About

My name is Elise Newman and I recently finished my PhD at the MIT linguistics department. I have just moved to Scotland, where I am excited to begin a postdoctoral research position at the University of Edinburgh! I work primarily on syntax and semantics, with additional interests in first language acquisition. My dissertation studies interactions between wh-movement and argument structure alternations in a number of languages, and explores how a theory of such interactions might inform our theories of the syntax-semantics-lexicon interface. You can find out more about my work in the "Research" section.

Outside of being a linguist, I enjoy soccer, ceramics, and hiking/cycling.

Thesis

Newman, E. (2021). The (in)distinction between wh-movement and c-selection.

Papers

Newman, E. (2021). On the interpretation of tense in temporal adverbial clauses. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 6(1): 12. 1-30. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1429

Gowda, Y., E. Newman, L. Rosenstein, and M. Hackl (2020). Scalar inferences in the acquisition of even. Frontiers in Communication, section Language Sciences: 5, p. 117. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.593634.

Newman, E. (to appear). vP infinitives in Wolof: on A'-movement to Spec vP. ACAL 2019 Proceedings: Preprint version.

Newman, E. (2020). Facilitator effects in middles and more. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 5(1), 62. DOI: http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.990

Presentations

"C-selection and the verb phrase". Invited talk at the Oberseminar English Linguistics, University of Goettingen, May 10, 2022. Handout.

"The order of operations and A/A-bar interactions". LASER Kickoff Workshop, Winter 2021. Handout.

"The order of operations and A/A-bar/agreement interactions". Invited talk at the Yale Syntax Reading Group, Fall 2021. Handout.

"The future since Stump". LSA 2020. Poster.

"vP-infinitives in Wolof: on A'-movement to Spec vP". ACAL 2019. Handout.

"Polarity sensitivity of even in early child grammar". GALANA 2018. Co-presented with Yadav Gowda, Leo Rosenstein and Martin Hackl. Poster.

"Polarity sensitivity of even in early child grammar". Learnability in a Parametric World 2018. Co-presented with Yadav Gowda, Leo Rosenstein and Martin Hackl. Slides.

"In do-support of phrasal auxiliary movement." OLINCO 2018. Handout.

"The Lubukusu agreeing complementizer." LSA 2018 workshop on the syntax of clausal arguments in Bantu. Co-presented with Danfeng Wu. Handout.

Unpublished manuscripts

On the movement/(anti)agreement correlation in Romance and Mayan.Ms. 2020.

"In do-support of phrasal auxiliary movement."Ms. 2018.

General's paper on especially.

Undergraduate thesis on the Shanghainese ne construction.

Undergraduate thesis in physics about an experiment designed to measure sterile neutrinos.