Professor of Linguistics

Research Interests

Language universals and their explanation; comparative syntactic theory; the expression of information structure in natural language; incomplete acquisition (heritage languages); Austronesian languages (esp. Malagasy, Maori) and languages of the Caucasus (esp. Tsez, Kabardian).

Representative Publications

"Subject Preference in Korean".  In Proceedings of the 25th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics.

"Word class distinctions in an incomplete grammar" (2005) In Dorit Ravid and Hava Bat-Zeev Shyldkrot, eds. Perspectives on language and language development, 419-436. Dordrecht: Kluwer.

"Gender under incomplete acquisition". Heritage Language Journal 6, (2008).

"The syntax and semantics of wanting in Indonesian". Lingua 1369 (2007).

"Linguistic Typology and Theory Construction: Common Challenges Ahead". Linguistic Typology 11 (2007).

"Heritage Languages:  In the 'Wild' and in the classroom".  Language and Linguistic Compass 1/5 (2007).

"Without Aspect". (in press).

Mailing Address
Department of Linguistics
314 Boylston Hall
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA 02138

Office Telephone: (617) 495-9339
Email: polinsky@fas.harvard.edu