What does it mean to play with words? Innovative or whimsical forms are often considered trivial relative to the serious business of following the rules of communication. But while it’s proven notoriously difficult for linguists to rigorously define concepts like ‘noun’ and ‘verb’, it seems undeniable that each feels a certain way. There’s something that it’s like to verb a word, in particular a word that you would usually noun. Why?
Building from this why, Biu Rainey constructs a novel account of how grammar proceeds, prioritising agency and intersubjectivity at the most basic level of syntax. Applying this ‘pragmatic suffusion’ model to examples ranging from infant language acquisition to autistic-allistic interaction, she demonstrates that play - exploring, experiencing and sharing sensations - is in fact a fundamental aspect of linguistic competence. We play with both the architecture of our minds and the organization of our concepts, and we use grammar to signal to others that they should join us in playing in a similar way.
The word for self is world shows that using language means not only following the rules, but learning what it means for each of us to break them. In doing so, it contributes not only a novel perspective on the syntax-pragmatics interface, but also to the rapidly growing pool of research that suggests we must take divergent bodies seriously as sources of linguistic knowledge, rather than pathology, if we are to truly understand the language faculty.
Biu Rainey successfully defended her thesis on 18 September 2026.
Trial lecture
Designated topic: What do we know about the meanings of words and what do we know we don't know?
Evaluation committee
- Professor Elin McCready, Autonomous University of Barcelona (first opponent)
- Professor Christine Howes, University of Gothenburg (second opponent)
- Associate Professor Michael Barnes, University of Oslo
Chair of the defence
- Senior Lecturer Eirik Welo, University of Oslo
Supervisors
- Professor Ingrid Lossius Falkum, University of Oslo
- Senior Lecturer Nicholas Elwyn Allott, University of Oslo