Gruyter [= Linguistische Arbeiten/Linguistic Studies].
Peer-reviewed papers
(2024) Gerards, David Paul & Benjamin Meisnitzer. “Angola.” In Ursula Reutner (ed.), Manual of Romance Languages in Africa. Berlin: de Gruyter, 579–608. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110628869-026
(2023) Gerards, David Paul. “Differential Object Marking in the Romance Languages.” In Michele Loporcaro (ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Romance Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.648
(2022) Gerards, David Paul & Elisabeth Stark. “Non-Maximal Definites in Romance.” RLLT19, Special Issue of Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 8(5)/5, 1–32. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.236
(2022) Gerards, David Paul: “Clitics in Informal Written Sources of Angolan Portuguese and their Similarity to Informal Brazilian Portuguese.” In Anja Hennemann & Benjamin Meisnitzer (eds.), Linguistic Hybridity. Contact-induced and Cognitively Motivated Grammaticalization and Lexicalization Processes in Romance Languages. Heidelberg: Winter, 15–46.
(2020) Gerards, David Paul & Elisabeth Stark: “Why Partitive Articles don’t Exist in (Old) Spanish.” In Tabea Ihsane (ed.), Disentangling Bare Nouns and Nominals Introduced by a Partitive Article [Syntax & Semantics, 43], Leiden/Boston: Brill, 105–139. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004437500_005
(2020) Stark, Elisabeth & David Paul Gerards: “‘Partitive Articles’ in Aosta Valley Francoprovençal – Old Questions and New Data.”“‘Partitive Articles’ in Aosta Valley Francoprovençal – Old Questions and New Data.” In Tabea Ihsane (ed.), Disentangling Bare Nouns and Nominals Introduced by a Partitive Article [Syntax & Semantics, 43], Leiden/Boston: Brill, 301–334. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004437500_010
(2020) Gerards, David Paul: “*/ˈmɛl-e”. In Éva Buchi & Wolfgang Schweickard (eds.), Dictionnaire Étymologique Roman 3 (DÉRom). Entre idioroman et protoroman [= Beihefte der Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie, 443], Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter, 371–376. [online version: http://www.atilf.fr/DERom/]
(2019) Kabatek, Johannes & David Paul Gerards: “Gramaticalização, distância, imediatez e tradições discursivas: o caso do português caso.” In Clarinda de Azevedo Maia & Isabel Almeida Santos (eds.), Estudos de Linguística Histórica. Mudança e Estandardização. Coimbra: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra, 119–162. [Portuguese and slightly modified version of Gerards & Kabatek 2018].
(2018) Gerards, David Paul & Johannes Kabatek: “Grammaticalization and Discourse Traditions: The Case of Portuguese caso.” In Oscar Loureda Lamas & Salvador Pons Bordería (eds.), Beyond Grammaticalization and Discourse Markers: New Issues in the Study of Language Change. Leiden/Boston: Brill, 115–159. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004375420_006
Non peer-reviewed papers
(2024) Gerards, David Paul & Jonas Grünke: “«Nutzen was da ist»: zur Verwertbarkeit der digitalen bündnerromanischen Medien in der linguistischen Forschung.” In Robert Hesselbach (ed.), Romanische Regional- oder Minderheitensprachen im Zeitalter der Digital Humanities [KIT, 10], München: LMU.
(2023) Grünke, Jonas & David Paul Gerards: “Digitale Medien als linguistisches Korpus? Prädikative Adjektive und die Affrikaten /tɕ/ und /tʃ/ im Unterengadinischen.” Annalas da la Societad Retorumantscha 136, 383–396.
(2022) Stark, Elisabeth & David Paul Gerards: “Zum Geburtstag viel Glück – Weak and not so Weak Definites in German.” In Chiara Gianollo, Łukasz Jędrzejowski & Sofiana I. Lindemann (eds.), Paths through meaning and form. Festschrift offered to Klaus von Heusinger on the occasion of his 60th birthday. Köln: Universitäts- und Stadtbibliothek Köln, 232–235. https://doi.org/10.18716/omp.3.c58
(2022) Gerards, David Paul: “O infinitivo conxugado galego: signo indexical e ato identitário.” In Benjamin Meisnitzer & Yvonne Hendrichs (eds.), Sprache und Identität im lusophonen Raum. Stuttgart: ibidem, 117–138.
(2022) Wall, Albert, David Paul Gerards & Benjamin Meisnitzer: “Micro-Variation meets Complex Systems Theory – An introduction to seven case studies on Portuguese.” In PhiN, Beiheft 28/2022, 1–8.
(2017) Gerards, David Paul & Benjamin Meisnitzer: “Überlegungen zur Vermittlung von Modalpartikeln im Fremdsprachenunterricht am Beispiel des Französischen, des Spanischen und des Italienischen.” In: Daniel Reimann & Christoph Bürgel (eds.), Sprachliche Mittel im Unterricht der romanischen Sprachen: Aussprache, Wortschatz und Morphosyntax in Zeiten der Kompetenzorientierung [= Romanistische Fremdsprachenforschung und Unterrichtsentwicklung, 7], Tübingen: Narr, 329–360.
(2016) Meisnitzer, Benjamin & David Paul Gerards: “Außergewöhnlich? Modalpartikeln im Spanischen.” In Daniel Reimann, Ferran Robles i Sabater & Raúl Sánchez Prieto (eds.), Angewandte Linguistik Iberoromanisch – Deutsch. Studien zu Grammatik, Lexikographie, interkultureller Pragmatik und Textlinguistik [= Romanistische Fremdsprachenforschung und Unterrichtsentwicklung, 5], Tübingen: Narr, 133–152.
Edited works
(2022) Gerards, David Paul, Benjamin Meisnitzer & Albert Wall. eds. Micro-Variation meets Complex Systems Theory – seven case studies on Portuguese; [special issue of PhiN, Philologie im Netz, 28].
(2020) Gerards, David Paul & Philipp Obrist. eds. Heinrich Schmid. Ausgewählte Schriften zum Rätoromanischen. Intgins scrits davart il retorumantsch. Zürich: editionmevinapuorger; [edited volume of selected works on Rhaeto-Romance by Heinrich Schmid].
(2018) Kabatek, Johannes: Lingüística coseriana, lingüística histórica, tradiciones discursivas, Frankfurt / Madrid: Vervuert / Iberoamericana; [volume of works on discourse traditions by Johannes Kabatek edited by Cristina Bleorțu and David Paul Gerards]. https://doi.org/10.31819/9783954877508
Reviews
(in prep.) Maia, Clarinda de Azevedo. (2022): Estudos Linguísticos, vol. 1: Linguística Histórica e História da Língua Portuguesa. Coimbra: Coimbra University Press. RILI – Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana.
(in prep.) Haßler, Gerda & Barbara Schäfer-Prieß. eds. (2021): Contatos linguísticos na sequência da expansão portuguesa, Frankfurt: Peter Lang [= Iberolinguistica, 5], Romanische Forschungen 134.
(2023) Narrog, Heiko & Bernd Heine (2021): Grammaticalization, Oxford: OUP [= Oxford Textbooks in Linguistics], Journal of Pragmatics 211: 81–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2023.04.012
(2022) Sibille, Jean. ed. (2020): La microvariation syntaxique dans les langues romanes de France, Limoges: Lambert-Lucas, Revue de Linguistique Romane 86 (1): 570–574.
(2017) Verveckken, Katrien Dora: Binominal Quantifiers in Spanish: Conceptually-Driven Analogy in Diachrony and Synchrony, Berlin: de Gruyter [= Beihefte zur Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie], Revue de Linguistique Romane 81 (2): 530–539.
Theses
(2020) Gerards, David Paul: Bare Partitives in Old Spanish and Old Portuguese, PhD thesis, University of Zurich.
(2015) Gerards, David Paul: Partition und affine Kategorien in der Romania am Beispiel des Galicischen. MA thesis, University of Zurich.
Miscellanea
(2021) Meisnitzer, Benjamin & David Paul Gerards: “Grammatik im schulischen Fremdsprachenunterricht muss (wieder) prominenter werden!”, Linguistische Berichte Sonderheft 29: Grammatik für die Schule (Eds.: Sandra Döring & Daniela Elsner), 207–209.
(2018) Kabatek, Johannes: “¿Cómo categorizar las tradiciones discursivas” [translation from German, “Wie kann man Diskurstraditionen kategorisieren?”]; In Johannes Kabatek: Lingüística coseriana, lingüística histórica, tradiciones discursivas, Frankfurt / Madrid: Vervuert / Iberoamericana.
2023–2024: CRoSS-Fellowship awarded by DeutscherStifterverband; project: Sprachliche Variation und soziale Exklusion: ein deutsches Problem (?) [Linguistic variation and social exclusion: a German problem (?)]
2020 – 2022
Project Member of Erasmus+ KA107 worldwide mobility-funded research and teaching exchange cooperation between the Department of Romance Languages of University of Leipzig and the Faculdade de Letras e Ciências Sociais of University of Rovuma at Nampula/Mozambique (PIs: Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer, Prof. Ermelinda Mapasse); focus of the linguistic subproject: pluricentricity and the emerging endogenous norm of Mozambican Portuguese
2019 – 2022
Project member of DAAD- and CAPES-funded Aspekte der Diktion in vergleichender Perspektive: Deutsch/Portugiesisch (BR) – Aspects of diction from a comparative perspective: German/Brazilian Portuguese (PIs: Prof. Tinka Reichmann, Prof. Dieter Burdorf, Prof. Helmut Galle); focus of the linguistic subproject: Brazilian Portuguese – linguistic norms between orality and scripturality
06/2016 –
Associate Member of the research group SyNoDe (Systems of Nominal Determination) funded by URPP Language and Space at University of Zurich / Switzerland (PI: Ass.-Prof. Carlota de Benito, former PI: Prof. Elisabeth Stark)
05/2015 –
Member of the international research network PARTE
04/2024 Research and internationazation trip to Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Universidad de los Andes [both Bogotá] & Universidad del Norte [Barranquilla]).
11/2023 research stay at the Universities of São Paulo (USP), Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), Sinop (UNEMAT), Chapecó (UFFS) and Porto Alegre (UFRGS); among other things, to prepare a research project on linguistic accommodation of Angolan migrants in Brazil.
10/2023 Erasmus guest lectureship at the University of Aveiro/Portugal
03/2023
research stay at University Alcalá de Henares
11/2021
research stay at University of São Paulo (USP)/Brazil as part of the project Aspekte der Diktion (see „collaboration in research groups and projects“ below)
09/2021 and 09/2017 – 10/2017
research stays at Université Paris VII / France; experimental linguistics (Prof. Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin / Prof. Lucia Tovena)
05/2017
fieldwork stay in Aosta Valley / Italy (semi-guided interviews) for a paper on Francoprovençal indefinites
09/2016–01/2017
research stay at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich / Germany (Prof. Andreas Dufter / Prof. Álvaro Octavio de Toledo y Huerta)
02/2013–07/2013
exchange semester at University of Lisbon / Portugal
07/2011–07/2012
exchange year at University of Santiago de Compostela / Spain
2007
community service (‘Zivildienst’) in Bucharest / Romania
Accepted
12/2024: Interdisziplinäres Forschungskolloquium Portugal – Brasilien – portugiesischsprachige Regionen Afrikas und Asiens at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin; talk: Taking Stock: Angolanische Migration nach Brasilien – Forschungsperspektiven an der Schnittstelle von Linguistik und Ethnologie.
07/2024: Romanistisches Oberseminar at University of Regensburg; talk: Morphosyntaktische Variation direktiver Sprechakte in medizinischen Diskurstraditionen.
07/2024: XIII Congreso Internacional de Historia de la Lengua Española at University of Zurich/ Switzerland. Talk: Imperatividad, variación y tradicionalidad discursiva: el caso de la prosa técnica.
06/2024: 25th Annual International Conference of the English Department of University of Bucharest at University of Bucharest/Romania; talk: On the rescuing of some-indefinites (with Prof. Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin, Prof. Francesca Foppolo, Prof. Tabea Ihsane)
06/2024: Systems of Nominal Determination in Europe and Beyond at University of Zurich/Switzerland. Talk: Experimental evidence for weak indefinites and semantic incorporation in Brazilian Portuguese (with Ass.-Prof. Albert Wall)
Given
03/2024☆: Talk upon invitation at University da Beira Interior in Covilhã/Portugal: O Problema da Norma(lização) do Português Angolano.
01/2024 ☆☞: Participation in the public lecture series In the Year 2525 – The Future Face of Humanities of the Department 05 of JGU Mainz; Talk: X/Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: Pros and Cons of Zuckerbergian Linguistics).
11/2023: Encontro DAAD-Alumni em homenagem ao 60. Aniversário de Cleó Vilson Altenhofen: „Mehrsprachigkeit, Sprachkontakt und Sprachvariation in Südbrasilien und im lusophonen Afrika“ at Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS)/ Brazil. Talk: A colocação dos clíticos no Português Angolano informal.
11/2023☆: XX Congresso Nacional de Estudos Linguísticos e Literários – migrações, paisagens e ambientes de trabalho em contextos pós-pandêmicos at Universidade do Estado de Mato Grosso (UNEMAT)/Brasilien. Talk: A gênese de uma nova variedade padrão ? O caso do português angolano.
11/2023☆☞: VI Instituto de Estudos Linguísticos (IEL): Estudos Linguísticos, Literários e de Línguas: formação de professores e pesquisadores at Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul (UFFS)/Brazil. Talk: Diversity and Linguistic Change.
10/2023: Conférence annuelle sur l’activité scientifique du Centre d’Études francoprovençales René Willien at Saint-Nicolas (Italy). Talk: Présence/absence de marquage en nombre dans les syntagmes nominaux des langues romanes : quel rôle pour le DE en francoprovençal ? (with Prof. Elisabeth Stark & Dr. Tabea Ihsane)
09/2023: 4th Meeting of ABRE (Associação de Brasilianistas na Europa) at ISCTE Lisbon/Portugal. Talk: Variação no uso dos artigos indefinidos em estruturas (pseudo-)incorporadas do português brasileiro. Panel: Pequenos elementos que fazem toda a diferença (with Ass.-Prof. Albert Wall).
06/2023: Workshop Jornada Pedagógica – Portugiesisch Lernen und Lehren at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz/Germany. Talk: L3-Erwerb des Portugiesischen auf spanischer Basis? Sprachwissenschaftliche Überlegungen zu (in)definitem Artikel & Nominaldetermination.
05/2023: Talk as part of the colloquium Investigaciones Iberorrománicas Actuales at University of Zurich/Switzerland. Talk: O Atlântico como ponte? Coincidências linguísticas entre o português angolano e português brasileiro.
03/2023: 45th Annual Meeting of DGFS at University of Cologne/Germany. Talk: Accounting for presence/absence of overt number morphology in Romance nominals. Panel: Divide and Count: On the (Morpho-)Syntax and Semantics of Division, Plurality and Countability (with Prof. Elisabeth Stark and Dr. Tabea Ihsane).
02/2023: 23rd Deutscher Hispanistentag at University of Graz/Austria. Talk: Corpus históricos digitales y tradiciones discursivas: tareas para la lingüística histórica. Panel: Digitale historische Korpora des Spanischen. Herausforderungen und zukünftige Entwicklungen (with Prof. Johannes Kabatek).
01/2023: Linguistisches Oberseminar at University of Augsburg/Germany. Talk: ¿El Atlántico como puente? Coincidencias lingüísticas entre el portugués angoleño y el portugués brasileño.
12/2022: Linguistisches Kolloquium at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz/Germany. Talk: Der Atlantik als Brücke? Portugiesisch in Angola und Brasilien.
12/2022: Going Romance 36 at Autonomous University of Barcelona/Spain. Poster: On the rescuing of des-NPs (with Prof. Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin and Dr. Tabea Ihsane).
11/2022: 1. Rätoromanische Runde, at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz. Talk: Bündnerromanisch – Deutsch in ‘romanischer Verkleidung’?.
11/2022: Nominal Determination: form, function, and else at University of Maceió/Brazil. Talk: Discovering and explaining bare singulars in Latin American varieties of Spanish: Twitter and experimental linguistics.
11/2022: Nominal Determination: form, function, and else at University of Maceió/Brazil. Talk: Indefinite objects in Brazilian Portuguese: evidence for number neutrality and semantic incorporation (with Ass.-Prof. Albert Wall).
08/2022: 5th Annual Meeting of Societas Linguistica Europaea at University of Bucharest/Romania. Talk: Number-neutral indefinite objects in Brazilian Portuguese: new evidence for semantic incorporation; allgemeine Sektion (with Ass.-Prof. Albert Wall).
07/2022: XXX Congreso Internacional de Lingüística y Filología Románicas at University of La Laguna/Spain. Talk: El (mal) denominado ‘artículo partitivo’ del español y del portugués antiguos.
06/2022: Kolloquium Linguistik at University of Vienna/Austria. Talk: Unerkannte bare singulars in lateinamerikanischen Varietäten des Spanischen: Twitter und experimentelle Linguistik.
06/2022: DiFuPaRo Abschluss-Workshop at University of Zurich/Switzerland. Talk: Is invariable DE an allomorph of the partitive article? The insight from Francoprovençal (with Prof. Elisabeth Stark & Dr. Tabea Ihsane).
06/2022: DiFuPaRo Abschluss-Workshop at University of Zurich/Switzerland. Talk: On the rescuing of des-indefinites (with Prof. Carmen Dobrovie-Sorin & Dr. Tabea Ihsane).
06/2022: 8avel Colloqui retoromanistic in Curaglia – Val Medel/Switzerland. Talk: Digitale Medien als linguistisches Korpus? Prädikative Adjektive und die Affrikaten /t͡ɕ/ ~ /t͡ʃ/ im Unterengadinischen (with Dr. Jonas Grünke).
05/2022: XIII. Congreso de la Asociación de Historia de la Lengua Española at University of León/Spain. Talk: El (mal) denominado ‘artículo partitivo’ del español antiguo.
05/2022: KoRoLi (Kolloquium Romanistische Linguistik) at University of Cologne/Germany. Talk: Discovering Bare Singulars in Latin American Spanish: Twitter and Experimental Linguistics.
05/2022: Arqus Kolloquium Romanistische Linguistik at University of Leipzig/Germany. Talk: Singulares escuetos en variedades latinoamericanas del español: Twitter y lingüística experimental (with Levin Schwarzkopf).
12/2021☆: Going Romance 35 at University of Amsterdam (UvA) and Free University Amsterdam (VU)/Netherlands. Invited talk: Non-maximal definite articles in Romance (with Prof. Elisabeth Stark [https://aclc.uva.nl/content/events/events/2021/12/going-romance-2021.html]
11/2021: Abschlusstagung des Projekts Aspekte der Diktion in vergleichender Perspektive: Deutsch/Portugiesisch (BR) an der Universität Leipzig/Germany. Vortrag: Klitisierung zwischen Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit: brasilianisches Portugiesisch und Deutsch kontrastiv (with Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer)
10/2021: 37th Deutscher Romanistentag at University of Augsburg/Germany. Talk: Referenzsemantik und Fachsprachlichkeit: das Beispiel altspanischer ‚nackter‘ Partitive. Panel: Fachsprachen, Expertenkulturen und Standardisierung in der Romania der Frühen Neuzeit.
07/2021☆: Constitutive Workshop of the project IDaRoE – Indefinite definite articles in Romance and English (Prof. Artemis Alexiadou, Prof. Marianne Hundt, Prof. Elisabeth Stark). Invited input talk: Empirical approaches to indefinite definite articles.
07/2021: V Congresso Internacional de Linguística Histórica (CILH) at University Estadual de Campinas/Brazil. Talk: ‘Partitive Articles’ in Old Spanish and Old Portuguese? Panel: Universals and Variation in Semantics and Pragmatics.
11/2020: Workshop A língua portuguesa desde uma perspectiva comparativa e contrastiva at Eberhard Karls University Tübingen/Germany. Talk: Os chamados artigos partitivos do português antigo.
11/2020: Talk as part of the colloquium Investigaciones Iberorrománicas Actuales at University of Zurich/Switzerland. Talk: Laúenla con de la orina e déngela a comer: los partitivos escuetos del español antiguo.
10/2020 ☞: Colloqui rumantsch at Volkshochschule Zürich. Talk: Heinrich Schmid. Intgins Scrits davart il retorumantsch (with Dr. Mevina Puorger, Dr. Philipp Obrist & Prof. Matthias Grünert)
09/2019: 36th Deutscher Romanistentag at University of Kassel/Germany. Talk: ‘Partitivartikel’ im Altspanischen und Altportugiesischen? in the panel Rekonstruktion und Erneuerung: Indefinita in der Romania. Die Grenzen einer instabilen Kategorie.
09/2019: 36th Deutscher Romanistentag at University of Kassel/Germany. Talk: «Nutzen was da ist»: zur Verwertbarkeit der digitalen bündnerromanischen Medien in der linguistischen Forschung in the panel Rekonstruktion und Erneuerung romanischer Regional- oder Minderheitensprachen im Zeitalter der Digital Humanities (with Dr. Jonas Grünke).
08/2019: 52nd Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea at University of Leipzig/Germany. Talk: The so-called ‘partitive article’ in Old Spanish and Old Portuguese; general section.
11/2018: NEREUS IX at University of Wuppertal/Germany. Talk: Partitive Articles in the Aosta Valley (with Prof. Elisabeth Stark).
06/2018: Workshop Aktuelle Sprachwandelprozesse in portugiesischen Varietäten at University of Tübingen/Germany. Talk: A colocação dos pronomes pessoais clíticos no português de Angola – emergência dum novo padrão?.
09/2017: Talk as part of the colloquium of the PLU-Seminary at Université Paris VII Denis Didérot/France: Unexpected Definites in Old Spanish: Kind Reference, Weak Definites, Both, or Neither?
09/2017: Linglunch at Université Paris VII Denis Didérot/France. Talk: The so-called ‘partitive article’ in Old Spanish and its possible relation to weak definiteness: from corpus to theory.
09/2017: 12th Deutscher Lusitanistentag at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz/Germany. Talk: Caso seja brasileirismo: Überlegungen zum innerportugiesischen Varietätenkontakt in the panel Sprachkontakte im Rahmen der portugiesischen Expansion (with Prof. Johannes Kabatek)
07/2017: 5th World Conference on Pluricentric Languages and their Non-Dominant Varieties. Models of pluricentricity: Nation, space and language at Johannes-Gutenberg-University Mainz/Germany. Talk: The Colocation of Clitic Pronouns in Angolan Portuguese – Emergence of a New Standard?
06/2017: Talk as part of the colloquium Kolloquium Romanische Linguistik at University of Vienna/Austria: Altiberoromanische Partitivartikel zwischen Individuation und Entitätenreferenz.
04/2017: Poster at Spatial Boundaries and Transitions in Language and Interaction at Monte Verità/Switzerland: The so-called partitive article in Old Iberoromance.
03/2017: Talk as part of the colloquium of the PLU-Seminary at Université Paris VII Denis Didérot/France: The so-called partitive article in Old Spanish and weak definiteness: From corpus to theory.
03/2017: 21st Deutscher Hispanistentag at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich/Germany: La determinación nominal en los tratados medievales. ¿Fenómeno autóctono o influencia del árabe magrebí? in the panel Lenguas en contacto, ayer y hoy. Miseria y esplendor de las relaciones entre lingüística y traducción.
02/2017: Talk as part of the colloquium Corpus Linguistics and Phonetics at Humboldt University Berlin/Germany: Partitivartikel im Altspanischen im Spannungsfeld von autochthoner Genese und Sprachkontakt. Eine korpusbasierte Analyse
01/2017: Talk as part of the colloquium Oberseminar Linguistik at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich/Germany: Die sogenannten Partitivartikel des Altspanischen.
12/2016: Going Romance 30 at Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University Frankfurt/Germany. Talk: Why Partitive Articles? Encoding ‘Individuation’ in Galloromance Nominals (with Prof. Elisabeth Stark).
10/2016: Französische Sprachgeschichte at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich/Germany. Talk: Gibt es Modalpartikeln im Französischen? Evidenzen zur Genese von Modalpartikeln in der Geschichte der französischen Sprache (with Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer and Bénédict Wocker).
09/2016: DIA IV at University of Zurich/Switzerland. Talk: Los llamados “artículos partitivos” del español antiguo.
07/2016: 9th Days of Swiss Linguistics at University of Geneva/Switzerland. Talk: Historical Grammars and Morphosyntax: ‘Happy Reunion’ or ‘Eternal Foes’? The So-Called ‘Partitive Article’ in Old Ibero-Romance in the panel Diversity of structures and the syntax-semantics interface.
06/2016: Definiteness across Languages at UNAM/Colegio de México/Mexico. Poster: Unexpected Definite DPs in Old Spanish: Kind Reference, ‘Disguised’ Indefinites, or Something Else Altogether?
01/2016: 6-day winter school ALPES – abriendo líneas en el pasado del español in Kandersteg/Switzerland. Talk: (¿)Determinantes de masa en catalán, español y portugués antiguos(?).
12/2015: 3-day winter school VariaForMea in Macolin/Switzerland (CRUS-supported). Talk: Mass Determiners in Old Iberoromance(?).
09/2015: 11th Deutscher Lusitanistentag at University of Aachen/Germany. Introductory talk in the panel “‘Ruído branco’ ou ‘efeitos borboleta’? Micro-variação linguística e suas repercussões no(s) sistema(s) linguístico(s) do Português” (with Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer & Ass.-Prof. Albert Wall) .
07/2015: 34th Deutscher Romanistentag at University of Mannheim/Germany. Talk: Überlegungen zur Vermittlung von Modalpartikeln im Fremdsprachenunterricht am Beispiel des Französischen, des Spanischen und des Italienischen (with Benjamin Meisnitzer) in the panel Zur Ökonomie des Fremdsprachenlernens: Sprachliche Mittel Revisited
07/2015: 1-week summer school Language in Social Context in Ligerz/Switzerland. Talk: El infinitivo conjugado gallego o la indexicalidad de los signos lingüísticos simbólicos.
05/2015: Sprache und Identität in der lusophonen Welt at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz/Germany. Talk: Para se diferenciaren – Para se reintegraren. Sprachliche Identitätsakte in der galicischsprachigen Wissenschaft im Spannungsfeld von Autonomie und Reintegra-tionismus. Das Beispiel des Infinitivo Conxugado.
11/2014: Talk at University of Santiago de Compostela/Spain: Partitividade, partitivos e fenómenos afíns nas linguas románicas e non románicas.
10/2014: Contrastivica III at University of Valencia/Spain. Talk: Außergewöhnlich? Modalpartikeln im Spanischen (with Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer).
04/2014: Young Linguists’ Meeting at Adam-Mickiewicz-University Poznań/Poland. Talk: Die Sprachwahl galicischsprachiger Eltern mit ihren Kindern.
2023–: Associate member of Gutenberg Akademie
10/2021: Elise Richter Prize of the German Association of Romanists for the dissertation.
09/2021: grant by Labex-EFL for a research stay in experimental linguistics at University Paris VII.
04/2021: annual prize of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences of the University of Zurich 2020.
05/2017: GRC (= Graduate Campus) Short Grant 2017_SG_03 for 61. Studentische Tagung Sprachwissenschaft (STUTS) at University of Zurich / Switzerland, 25.05.-28.05.2017 [together with André Müller and Samuel Läubli].
09/2016: SEMP grant (University of Zurich) for a 5-month research stay at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich / Germany (inviting professors: Prof. Andreas Dufter / Prof. Álvaro Octavio de Toledo y Huerta).
2015 – 2008: full scholar of the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes).
08/2014: scholarship (Volkswagen Stiftung) for a summer school on Tools and Techniques in Geolinguistics at University of Kiel / Germany.
07/2010: scholarship (Swiss National Scholarship Foundation) for a summer school on Le Tableau de la Suisse - eine intellektuelle Reise durch die Schweizer Sprachen und Dialekte.
07/2010: scholarship (CNRS / DFG) for École d’été franco-allemande en étymologie romane (DERom) at University of Nancy / France.
- Vice President of the German Association of Lusitanists (DLV) [since 09/2023].
- Member of the advisory board of Fachinformationsdienst Romanistik (FID)
- Reviewer for Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung (x2), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) (x1)
- Reviewer for Beihefte der Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie [de Gruyter] (x1), Catalan Journal of Linguistics (x1), Folia Linguistica Historica (x1), Journal of Historical Syntax (x1), Journal of Portuguese Linguistics (x1), Linguística Latinoamericana [de Gruyter] (x1), Romanica Cracoviensia (x1), RILI – Revista Internacional de Lingüística Iberoamericana (x1), ScriptOralia [Narr] (x1), Structural Dynamics and Language Contact in Romance Languages [Peter Lang] (x1), Studia Linguistica (x1), Studies in Language Companion [John Benjamins] (x1), Verba (x1),
- Scientific Committees: Acquisition Across Varieties: New Perspectives from Portuguese – VPL2023 (University of Vienna / Austria), Estudio sociolingüístico de la entonación del rumano y español (SoRoEs) (2011; University Alexandru Ioan Cuza, Iași / Romania)
- Member of the Board for Studies and Teaching of FB05 at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz and of the Committee for Studies and Teaching of the Dpt. of Romance Languages (Ausschuss für Lehre und Studium des Fachbereichs 05 der JGU Mainz sowie des Fachausschusses Studium und Lehre des Romanischen Seminars)
- Erasmus coordinator of the Department of Romance Languages at University of Leipzig, responsible for outgoings to France
- Member of the examining board ('Prüfungsausschuss') at the Department of Romance Languages at University of Leipzig
- ☞ Responsible for the Alumni Network of the Department of Romance Languages at University of Leipzig; regular events with students and actors from academia, business, culture, and civil society (together with Nastasia Herold)
- ☞ Responsible for high-school relations at the Department of Romance Languages at University of Leipzig; regular events in schools fostering the connection between academia and high schools (together with Prof. Christiane Neveling and Margherita Siegmund)
- Contributor to the design of the MA degree program Romance Studies at the Department of Romance Languages at University of Leipzig
2023: [with Dr. Désirée Kleineberg]: “Präsenz und Virtualität von Determinierern in der Romania”. XXXVIII Romanistentag at University of Leipzig/Germany [23.–27.9.2023]
2015: [with Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer & Ass.-Prof. Albert Wall]: “‘Ruído branco’ ou ‘efeitos borboleta’? Micro-variação linguística e suas repercussões no(s) sistema(s) linguístico(s) do português”. Secção de linguística para o 11° Congresso Alemão de Lusitanistas em Aquisgrão/Alemanha [16. – 19.9.2015].
2025: 47th Annual Conference of DGFS at Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz/Germany (member of the organizing committee; main organizer: Prof. Walter Bisang)
2024: 1-day international workshop Panchronic Language Contact – Angolan Scenarios at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (with Prof. Axel Fanego, Prof. Nico Nassenstein, & Prof. Alexander Cobbinah)
2023: 10th International Conference on Pluricentric Languages and their Non-Dominant Varieties at University of Leipzig/Germany (member of the organizing committee)
2021:14th Deutscher Lusitanistentag at University of Leipzig/Germany (member of the organizing committee)
2017: 50th Annual Meeting of Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE) at University of Zurich/Switzerland (member of the organizing committee)
2016: Partitivity and Language Contact, 2-day international conference at University of Zurich / Switzerland, funded by the URPP Language and Space Switzerland (main organizer together with Prof. Elisabeth Stark & Dr. Tabea Ihsane)
2016: Reference Semantics, 2-day workshop with Klaus von Heusinger and Chiara Gianollo (University of Cologne / Germany) at University of Zurich / Switzerland, funded by the URPP Language and Space (main organizer together with Prof. Elisabeth Stark)
2013: Mass and Count in Romance and Germanic languages, 2-day conference at the University of Zurich / Switzerland (main organizer together with Elisabeth Stark, Natascha Pomino, and Elvira Glaser)
Invited guest lectures (SoSe 23)
- 09.05.23, 14:15–15:45, Raum 01 716 HS 13: Prof. Teresa Alegre (Universidade de Aveiro): Uneingeleitete Nebensätze im Portugiesischen
- 20.06.23, 14:15–15:45, Raum 01 716 HS 13: Prof. Wiltrud Mihatsch (Universität Tübingen): Die Entstehung unpersönlicher Pronomina im brasilianischen Portugiesisch
- 27.06.23, 16:15–17:45, Raum BiWi 02-741, GWG: Prof. Anna Pineda (Universitat de Barcelona): DOM in Catalan: between internal evolution and contact-induced change
Spanish
SoSe 23: La marcación diferencial de objeto (MA seminary)
WS 21/22: Introducción a la lingüística española (BA seminary)
WS 21/22: El español de las Américas (BA seminary)
WS 20/21: Altspanisch (MA seminary)
SoSe 20: Pragmática del español (MA seminary)
SoSe 20: Morfosintaxis histórica del español (MA seminary)
WS 19/20: Dialectología española: entre tradición e innovación (BA seminary)
WS 19/20: Grundlagen der spanischen Sprachwissenschaft (BA seminary)
SoSe 19: Fonética y fonología españolas (BA seminary)
WS 18/19: Dialectología española: entre tradición e innovación (BA seminary)
WS 18/19: El español actual en contacto con otras lenguas en la península ibérica (BA seminary)
Portuguese
SoSe 24: O Português são quantos? Portugiesisch in Brasilien und Afrika (BA Seminary)
WS 23/24: Einführung in die portugiesische Sprachwissenschaft (BA seminary)
SoSe 23: Gramaticalização (BA seminary)
HS 20: Introdução à história do português (BA seminary)
SoSe 19: A(s) norma(s) do português brasileiro II: O sistema pronominal (MA seminary) [with Dr. Cornelia Döll]
SoSe 19: A(s) norma(s) do português brasileiro I: Níveis linguísticos e variação (MA seminary) [with Dr. Cornelia Döll]
French
SoSe 24: Galloromanische Morphosyntax (BA seminary)
SoSe 24: Gesprochenes Französisch zwischen Universalität und Partikularität (lecture, i.e., ‘Vorlesung’)
FS 21: Le français dans les langues du monde (MA seminary)
WS 20/21: Le français en Amérique du Nord (BA seminary)
FS 17: La partitivité (MA-seminary; with Prof. Elisabeth Stark)
Comparative Romance Linguistics (Ibero-, Gallo- & Italoromance)
WS 23/24: Spanisch in Kolumbien – Portugiesisch in Brasilien: Konvergenzen & Divergenzen (lecture, i.e., ‘Vorlesung’)
WS 22/23: Das Spanische und das Portugiesische aus typologischer Sicht (lecture, i.e., ‘Vorlesung’)
WS 22/23: Einführung in die spanische und portugiesische Sprachwissenschaft (BA seminary)
SoSe 22: Typologie der romanischen Sprachen (MA seminary)
SoSe 22: Differenzielle Objektmarkierung in den romanischen Sprachen (MA seminary)
SoSe 21: Sprache, Identität, Grenzen: Spanisch, Portugiesisch und Französisch in den Amerikas (MA seminary)
WS 20/21: Romanisch – Deutsch im Sprachkontakt: Französisch im Elsass und Italienisch in Südtirol (MA seminary) [with Prof. Beat Siebenhaar & Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer]
HS 17: La determinación nominal en las lenguas iberorrománicas: gramática y variación (MA seminary; with Prof. Johannes Kabatek)
PhD theses (completed)
- Kilian Morawetz: Ellipsen im Spannungsfeld von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit des Spanischen [Ellipses between orality and literacy in Spanish], [second referee; first referee: Prof. Benjamin Meisnitzer, Leipzig]
PhD theses (ongoing)
- Carmen Elvira Braun: Semantics of light verb constructions in Brazilian Portuguese from a typological perspective [second referee; first referee: Prof. Walter Bisang, Mainz]
MA theses
- Second language acquisition and cognitive development: an empirical investigation in Spanish L2 children [first referee; JGU Mainz]
- Sprachliche Strategien der Identitätskonstruktion im frankophonen Roman [first referee; University of Leipzig]
- Bare Singulars in Varietäten des Spanischen – Experimentelle Zugänge [first referee; University of Leipzig]
- Die Weiterentwicklung der differentiellen Objektmarkierung in Mexiko [first referee; University of Leipzig]
- Unerwartete Bare Singulars in Varietäten des Spanischen [first referee; University of Leipzig]
- Spanische Evidentialitätskodierung im Sprachkontakt am Beispiel peruanischer Quechua L1-Sprecher*innen [second referee; University of Leipzig]
- Jugendsprache in Nicaragua – ¿Whatsamaralayuca? Eine soziolinguistische Untersuchung zum Sprachbewusstsein der Jugendlichen aus San Juan del Sur anhand von Lexikologie und Phraseologie [second referee; University of Leipzig]
- Ein Radioprogramm als Spracherhaltungsmaßnahme am Beispiel des Baure (El Beni, Bolivien) [second referee; University of Leipzig]
- Varietäten des Spanischen im sächsischen Klassenzimmer [second referee; University of Leipzig]
- Das Katalanische Algheros im Spannungsfeld von Schriftlichkeit und Mündlichkeit [second referee; University of Leipzig]
- Spanische Transmigrant*innen in Deutschland. Eine Studie zum Sprachgebrauch in Netzwerken und Identitätsbildung von spanischen Migrant*innen [second referee; University of Leipzig]
BA theses
- Segmentale und prosodische Einheiten aus dem gesprochenen Französisch im Senegal [second referee; JGU Mainz]
- Bewegungsereignisse im Spanischen und im Deutschen [second referee; JGU Mainz]
- The use of dialectal features in social media: phonetical and phonological analysis ofAndalusian TikToks [second referee; JGU Mainz]
- Anglizismen in mexikanischen Modemagazinen: ein diachroner Vergleich [first referee; University of Leipzig]
- Spongebob und die Simpsons in Lateinamerika – Gibt es ein phonetisches español neutro? [first referee; University of Leipzig]
- Contacto lingüístico entre el español y el kukama-kukamiria en la comunidad nativa de Puerto Prado: transferencias fonológicas y morfosintácticas en el español amazónico [second referee; University of Leipzig]
Deutscher Romanistenverband
Deutscher Hispanistenverband
Deutscher Lusitanistenverband
Deutscher Katalanistenverband
Balkanromanistenverband Société de Linguistique Romane Societas Linguistica Europaea
Asociación de Historia de la Lengua Española Associação de Brasilianistas na Europa
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft