Research

| Negation | N-words and NPIs | Argument structure | Laryngealized consonants |
| Left periphery | Language and mind | Other academic work |

 

Negation

My dissertation explores the semantics of the so-called ‘expletive’ negation in temporal adverbial clauses in different languages with special focus on Romance. I argue that negation in these cases is not expletive as it does indeed contribute to the sentence meaning.

Dissertation

(2018) Negation and Time. Against expletive negation in temporal clauses
Ph.D. Dissertation. Stony Brook University.
Advisor: Richard K. Larson
[For my dissertation project, I won the 2017 Madeline Fusco Award and the 2017 Mellon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship]

Selected publications

(2018) Expletive negation is not expletive: Evidence from aspect in Spanish. In Romance Languages & Linguistic Theory. Selected papers from the 46th Linguistics Symposium on Romance Languages, ed. by L. Repetti & F. Ordonez. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

(2017) Against expletive negation: The case of Spanish hasta-clauses. In Proceedings of the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society (2016), ed. by J. Kantarovich, T. Truong & O. Xherija, 101-115. Chicago: CLS.

Selected presentations

(2018) Negation in Korean time measure constructions. Joint work with Jiwon Yun (Stony Brook University). Talk at the 26th Japanese & Korean Linguistics Conference (JK26), UCLA, Dec 1.

(2018) Identifying the role of expletive negation in Spanish hasta-clauses. Talk at the Linguistic Society of America 2018 Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, Jan 7.

(2018) Negation and aspect in Korean since-clauses. Joint work with Jiwon Yun (Stony Brook University). Poster at the Linguistic Society of America 2018 Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, Jan 4.

(2016) Against expletive negation: The case of Spanish hasta-clauses. Talk at the 52nd Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistics Society, University of Chicago, Apr 21.

(2016) Expletive negation is not expletive: Evidence from aspect in Spanish. Talk at the 46th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, Stony Brook University, Apr 1.

(2016) Against expletive negation in Spanish hasta-clauses. Talk at the 40th Penn Linguistics Conference, University of Pennsylvania, Mar 19.

(2016) Expletive negation is not expletive: Evidence from aspect in Spanish. Talk at the 16th Meeting of the Texas Linguistic Society, University of Texas at Austin, Feb 19.

 

N-words and NPIs

I am also researching on the distribution of narrow-scope epistemic indefinites in Romance with respect to negation. The word order in the DP may be altered in some Romance languages as an effect of a microparametric variation regarding the nature of the negative marker.

​Selected presentations

(2016) Word order and polarity in Spanish postnominal alguno. Poster at the Linguistic Society of America 2016 Annual Meeting, Washington DC, Jan 8.

(2015) Word order and polarity in Spanish postnominal alguno. Talk at the Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Sep 25.

(2014) The syntax of Spanish NPI alguno. Talk at SYNC 2014,  Stony Brook University, Dec 6.

 

Argument structure

I am working on verbal argument structure, in particular, ditransitives, causatives, and applicative constructions in Romance.

Selected publications

[submitted] A point of order: Object asymmetries in Spanish and Portuguese ditransitives. Joint work with Sonia Cyrino (University of Campinas).

[submitted] Putting objects in order: Asymmetrical relations in Spanish and Portuguese ditransitives. Joint work with Sonia Cyrino (University of Campinas).

Selected presentations

(2017) Against Double Object Constructions in Spanish and Portuguese: Ditransitives revisited. Joint work with Sonia Cyrino (University of Campinas). Talk at the 47th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, University of Delaware, Apr 21.

(2017) Putting objects in order: Asymmetrical relations in Spanish and Portuguese ditransitives. Joint work with Sonia Cyrino (University of Campinas). Talk at the International Workshop Dative Structures and Beyond, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (Spain), Jan 27.

(2012) A syntactical proposal for Spanish anticausatives with se. Talk at Escola de Verão de Linguística Formal, University of Campinas, Jan 20.

 

Laryngealized consonants

I am researching on the phonotactic restrictions on laryngealized plosives (ejectives and aspirates) in Southern Aymara with respect to the sonority and height of the root-initial segment.

Selected presentations

(2016) Sonority restricts laryngealized plosives in Southern Aymara. Joint work with Michael Becker (Stony Brook University). Talk at the Miami FLing 2016, Florida International University, Mar 10.

(2016) Sonority restricts laryngealized plosives in Southern Aymara. Joint work with Michael Becker (Stony Brook University). Talk at the 42nd Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society, UC Berkeley, Feb 5.

(2016) Sonority restricts laryngealized plosives in Southern Aymara. Joint work with Michael Becker (Stony Brook University). Talk at the CUNY Phonology Forum 2016: Conference on Sonority, CUNY Graduate Center, Jan 14.

​Manuscripts

(2015) Phonotactic constraints on the distribution of root-internal laryngealized consonants in Southern Aymara.

​Selected publications

(2011) Temas fonológicos del aimara de Moquegua (‘Phonological topics in Moqueguan Aymara’). In Adelaar, W.H.F, P. Valenzuela & R. Zariquiey (Eds.). Estudios sobre lenguas andinas y amazónicas. Homenaje a Rodolfo Cerrón-Palomino. Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, pp. 95-124.

Dissertation

(2011) Elementos para la descripción gramatical del aimara de Moquegua (‘Elements for the Grammatical Description of Moquegua Aymara’)
Ph.D. Dissertation. Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú.

 

Left periphery

I am exploring the relation between focus and quantification, and other left-peripheral phenomena in Romance, Quechua and Aymara.

Manuscripts

(2015) An analysis of the Southern Quechua left periphery.

 

Language and mind

I am also interested in language evolution and the relation between language and cognition. This is the focus of research of Mente y Lenguaje, an interdisciplinary group at PUCP which I am a member of.

Selected publications

(2014) Quintanilla, P., C. Mantilla & P. Cépeda (Eds.) Cognición social y lenguaje: La intersubjetividad en la evolución de la especie y en el desarrollo del niño (‘Social Cognition & Language: Intersubjectivity in Evolution & Development’). Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP.

(2014) Cépeda, P. & G. Martínez Vera (2014) Perspectivas sobre el origen y la evolución del componente sintáctico (‘Approaches to the Origins and the Evolution of the Syntactic Component’). In Quintanilla, P., C. Mantilla & P. Cépeda (Eds.). Cognición social y lenguaje: La intersubjetividad en la evolución de la especie y en el desarrollo del niño. Lima: Fondo Editorial PUCP, pp. 395-414.

 

Other academic work

I am interested in higher education pedagogy and the status of women and gender minorities in academia.

Selected presentations

(2018) Spanish in the U.S. at a Major State University in the East Coast. Joint work with Francisco Ordonez (Stony Brook). Talk at the 9th Workshop in Spanish Sociolinguistics, Queens College, NY, April 5.

(2018) Gender bias in linguistics textbooks: Has anything changed since Macaulay & Brice (1997)? Joint work with Katharina Pabst (U. Toronto), Hadas Kotek (NYU), Kristen Syrett (Rutgers), Katharine Donelson (U. Buffalo) & Miranda McCarvel (U. Utah). Talk at the Linguistic Society of America 2018 Annual Meeting, Salt Lake City, UT, Jan 7.