Daniel Clayton

Postgraduate research student in formal and functional linguistics

Syntactic, morphological and semantic typology, formal and functional syntax, language description and documentation, language diversity, typological universals and parameters

At present, I am a Master's by Research student at the University of York, supervised by Dr. Imke Driemel. I work on constituent order with a focus on object-initial orders from both a formal and typological-functional approach.

Recently, I graduated with an MSc with distinction in Linguistics with a focus on formal syntax and typology, supervised by Professor George Tsoulas. Prior to this, I completed a PGDip in Applied Linguistics at the University of Birmingham and a BA in Arabic at the University of Manchester. My BA dissertation focused on variation in tense and aspect in a sample of the varieties of Arabic, supervised by Professor Yaron Matras.

In my current work, I adopt a deliberately hybrid approach that draws on both formal and functional-typological perspectives, treating them as complementary rather than competing frameworks.

More generally, my research orientation is empiricist and typologically informed, with broad interests in functional syntax and morphology, syntactic, morphological and semantic typology, and the description and documentation of indigenous and under-documented languages, particularly as they bear on questions of linguistic diversity, typological universals and parameters, and syntactic theory.

Within this broader agenda, I am especially interested in typologies of tense–aspect–mood–evidentiality (TAME), object-initial word orders (OVS and OSV), negation typology, agreement and parameter hierarchies.

I am particularly drawn to Amerindian languages, especially languages of the Amazon and of North America, as well as Polynesian languages and languages of the Caucasus, although I am generally motivated by opportunities for cross-linguistic study, particularly where the data and phenomena are rare or underrepresented in both theoretical and typological scholarship.

I’m an avid language learner. I’ve studied dozens of different languages from different regions of the world and language families. At the moment I’m mostly focusing on maintaining my French, Russian and Arabic, as well as developing my Spanish and Portuguese. Additionally, I have recently been trying to learn (albeit it slowly) some Anishinaabemowin (Ojibwe), Michif, Paraguayan Guaraní and Georgian. I would also like to continue learning more Navajo, Lakota, Hixkaryana and Egyptian Arabic in the future, as well as start Quechua, Mohawk and Cree. The challenge of learning these languages, however, is not in the grammar or phonology, but the lack of accessible learning resources. 

I hope to pursue a PhD in language description and documentation with a focus on the functional morphosyntax of an indigenous language.

I am influenced by a number of syntacticians, typologists and field linguists, including Robert Dixon, Lyle Campbell, John Payne (University of Manchester), Marianne Mithun, Joseph Greenberg, Daniel Everett, Mark Baker, and Matthew Dryer.

daniel.clayton@york.ac.uk