Vicki Carstens
Professor of Linguistics
Education: Ph.D. UCLA
Research interests: theoretical syntax, African linguistics
Vicki Carstens completed her BA in African Languages and Linguistics at University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her MA and PhD in Linguistics at UCLA. Much of her work is concerned with agreement phenomena and nominal syntax in Bantu languages. In recent years, she has focused on the Nguni languages of South Africa. Her work has appeared in volumes and journals including Linguistic Inquiry, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Language, Lingua, and The Linguistic Review. She teaches courses in linguistic field methods, syntax, and general linguistics.
Representative papers:
| 2024 | The grammar of gender: Insights from Bantu. Handout from NELS 55. |
| To appear. | Nguni bare nouns: licensing without Case. Linguistic Inquiry. linbuzz/003902 |
| To appear. | Bantu Syntax. In J. Zeller (ed.) The Oxford Guide to the Bantu Languages. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. With Michael Diercks. linbuzz/003902 |
| 2020a. | ‘Only’ in Nguni: a phrase-final particle meets antisymmetry theory. With Jochen Zeller. Linguistic Inquiry 51.2: 199-235. linbuzz/004093 |
| 2020b. | Concord and labeling. In Peter Smith, Johannes Mursell, & Katarina Hartman (eds.) Agreement in the Minimalist Program. Language Sciences Press Open Generative Syntax Series, https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/254. DOI:10.5281/zenodo.3541747: 71-116. |
| 2017. | Noun-to-Determiner Movement. In The Blackwell Companion to Syntax. 2nd edition, M. Everaert & H. van Riemsdijk (eds.), 2758-2783. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/book/10.1002/9781118358733. |
| 2016a. | Delayed valuation: a reanalysis of goal features, “upwards” complementizer agreement, and the mechanics of Case. Syntax 19.1:1-42. linbuzz/001432 |
| 2016b. | Head-head relations in “Problems of Projection.” With Norbert Hornstein and T. Daniel Seely. The Linguistic Review 33.1:67-86. linbuzz/001892 |
| 2016c. | Negative concord and nominal licensing in Zulu and Xhosa. With Loyiso Mletshe. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 34.3: 761-804. linbuzz/001938 |
| 2015. | Radical defectivity: implications of Xhosa expletive constructions. With Loyiso Mletshe. Linguistic Inquiry 46.2:187-242. linbuzz/001750 |
| 2013a. | Parameterizing Case and Activity: Hyper-raising in Bantu. With Michael Diercks. In Proceedings of the 40th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Seda Kan, Claire Moore-Cantwell, Robert Staubs (eds), 99-118. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Graduate Linguistic Student Association. linbuzz/001447 |
| 2013b. | Agreeing How? With Michael Diercks. Linguistic Inquiry 44.2:179-237. linbuzz/001389 |
| 2011. | Hyperactivity and Hyperagreement in Bantu. Lingua 121.5:721-741. linbuzz/001754 |
| 2010. | Grammatical gender and the theory of uninterpretable features. In Exploring Crash Proof Grammars. M. Putnam (ed), 31-57. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. linbuzz/001436 |
| 2008. | DP in Bantu and Romance. In The Bantu-Romance Connection, K. Demuth & C. De Cat (eds.). 131-166. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. linbuzz/001950 |
| 2005. | Agree and EPP in Bantu. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 23:219-279. |
| 2003. | Rethinking complementizer agreement. Linguistic Inquiry 34.3:393-412. |
| 2002. | Antisymmetry and word order in serial verb constructions. Language 78.1: 3-50. |
| 2001. | Multiple agreement and Case deletion. Syntax 4.3:147-163. |
| 2000. | Concord in minimalist theory. Linguistic Inquiry 31.2:319-355. |
| 1997. | Empty nouns in Bantu locatives. The Linguistic Review 14:361-410. linbuzz/002224 |
| vicki.carstens@uconn.edu | |
| Phone | (860) 486-9025 |
| CV | Carstens CV 10-24 |
| Office Location | Oak Hall 360 |