Personal profile

Biography

Research interests

  • Information Structure
  • Syntax
  • Semantics
  • Romance Linguistics
  • Experimental Linguistics
  • Corpus Linguistics

Overview

PhD research project: 'The syntax-discourse interface: A comparative study of Catalan and Spanish'.

Supervisors: Prof Delia Bentley & Dr Julio Villa-García

My PhD investigates the syntax and information structure interface in Catalan and Spanish, two closely related Romance languages. In the Romance languages, different word order configurations may constraint the information partition of a sentence, i.e., limit the scope of the focus or non-presupposed information. Catalan is more restrictive than Spanish when it comes to allowing different focus structure interpretations with non-canonical word order configurations. In particular, I am interested in studying sentence-focus constructions in VS order, that is, a sentence that is felicitous when uttered in an ‘out-of-the-blue’ situation and where the subject appears postverbally. I will collect corpus and experimental data from native speakers of Catalan and Spanish in order to investigate the interaction of syntax and information structure in these languages. In comparing both languages, I hope to assess to what extent they are distinct in sentence-focus VS structures.

 

Activities and esteem

  • Manuscript reviewer for Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics (SHLL), De Gruyter editorial (blind peer review, ad hoc) (2025)
  • Organising Committee for the Manchester Forum in Linguistics 2024 (Lead Organiser)
  • Postgraudate Research Student representative for the Department of Linguistics and English Lanugage (2023 - 2024)
  • Peer Advisor for the School of Arts Languages and Cultures (2022-2024)
  • Graduate Teaching Assistant representative for the Department of Linguistics and English Lanugage (2021-2023)
  • Organising Committee for the Manchester Forum in Linguistics 2023 (Lead Organiser)
  • Organising Committee for the Manchester Forum in Linguistics 2022 (Social media & Website Co-ordinator)
  • Lab Assistant at the Psycholinguistics Lab at The University of Manchester
    (2018-2019)
  • MA student representative for the Department of Linguistics and English Lanugage (2018-2019)

Prizes and awards

  • AHRC NWCDTP Conference fund 2024 - £496.98 awarded for conference attendance
  • Research in Action' Image Competition (Postgraduate Summer Research Showcase 2024 - The University of Manchester) - Finalist
  • AHRC NWCDTP Conference fund 2024 - £437 araeded for conference attendance
  • The University of Manchester Travel Award Reports 2024 - £100 awarded for best report (H. E. David Travelling Scholarship Fund 2023)
  • AHRC NWCDTP Student Development Fund 2024 - £220 to visit placement partner
  • AHRC NWCDTP Knowledge Exchange Placement - 3-month stipend extension for placement programme
  • Student Union's Academic Awards 2024 - Postgraduate Student Rep of the year (Highly commended)
  • SALC Travel fund 2024 - £150 for conference attendance
  • AHRC NWCDTP Conference fund 2023 - £754 for conference attendance
  • AHRC NWCDTP Student Development Fund - £398 for summer school course attendance
  • AHRC NWCDTP Student Development Fund - £300 for summer school course attendance
  • @Methods Manchester 2023 - £300 for summer school course attendance
  • H. E. David Travelling Scholarship Fund 2023 - £700 for summer school attendance
  • AHRC NWCDTP Conference fund 2023 - £930.50 for conference attendance
  • AHRC NWCDTP Fieldwork Travel Fund 2023 - £1,432.28 
  • AHRC NWCDTP Student Development Fund 2022 - £490 for summer school attendance
  • 'Research in Action' Image Competition (Postgraduate Summer Research Showcase 2022 - The University of Manchester) - £150 winner prize
  • AHRC NWCDTP Conference fund 2022 - £527.10 for conference attendance
  • AHRC NWCDTP +3 PhD Award (2021-2024) ~ £60,000
  • President’s Doctoral Scholar (PDS)  +3.5 PhD Award (2021-2025) ~ £70,000  (declined in favour of AHRC NWCDTP).

Teaching

Memberships of committees and professional bodies

  • Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB)
  • Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW) 
  • Associació de Joves Investigadors en Llengua i Literatura Catalanes (AJILL)

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 4 - Quality Education

Education/Academic qualification

Linguistics Summer School, Eastern Generative Grammar (EGG)

24 Jul 20234 Aug 2023

Linguistics Summer School, Eastern Generative Grammar (EGG)

25 Jul 20225 Aug 2022

Master of Arts, Linguistics, The University of Manchester

15 Sept 201815 Sept 2019

Linguistics Summer School - Experimental Pragmatics: Theory, Methods, Interfaces, Humboldt-Universit ̈

5 Aug 201916 Aug 2019

Bachelor of Arts, English Studies, Universitat de Barcelona

15 Sept 201430 Jun 2018

Bachelor of Arts, Erasmus Programme at Linguistics and English Language Department, The University of Manchester

15 Sept 201630 Jun 2017