We are pleased to announce that our doctoral researcher Viktor Köhlich will be defending his doctoral dissertation on June 28th at 10:00 c.t. online via Zoom. If you are interested in joining please send an e-mail to Viktor: We wish Viktor good luck and all the best with the preparations!

The closing workshop of GK ‘Nominal Modification’ will take place between May 23-24, 2024 on Campus Westend, Seminarhaus (SH 3.104: presentations & SH 3.105: coffee breaks & posters). We invite previous and current GK members to join us. The program of the event can be found here. If you are planning to join the event (either as a presenter or as a participant), please fill in Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, February 6th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Julien Foglietti. Julien will present his ongoing research on “What’s in a last name? The answer is a presupposition.Experimental and cross-linguistic data into the meaning of last names“(abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 30th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Dimitrios Kotopoulis. Dimitrios will present his ongoing research on “Greek datives: Dependent Case Theory, Late Insertion and Free Variation“(abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 (Seminarhaus, ground floor) & via Zoom To receive a Zoom Continue Reading

Unfortunately Nehir Aygül’s talk has to be cancelled! The next Colloquium talk is set to 30.01.2024. Details are to follow… We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 23th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Nehir Aygül. Nehir will present her ongoing research on “Quantifier Scope: Experimental Investigations in German Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that our doctoral researcher Giacomo Presotto will give a talk on “Amelioration effects in adult comprehension of Spanish ORCs: the role of syntax and processing” at the CONSOLE32 which will take place between January 17-19th 2024, at the Queen Mary University of London. The details of the conference program can Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 16th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Tommaso Mattiuzzi. Tommaso will present his ongoing research on “Bare PPs and the general ban on modification. Quantitative evidence from Italian corpus data” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 (Seminarhaus, ground floor) & via Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 9th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Diletta Comunello. Diletta will present her ongoing research on “Comprehending compositional telicity: the role of measure phrases” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 (Seminarhaus, ground floor) & via Zoom To receive a Zoom link Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, December 12th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Anita Obenaus. Anita will present her ongoing research on “Classifiers in discourse in the Bolivia-Paraná Arawakan languages “ (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 (Seminarhaus, ground floor) & via Zoom To receive a Zoom link Continue Reading

Unfortunately we have to cancel the Colloquim talk on December 5th. Our next meeting will take place on December 12th with a talk by our doctoral researcher Anita Obenaus. xxx We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, December 5th, GK Colloquium will be hosting an talk by our invited guest Edgar Onea (Universität Graz) Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, November 28th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a joint talk by our doctoral researchers Nasimeh Bahmanian and Anna Preßler. Nasimeh and Anna will present their research on “The role of argument structure in relative clause extraposition: A comprehension study in Persian and German” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, November 14th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Giacomo Presotto. Giacomo will present his ongoing research on “On the syntax and processing of Spanish ORCs” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 (Seminarhaus, ground floor) & via Zoom To receive a Zoom link Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, November 7th, GK Colloquium will be hosting the first talk of the semester by our doctoral researcher Maximilian Berthold. Maximilian will present his ongoing research on “On nominal tense and aspect” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 0.106 (Seminarhaus, ground floor) & via Zoom To receive a Zoom Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that our doctoral researcher Anita Obenaus will give a talk on ‘Classifiers in discourse in the Bolivia-Paraná Arawakan languages’ at the Laboratoire Dynamique Du Langage (CNRS) on November 6th between 15:00-16:30. Anita is currently on a research stay at CNRS. The details of the talk be seen in the following Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, July 11th, GK Colloquium will be hosting an online talk by our invited guest Kriszta Eszter Szendrői (Universität Wien) entitled “The syntax and morphology of the noun phrase in Contemporary Hasidic Yiddish“ (abstract). We invite all interested students and researchers to join us for the talk on Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, July 4th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Elli Tourtouri (University of Osnabrück) entitled “The secret lives of adjectives: An information-theoretic perspective on the use of adjectival modification”(abstract). We invite all interested students and researchers to join us for the talk. When: 4:15 Continue Reading

53rd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (INALCO) in Paris will take place between June 26-30, 2023. Four of our doctoral researchers will be participating at the conference and presenting their research. Anna Preßler will present her research entitled “The A-N vs. N-A asymmetry: French adjectives at the Syntax-Phonology Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, June 27th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Mark Van de Velde (LLACAN) entitled “Scenario based explanations for the structure of nominal expressions” (abstract). We invite all interested students and researchers to join us for the talk. When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, June 13th, GK Colloquium will be hosting an online talk by our invited guest Mora Mandonado (Université de Nantes) entitled “Understanding the cross-linguistic distribution of person systems: A behavioural perspective” (abstract). We invite all interested students and researchers to join us for the talk. When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, June 6th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Hedde Zeijlstra (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen) entitled “On the DP-CP identity” (abstract). We invite all interested students and researchers to join us for the talk. When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room IG 205 & via Continue Reading

We are very happy to announce that our invited guest Ken Hiraiwa (Meiji Gakuin University) will be giving a mini course on ‘Decomposing Indeterminates and Composing Indefinite Pronouns’ Date & time: May 24th 2023, 14:00-18:00Location: Campus Westend, Cas 1.802Registration: open for all linguists of GU.Please add your name to the list if you are planning Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, May 23th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Ken Hiraiwa (Meiji Gakuin University) entitled “N’-ellipsis in Japanese and Okinawan: Deletion or Haplology” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room IG 205 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for SoSe2023 please Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that our doctoral researcher Giacomo Presotto will give an invited talk on ‘Neither here nor there. Grammar and processing in the theory of locality’ at the seminar of the “Centre de Lingüística Teòrica” – CLT (Center for Theoretical Linguistics) at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). The talk will be Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, May 16th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Theresa Biberauer (University of Cambridge) entitled “The ‘edge of chaos’ in language variation and change: a minimalist perspective” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room IG 205 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom Continue Reading

The 43rd Annual Meeting of the Department of Linguistics, School of Philosophy, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTh) in Thessaloniki, Greece will take place between May 04-07, 2023. Our GK student Dimitrios Kotopoulis will present his research on May 6th, entitled “Selection by categorizer: evidence from Greek transitive adjectives”. More information on the program and further Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, May 9th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest David Adger (Queen Mary University of London) entitled “Identity Subextraction from nominals in Mereological Syntax” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room IG 205 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for SoSe2023 Continue Reading

The 12th annual meeting of the North American Phonology Conference, hosted by Concordia University in Montreal, will take place between May 11th-14th, 2023. Our GK student Anna Preßler will present a poster, on May 13th, entitled “Do prosodic factors affect the positioning of French attributive adjectives? Evidence from an acceptability judgment task”. More information on Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, April 25, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Orin Percus (Université de Nantes) entitled “Identity issues after Flight AF 006” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room IG 205 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for SoSe2023 please send an Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, April 18, GK Colloquium will be hosting an online talk by our invited guest Tania Ionin (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) entitled “Every configuration is not ambiguous: Experimental investigations into quantifier scope in native and non-native grammars” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Online via Zoomto receive a Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, April 11, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Rowena Garcia (University of Potsdam) entitled “Assigning and ordering thematic roles in Tagalog: Evidence from corpus and experimental work” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room  SH 1.104 & via Zoomto receive a Continue Reading

The new GRADE workshop program for the summer semester 2023 is online and open for registration. The complete program including the respective links for online registration can be found here. The program brochure, including an overview of further GRADE activities, can be seen here. Our close collaborator GRADE Center Language’s funding opportunities and upcoming events can also be seen here.

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, February 7th , GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Niels O. Schiller (Leiden University) entitled “Nominal features in language production: The case of gender and classifier processing” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & via Zoomto receive a Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 31st, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our invited guest Dan Parker (The Ohio State University) entitled “Sometimes more is less: How representational complexity impacts processing Dynamics” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 24th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Anita Obenaus. Anita will present her research on “What makes a classifier a classifier? – Source constructions and the distinction to nominal roots in the Bolivian Arawak languages” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 17th, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher Tommaso Mattiuzzi. Tommaso will present his research on “Bare nouns in any kind of place: approaching Italian bare PPs with corpus data” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, January 10th 22nd, GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by Pilar Barbosa (University of Minho) entitled “The role of little n in the derivation of null arguments” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for WiSe2022/23 please send an e-mail to (). GK Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, December 13th, GK Colloquium will be hosting two talks by our doctoral researchers. Giacomo Presotto will present his research on “Better alone than in bad company. Trade-offs between redundant and deficient cues assist the integration of ORCs.” (abstract) and Dimitrios Kotopoulis will present his research entitled “The case of Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, December 6th, GK Colloquium will be hosting two talks by our doctoral researchers. Maximilian Berthold will present his research entitled “Nominal aktionsarten: a formal account” (abstract) and Julien Foglietti will present her research on “The first name/last name asymmetry – Update on the experimental design and a possible semantic Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, November 29th GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by our doctoral researcher, Nehir Aygül entitled “Computing Quantifier Scope in Scrambling Languages: a study in Turkish” (abstract) . When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for WiSe2022/23 please send Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, November 22nd GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by Louise McNally, Mercator Fellow of RTG ‘Nominal Modification’ (UPF) entitled “Using adjectives for reference: A cross-linguistic perspective” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for WiSe2022/23 please send an Continue Reading

Syntax – Universals, Variation, Acquisition, and Change Workshop, hosted by Oxford University , will take place on 16th-18th November 2022. Our GK student, Viktor Köhlich will attend the workshop and presentr a talk entitled “A Cartographic Analysis of Direct Modifiers in Japanese” on November 17th. More information on the program and registration can be seen here.

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, November 15th GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by Norvin Richards  (MIT) entitled “Finding something to lean on: linkers and modification in Contiguity Theory” (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 5.101 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for WiSe2022/23 please send an e-mail Continue Reading

RTG ‘Nominal Modification’ offers a doctoral researcher position (E13 TV-GU, 65%), with the focus on language acquisition. Duration of the funding is 12 months. Application due date is November 22, 2022. For further information and requirements please check out the job announcement here.

Experimental approaches to Romance Morphology (ExMorph22), hosted by University of Vienna, will take place on 26th-27th October 2022. Our GK student, Giacomo Presotto will attend the workshop with a talk entitled “The role of DOM in Spanish children’s comprehension of ORCs”. More information on the program and registration can be seen here.

GK doctoral researchers are organising a two-day Workshop on Word Order in the Nominal Domain (WONDo): Factors, Perspectives & Approaches. The workshop will take place between November 10-11, 2022 on Campus Westend (Cas 1.811) of Goethe University (homepage). The workshop will host talks both by doctoral researchers, GK alumni and invited speakers. Participation is free Continue Reading

We are very excited to share that Colloquim Program of RTG ‘Nominal Modification’ in Winter Semester 2022/23 is now online. The Colloquim will host talks by invited speakers as well as the doctoral researchers of RTG working on various aspects of Nominal Modification. For more updates and details check our website and keep an eye Continue Reading

We are very happy to announce that Louise McNally will be visiting RTG ‘Nominal Modification’ as Mercator Fellow in November 2022 (01.10-29.10). McNally will be offering two Mini-Courses and a Colloquim talk during her stay at Goethe University (see below for more details). Prof. McNally will also be meeting our senior and junior researchers to Continue Reading

The 18th annual meeting of the Phonetik und Phonologie im deutschsprachigen Raum Conference (P&P 18), hosted by University of Bielefeld, will take place on October 6th-7th, 2022. Our GK student, Anna Preßler will attend the conference with a poster entitled “Rhythmic alternation or alternation rythmique? Prosodic factors in the positioning of a sub-class of attributive adjectives in Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, July 12th  GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by Shota Momma (UMass) entitled “Structure building in speaking“ (abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 1.104 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for SoSe2022 please send an e-mail to (). GK Colloquium is open Continue Reading

We are happy to announce that on Tuesday, July 5th  GK Colloquium will be hosting a talk by Alexandra Simonenko (Ghent University) entitled “What can historical treebanks teach us about noun phrase semantics?“(abstract). When: 4:15 pm-6:00 pm (CET)Where: Campus Westend Room SH 1.104 & via Zoomto receive a Zoom link for SoSe2022 please send an e-mail Continue Reading