Jessica Denniss

PhD Candidate
jessica.denniss@mail.utoronto.ca

Campus

  • Downtown Toronto (St. George)

Fields of Study

  • Linguistic Theory

Areas of Interest

  • Syntax
  • Semantics
  • Australian Aboriginal languages (Ngarinyman)
  • Language documentation
  • Complex predicates
  • Antipassives

Working Dissertation

Title

The structure of complex predicates in Ngarinyman: Coverb constructions

Supervisors

Alana Johns

Description

The goal of my thesis is to provide an analysis of the syntax and semantics of Ngarinyman coverb constructions, using the tools of Distributed Morphology (Halle and Marantz 1993; Marantz 1997) and Neo-Davidsonian event semantics (Davidson 1967; Castañeda 1967; Parsons 1990), which explicitly details their argument structure and event structure.

Publications

Education

MA (Advanced), University of Queensland
BFA, Queensland University of Technology

Presentations

The mutual value of linguistic work with Indigenous communities: A perspective from Ngarinyman (Australia), invited talk to be presented at the Toronto Undergraduate Linguistics Conference (TULCON), Toronto, 9–10 March 2019.
Ngarinyman resultatives, poster presented at GLOW, Oslo, 7–10 May 2019.
Antipassives in Australian languages: A modal analysis, paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), Naples, 31 August–3 September 2016.
Number matching in small clauses: Can we agree on Concord? Paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA/ACL). Ottawa, 30 May–1 June 2015 (with Susana Béjar, Arsalan Kahnemuyipour & Tomohiro Yokoyama).
Number matching in copular clauses, paper presented at the Workshop on Copulas across Languages, London, 18–19 June 2015 (with Susana Béjar, Arsalan Kahnemuyipour & Tomohiro Yokoyama).
When we can Agree: number matching and nominal predicates, paper presented at the Agreement across Borders Conference. Zadar, 15–16 June 2015 (with Susana Béjar, Arsalan Kahnemuyipour & Tomohiro Yokoyama).
Markedness in number features: Evidence from Ganggalida (Yukulta), paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Linguistic Association (CLA/ACL). St. Catharines, 24–26 May 2014.
Linguists as negotiators: reaching successful community agreements, paper presented at the Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society (ALS), Perth, 5–7 December 2012.

Cohort

  • 2013-14