[BA (Hons) Oviedo '05; Dip. Kent '05; MA Essex '07; MA Connecticut '10; PhD Connecticut '12]

CV in English; CV en español

[email protected]  

Keywords: linguistics, theoretical syntax, syntactic variation, applied linguistics, the acquisition of syntax, bilingualism, English, Spanish, Romance

Dr Julio Villa-García [xúli̯o βíʝa ɣaɾθía] is currently an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and English Language at the University of Manchester. Since the end of 2024, Dr Julio Villa-García has been an Associate Professor of English Linguistics at the University of Oviedo, in the Principality of Asturias, Spain (tenured; civil-service post).

Up to 2021, Dr Villa-García was a Senior Lecturer (USA: Associate Professor; Sp.: Profesor Titular de Universidad) in the Department of Linguistics & English Language at The University of Manchester, UK (on leave 2021-2024), having come to Manchester from the USA as a Lecturer in 2015.

In the course of his PhD at the University of Connecticut, Dr Villa-García was trained as a theoretical syntactician and as a language acquisitionist, working within the framework of Minimalism. His current interests lie in the area of syntax, with particular attention to its (micro-)variation. He has worked on English, Spanish and, to a lesser extent, the West Iberian Romance language Asturian. Other interests include child language acquisition, bilingualism and the application of theoretical linguistics research to foreign-/second-language pedagogy.

Dr Villa-García's focus is theoretical and descriptive syntax and, in some degree, monolingual and bilingual first language syntactic acquisition. His research outcomes have appeared in premiere professional journals, including (but not limited to) Glossa, Languages, The Linguistic Review, Probus, Journal of Linguistics, Isogloss, and Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, as well as in prestigious outlets, such as Cambridge University Press (CUP), Oxford University Press (OUP), De Gruyter Mouton, Akal, and John Benjamins. Dr Villa-García's research into syntax so far has been concerned with issues pertaining to: 

- syntactic variation, esp. microvariation (i.e., dialectal variation in syntax);

- the syntax-phonology interface;

- the structural geometry of the leftmost portion of (Spanish and English) clauses (i.e., the CP/left periphery) and its consequences for clausal structure and for syntactic theorising more generally;

- complementiser systems (i.e., that-like elements), esp. reduplicative complementisers (cf. recomplementation);

- subjecthood (from any standpoint);

- locality of movement (i.e., constraints on long-distance dependencies);

- left-dislocations/topics, including topicalisations and hanging topics, questions, and exclamatives (and their implications for word order possibilities);

- negative imperatives (i.e., commands);

- clitics (i.e., weak pronouns), including enclisis/proclisis in Asturian and the phenomenon of clitic climbing;

- ellipsis; and

- polarity (i.e., yes/no) and emphasis. 

Dr Villa-García has presented widely on a host of topics in syntax and its variation and acquisition, alongside engagement and knowledge-transfer topics such as multilingualism as well as the benefits of applying the scientific method to the teaching/learning of foreign languages, with particular attention to grammar. His 2019 TEDx talk on Why Bilingualism is So Natural can be viewed on YouTube, and a 2019 interview for the Spanish Radio and Television Corporation (RTVE) on the Spanish language around the world can be listened to here. (The CV contains links to other relevant talks). Since 2021, Dr Villa-García has been the scientific coordinator of the Bilingualism Series organised by the Instituto Cervantes of Manchester and Leeds, now in its fifth edition. His recent general-audience book Lingüística para la vida: the sky is the limit (Linguistics for Life) will be published by Akal (Madrid) (Linguistics Series) in 2025.

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For previous courses taught at the University of Oviedo, at The University of Manchester, at Villanova University, and at the University of Connecticut, see CV. Dr Villa-García's historical narrative and summative teaching evaluations for all courses taught to date are publicly available in .pdf format here (and the CV contains a summary).