Contrastive Syntax and Semantics
This research group is a platform for concerted action to promote, at the levels of teaching, supervision, and research, the study of syntax and semantics cross-linguistically at the University of Oslo.
Since early 2013, a community of linguists doing research in syntax and semantics across languages at the University of Oslo, principally based at the ILOS department, have been working under the mantle of the Research Group in Contrastive Syntax and and Semantics. Our work is guided by three assumptions:
– Prospects for progress in the study of linguistic form and content are enhanced by paying close attention to the ways in which content is encoded in different languages, as well as in different stages of a given language.
– Valid insights into cross-linguistic differences in regard to structure and meaning are greatly facilitated by systematic investigations of parallel corpora.
– The interpretation of a discourse is highly dependent not only on the form employed and its encoded meaning, but also on how context fixes content, on the mix of explicit and implicit information, and on communicative needs and circumstances.