Historical Linguistics


	Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (Emerita) Wendy's research interests are: History of the French language; Variation and change in French, from the sixteenth century to the present day; History of linguistic thought; Linguistic standardisation and codification; Language policy and ideology
	Ledgeway, Adam Adam Ledgeway's research interests include the comparative history and morphosyntax of the Romance languages, Italian dialectology, Latin, Italo-Greek, syntactic theory, linguistic change and language contact. His research is channelled towards bringing together traditional Romance philological scholarship with the insights of recent linguistic theory.
	Roberts, Ian Professor Roberts’ research is in theoretical linguistics, more specifically in comparative syntax. His work is set against the background assumptions argued for by Noam Chomsky: that there exists a specific human cognitive capacity for language which is present at birth and requires simple environmental stimulation in order for linguistic competence in the mother tongue to develop during the early years of life. The theory of this capacity is known as Universal Grammar.
	Sitaridou, Ioanna Ioanna's research interests are: dialectal and diachronic syntax: word order phenomena, null subjects, complementation, infinitives, null objects, subjunctive obviation; Micro-variation; Acquisition (especially L2 and heritage languages) and language change; Language Contact; Syntactic phylogenies and reconstruction
	Watts, Sheila Sheila specialises in the historical linguistics of German and related languages. She has published on verb categories and on gender in Old Saxon and Old High German. A further interest is in the history of linguistic ideas about German, where she has published on the grammarian Justus Georg Schottelius and the lexicographer Caspar Stieler.

Ayres-Bennett, Wendy (Emerita)

Wendy's research interests are: History of the French language; Variation and change in French, from the sixteenth century to the present day; History of linguistic thought; Linguistic standardisation and codification; Language policy and ideology

Ledgeway, Adam

Adam Ledgeway's research interests include the comparative history and morphosyntax of the Romance languages, Italian dialectology, Latin, Italo-Greek, syntactic theory, linguistic change and language contact. His research is channelled towards bringing together traditional Romance philological scholarship with the insights of recent linguistic theory.

Roberts, Ian

Professor Roberts’ research is in theoretical linguistics, more specifically in comparative syntax. His work is set against the background assumptions argued for by Noam Chomsky: that there exists a specific human cognitive capacity for language which is present at birth and requires simple environmental stimulation in order for linguistic competence in the mother tongue to develop during the early years of life. The theory of this capacity is known as Universal Grammar.

Sitaridou, Ioanna

Ioanna's research interests are: dialectal and diachronic syntax: word order phenomena, null subjects, complementation, infinitives, null objects, subjunctive obviation; Micro-variation; Acquisition (especially L2 and heritage languages) and language change; Language Contact; Syntactic phylogenies and reconstruction

Watts, Sheila

Sheila specialises in the historical linguistics of German and related languages. She has published on verb categories and on gender in Old Saxon and Old High German. A further interest is in the history of linguistic ideas about German, where she has published on the grammarian Justus Georg Schottelius and the lexicographer Caspar Stieler.