andrea06 [at] uni-potsdam [dot] de
Universität Potsdam
Campus Golm, House 14, Room 2.19
Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24/25
14476 Potsdam, Germany
phone: +49 331 977 2734
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Unless you're a person capable of signing language in addition to speaking it, you have no choice but to utter words one after another. It's so strange that changing the order can leave us with such a gut-wrenching feeling of displeasure, a feeling that what we've just heard is simply wrong regardless of the content.
I am a syntactician mainly interested in word order phenomena. This concerns, first, the manifestations of word order variability within and across languages, and second, the potential consequences of word order configurations for other syntactic phenomena. My main approach is gathering judgements and comments to preconstructed items in fieldwork. In keeping with my late mentor, Gisbert Fanselow, I gather(ed) original data for a range of languages in order to put generalisations to a crosslinguistic test with controlled data (in chronological order): Norwegian, Swedish, Tibetan, Palestinian Arabic, Ivrit, Amharic, Kalhori Kurdish, Kalallisut, Finnish, Udmurt, Estonian, Standard Dargwa, Tagalog, Komi-Zyrian, Uyghur, Georgian, Meadow Mari, Veps, South Sámi, Korean, and Eastern Armenian.
Here are some of the phenomena I deal with on a daily basis:
I'm working in the CHAOS-project (C08, Consequences of Head- Argument Order for Syntax) of the SFB 1287. There we test for those things mentioned above across the world.
I am glad to be part of the HoPSS-project in Budapest (How prosody shapes word order: An integrated interface-based approach to the post-verbal domain in OV languages). In this project with Balázs Suranyi, Lena Borise, Erika Asztalos, Nikolett Mus, Katalin Gugán, and Gergő Turi, we explore the diversity of postverbal elements in OV languages. We aim at finding out what the syntactic structures underlying postverbal elements are, and determine which part prosody plays in bringing about these postverbal elements.
6.6.2024 PhD (University of Potsdam)
BSc General and Theoretical Linguistics (University of Potsdam), MSc Linguistics (University of Potsdam)
Pregla, Andreas. 2024. Word order variability in OV languages. A study on scrambling, verb movement, and postverbal elements with a focus on Uralic languages. PhD thesis, University of Potsdam. Available at doi:10.25932/publishup-64363
Seržant, I.A., S. Say, A. Hölzl, A. Zakirova, X. Gao, A. Pregla, N. Adam. accepted. A typology of positional differential argument marking. Linguistic Typology
Borise, Lena, Andreas Pregla, and Balázs Surányi. accepted. Raised and in-situ preverbal foci: a unified prosodic account. Journal of Linguistics. Pre-final manuscript available at lingbuzz/008534
Pregla, Andreas, with Lena Borise & Balázs Surányi. 2025. The challenge of postverbal adverbs and PP-adverbials in flexibly verb-final languages. In Marika Lekakou, Kriszta Szendrői, and Rob Truswell (eds.): Generation Flex: Flexible Syntax, 25 years on. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Hölzl, A., Adam, N., and Pregla, A. 2024. Eliciting data for the OV/VO alternation. Technical report, UPotsdam. Available at https://osf.io/t4yrw
Häussler, Jana, Anne Mucha, Andreas Schmidt, Thomas Weskott, and Marta Wierzba. 2019. Experimenting with Lurchi. V2 and agreement violations in poetic contexts. In Brown, J.M.M., Andreas Schmidt, and Marta Wierzba (eds.) Of Trees and Birds. A Festschrift for Gisbert Fanselow, 307–321. Potsdam, Germany: Universitätsverlag Potsdam. Available at https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42654
Schmidt, A. 2016. Udmurt as an OV language. And Finnish as a VO language. Master's thesis, University of Potsdam. Available at lingbuzz/002907
Pregla, A., L. Borise, and B. Surányi. 2024. The challenge of postverbal adverbs and PP-adverbials in flexibly verb-final languages. Upcoming talk at Flexible Syntax 2024, workshop at the Institute of Linguistics, UVienna, 8-9 November 2024
Pregla, A. 2024. Scrambling and lack thereof in Uralic OV. Invited talk at the Uralic Information Centre, 30 October 2024
Pregla, A. 2024. The unique status of South Sámi SAuxOV among Uralic and the languages of the world. Invited talk at the Finno-Ugric/Uralic department LMU München, 21 September 2024
Pregla, A. and E. Asztalos. Postverbal elements in Udmurt and Estonian are derived by verb movement. Talk given at SOUL 5, UHamburg, 12-13 September 2024. Slides available here
Pregla, A. and A. Hölzl. Agent anaphors in Nepali. Talk given at SWL 9, PUCP Lima, 23-24 July 2024. Slides available here
Pregla, A. 2023. Postverbal elements in OV languages. Invited talk, HU Berlin, 31 October 2023. Handout available here
Pregla, A. 2023. Investigating word order variation in Uralic languages. Lecture at Summer School in Uralic Formal Linguistics, Hungarian Research Center for Linguistics Budapest, 21–26 august 2023, material available here
Asztalos, E., Borise, L., Gugán, K., Mus, N., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B. 2022. Towards more flexible verb-finality via a reanalysis of prosodic structure. Talk given at Third AMC Symposium “Change in syntax and phonology: the same or different?”, U Edinburgh, 5–7 december 2022
Asztalos, E., Borise, L., Gugán, K., Mus, N., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B. 2022. From rigid to flexible verb-finality. A prosodically motivated information-structural account of word order change. Talk given at ICHL 25, U Oxford, 1–5 august 2022
Schmidt, A., Asztalos, E., Borise, L., Gugán, K., Mus, N. & Surányi, B. 2022. From rigid to flexible verb-finality. A prosodically motivated information-structural account of word order change. Talk given at the Syntax/Semantik-Kolloquium, U Potsdam, 21 june 2022
Borise, L., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B. 2022. A unified account of preverbal foci in the languages of the Caucasus and beyond. Talk given at Theoretical Linguistics and Languages of the Caucasus, Istanbul Bilgi University, 18–19 june 2022
Schmidt, A. 2022. South Sámi in the typology of SAuxOV languages. Talk given at Syntax of Uralic Languages 4, online, 14–16 june 2022
Asztalos, E., Borise, L., Gugán, K., Mus, N., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B . 2022. From rigid to flexible verb-finality. A prosodically motivated information-structural account of word order change. Talk given at the Syntax of Uralic Languages 4, online, 14–16 june 2022
Borise, L., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B. 2022. Raised and in-situ preverbal foci. A unified account. Talk given at 3rd International Conference Prominence in Language, SFB 1252 Cologne, 2–3 june 2022
Borise, L., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B. 2022. Raised and in-situ preverbal foci. A unified prosodic account. Talk given presented at General Linguistic Colloquium, U Göttingen, 4 may 2022
Borise, L., Schmidt, A. & Surányi, B. 2022. Raised and in-situ preverbal foci. A unified prosodic account. Poster presented at GLOW 45, Queen Mary University of London, 27–29 april 2022
Schmidt, A. 2021. Non-scrambling OV languages. Talk given at the Syntax/Semantik-Kolloquium, U Potsdam, 16 november 2021
Schmidt, A. 2020. South Sámi in the typology of the Uralic languages and SAuxOV languages. Talk held given at the Syntax/Semantik-Kolloquium, U Potsdam, 21 april 2020
Schmidt, A. 2019. South Sámi in the typology of the Uralic languages and SAuxOV languages. Talk held at SAALS 4, Uppsala, 14–15 november 2019.
Schmidt, A. and Balázs Surányi. 2019. Hungarian as an OV language. A reappraisal. Talk held at SOUL 2019, Tartu, 18–19 june 2019.
Schmidt, A. 2018. On the locus of directionality. Talk given at the Kolloqium Syntax und Semantik, HU Berlin, 11 june 2018. Feel free to ask me for the handout!
Schmidt, A. 2018. On the locus of directionality. Talk given at the Syntax/Semantik-Kolloquium, U Potsdam, 17 june 2018
Schmidt, A. and Gisbert Fanselow. 2018. Non-scrambling OV languages. Talk given at the Clause Typing and the Syntax-to-Discourse Relation in Head-Final Languages Workshop, U Konstanz, 15-17 may 2018. Feel free to ask me for a copy!
Schmidt, A. 2018. Коми-Зырян может быть первый SVXO-язык [Komi-Syrjan could be the first SVXO-language]. Talk given at IFUSCO 2018, Tartu, 4 may 2018
Schmidt, A. 2017. The exceptional syntactic profile of South Sámi as compared to other Uralic OV languages. Talk given at Uurali süntaksi päev, Tartu, 16 November 2017. Feel free to mail me for the handout!
Schmidt, A. 2017. Towards a typology of word order variation in the Uralic languages. Talk given at 34th IFUSCO, Warsaw, 18–22 September 2017
Schmidt. A. 2017. Towards a typology of word order variation in the Uralic languages. Poster presented at 14. Doktorandentag, HU Berlin, Institut für Deutsche Sprache und Linguistik
Schmidt, A. 2017. Towards a typology of word order variation in the Uralic languages. Poster presented at SOUL 2017, Budapest, 27–28 June 2017. Available here
Schmidt, A. 2017. Postverbal elements in OV languages. An overview and a case study of Sout Sámi. Talk given at the 2nd Budapest-Potsdam-Lund Colloqiuum, Lund, 15–16 June 2017. Available here
Schmidt, A. 2017. Systematic syntactic differences between OV and VO languages beyond word order correlations. Guest lecture, Trondheim, Department of Language and Literature, 12 May 2017
Schmidt, A. 2016. Diagnosing the VP structure of OV and VO languages. Talk given at the 13th Conference on Typology and Grammar for Young Scholars, St. Petersburg, 24–26 November 2016. Available at http://www.youngconfspb.com/e/proshedshie-konferencii/informacionnoe-pismo/proceedings-13th-conference-typology-and-grammar-young-scholars-handouts-presentations
Brown, J.M.M., Andreas Schmidt, and Marta Wierzba. 2019. Of Trees and Birds. A Festschrift for Gisbert Fanselow. Potsdam, Germany: Universitätsverlag Potsdam. Available at: https://doi.org/10.25932/publishup-42654
winter term 2024/25: Introduction to linguistics, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2024: Introduction to semantics, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2024: LaTeX typesetting, BA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2023/24: Research internships in syntax, MA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2023/24: Hierarchy and word order, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2023: Uncovering the structure beneath the surface, MA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2023: Uralic morphosyntax, BA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2022/23: Hierarchy and word order + syntactic fieldwork, BA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2022/23: Research internships in syntax, MA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2022: Uncovering the structure beneath the surface, MA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2022: Research internships in syntax, MA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2022: The psycholinguistic reality of linguistic theories, BA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2021/22: Hierarchy and word order + syntactic fieldwork, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2021: Uralic syntax and morphology, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2021: Uncovering the structure beneath the surface, MA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2020/21: Hierarchy and word order + syntactic fieldwork, BA level, University of Potsdam
corona term 2020: Introduction to semantics, BA level, University of Potsdam
here are my cringy livestreams
winter term 2019/20: The psychological reality of linguistic theories, MA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2019/20: Intro to phonetics and phonology, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2019: Syntax of German (with Marta Wierzba), BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2019: Uralic syntax and morphology, BA level, University of Potsdam
the student's Wikipedia contributions:
Informationsstruktur, Mandinka, Генеративна Граматика
winter term 2018/19: Hierarchy and word order + syntactic fieldwork, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2018: Uralic syntax and morphology, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2018: LaTeX typesetting, BA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2017/18: Hierarchy and word order + syntactic fieldwork, BA level, University of Potsdam
summer term 2017: LaTeX Typesetting, BA level, University of Potsdam
winter term 2016/17: Uralic syntax and morphology, BA/MA level, University of Potsdam
the student's Wikipedia contributions:
Pitesámi, North Sámi, Mansi, Khanty, Nganasan, Tundra Nenets Grammar, Tundra Nenets, Udmurt
winter term 2016/17: Hierarchy and word order, BA level, University of Potsdam
I was part of the Junior Teaching Professionals program in 2017/2018 offered by the Potsdam Graduate School. I feel much more accomplished and confident about teaching ever since.