Ed Cormany
Ph.D., Linguistics

interests

I work on syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and their interrelationship
Apparently a word has been coined for this: pragmantax, which makes me a pragmantactician

I'm particularly interested in imperatives
More generally I'm interested in the discourse effects that all clause types have, and how they are encoded

I also moonlight as a historical linguist

dissertation

A Preference Analysis of Imperatives: Connecting Syntax, Semantics, and Pragmatics

I defended my dissertation in May 2013. The final version was filed and accepted in August 2013.

As with every dissertation, the writing has to stop at some point, but the thinking continues! If you have questions, feedback, or ideas on other directions I could take this research, I'd love to hear from you.

teaching

I independently developed the curriculum for a first-year writing seminar called “How to Build a Language” in 2008, and the course has since been taught five times (four times by me, and once by another graduate student instructor). The course introduces students to core linguistic concepts via constructed languages (conlangs), focuses on the differences between language and writing, and emphasizes a learn-by-doing approach — every student develops and defends their own conlang as a final project.

I have TA'd for Introduction to Linguistics and acted as a grading assistant for several other linguistics courses

papers and posters

Unless otherwise indicated, all papers are available under a Creative Commons BY-NC license

(2013) Exceptional Imperative Constructions are Semantically Regular
Workshop on Semantic Variation – poster / handout

(2013) Distinguishing Clause-Typing and Subject Positions in Imperatives
PLC 37 – poster / handout

(2013) Left-Peripheral Interactions in English Imperatives
LSA 2013 – poster / handout

(2012) Defining Relevance for Imperatives in Discourse
AMPRA 1 – handout / submitted paper

(2012) Imperative Answers to Questions Under Discussion
TLS 13 – paper / handout

(2011) Imposing Preferences on Discourse: Imperatives and Other Commands
WECOL 2011 – submitted paper

(2011) Changes in Friulano Subject Clitics: Conflation and Interactions with the Left Periphery
DiGS XII – pre-print paper

(2011) Agree and Ergative Case-marking in Hindi and Nez Perce
LSA 2011 – poster / handout

(2010)Velle-type prohibitions in Latin: The rise and fall of a morphosyntactic conspiracy
ICHL XIX – published paper ©