I am Associate Professor (førsteamanuensis) of Modern English Language and Linguistics in the Department of Language and Literature of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim.

I specialize in generative syntax with a secondary focus on semantics. My work particularly focuses on the syntax and semantics of ellipsis (especially clausal ellipsis), dialect and register variation (particularly syntactic and semantic features of dialects of English, especially Scottish English, and of ‘reduced written register’ such as diaries, text messages, headlines etc.), and cartographic approaches to syntax.

I am a member of the AcqVA (Acquisition, Variation, and Attrition) research group, a joint project between NTNU and UiT the Arctic University of Norway (Tromsø). Within that group, I lead the thematic subgroup “Dialect and register in the individual“.

Recent happenings

• I presented some rough thoughts on the mysterious behavior of English ‘predicate that‘, and Scandinavian ‘predicate det‘, at a colloquium at CASTL/UiT.
• I was an invited speaker at the workshop “The Timing of Ellipsis” (arranged by Anikó Lipták and Güliz Günes, Leiden), at the annual meeting of Societas Linguistica Europaea, Tallinn University. I mused on the apparent relation between ‘left-edge ellipsis’ (Postman been yet? = has the postman…) and clausal ellipsis, giving an account which locates both processes at the syntax-PF interface. The handout is here. There will hopefully be a chapter in an edited collection (with OUP) emerging from this workshop.
• A chapter on “Negative fragment answers” should hopefully appear soon in the Oxford Handbook of Negation (eds. Viviane Déprez & M. Teresa Espinal).

Contact

Email: andrew dot weir at ntnu dot no

Correspondence address:
Institutt for språk og litteratur
NTNU
7491 Trondheim
Norway