Research
Theresa Biberauer is the project's Principal Research Associate. She specialises in theoretical, comparative and historical syntax, with interface, typological, contact and acquisition issues also a focus of interest. To date, much of her research has centred on the clause structure of the Germanic languages, with the peculiar patterns of variation and change exhibited by Afrikaans forming the heart of her doctoral work, and various aspects of the diachrony of English and other Germanic languages having been a major research focus since the completion of that Ph.D. in 2003. She was previously (2002-2007) the Research Associate on an AHRC-funded project Null subjects and the structure of parametric theory, also involving Ian Roberts, David Willis and Anders Holmberg (University of Newcastle), and the Senior Research Associate on a further AHRC-funded project (October 2007-March 2011) investigating Structure and Linearization in Disharmonic Word Orders. The project once again involved both a Cambridge- and a Newcastle-based research team: Ian Roberts and Theresa Biberauer (Cambridge), and Anders Holmberg and Michelle Sheehan (Newcastle). Theresa is a Fellow of Churchill College, Director of Studies in Linguistics at St John's College, and also holds an honorary Professorship at her South African alma mater, Stellenbosch University.
Publications
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (in press). Conditional Inversion and types of parametric change. To appear in: B. Los & P. de Haan (eds). Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact: Essays in Honour of Ans van Kemenade. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Biberauer, T. (in press). Optional V2 in Modern Afrikaans: a Germanic peculiarity. To appear in: B. Los & P. de Haan (eds). Word Order Change in Acquisition and Language Contact: Essays in Honour of Ans van Kemenade. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Biberauer, T. & S. Vikner (in press). Having the edge: a new perspective on pseudo-coordination in Danish and Afrikaans. To appear in: K. Moulton, A-M. Tessier & N. La Cara (eds). A Festschrift for Kyle Johnson.
Biberauer, T. (in press). Pro-drop and emergent parameter hierarchies. To appear in: F. Cognola & J. Casalicchio (eds.), Understanding Null Subjects: A Synchronic and Diachronic Perspective Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2017
Biberauer, T. (2017). Particles and the Final-over-Final Condition. M. Sheehan, T. Biberauer, A. Holmberg & I. Roberts (eds). The Final-over-Final Condition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Biberauer, T., A. Holmberg, I. Roberts & M. Sheehan (2017). The empirical evidence for the Final-over-Final Condition. M. Sheehan, T. Biberauer, A. Holmberg & I. Roberts (eds). The Final-over-Final Condition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Biberauer, T. (2017). Probing the nature of the Final-over-Final Condition: the perspective from adpositions. L. Bailey & M. Sheehan (eds). Order and Structure in Syntax. Language Science Press.
M. Sheehan, T. Biberauer, A. Holmberg & I. Roberts (eds). (2017). The Final-over-Final Condition. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (2017). Parameter setting. In: A. Ledgeway & I. Roberts (eds). The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 134-162.
2016
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (2016). Parameter typology from a diachronic perspective: the case of Conditional Inversion. In: E. Bidese, F. Cognola & M. Moroni (eds). Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 259-291.
Deuchar, M. & T. Biberauer (in press). Doubling: an error or an illusion? To appear in: Bilingualism, Language and Cognition. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728916000043 [published on-line 8 April 2016]
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (2016a). Parameter typology from a diachronic perspective: the case of Conditional Inversion. In: E. Bidese, F. Cognola & M. Moroni (eds). Theoretical Approaches to Linguistic Variation. Amsterdam: Benjamins, 259-291.
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (2016b). Parameter setting. In: A. Ledgeway & I. Roberts (eds). The Cambridge Handbook of Historical Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 134-162.
2015
Biberauer, T. & G. Walkden (eds). (2015) Syntax over Time: Lexical, Morphological, and Information-Structural Interactions. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Biberauer, T. (2015). Nie sommer nie: sociohistorical and formal comparative considerations in the rise and maintenance of the modern Afrikaans negation system. In: T. Biberauer & J. Oosthuizen (eds). Studies opgedra aan Hans den Besten: Suider-Afrikaanse perspektiewe/Studies dedicated to Hans den Besten: Southern African perspectives. Stellenbosch: Sunmedia, 129-175.
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (2015b). Rethinking formal hierarchies: a proposed unification. In: J. Chancharu, X. Hu & M. Mitrović (eds.). Cambridge Occasional Papers in Linguistics 7: 1-31.
Biberauer, T. & I. Roberts (2015b). Clausal hierarchies. In: U. Shlonsky (ed.). Beyond Functional Sequence. Oxford: OUP, 295-313.
Biberauer, T. & G. Walkden (2015). Introduction: Changing views of syntactic change. In: T. Biberauer & G. Walkden (eds.). Syntax over time: lexical, morphological, and information-structural interactions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1-13.
2014
Biberauer, T., L. Haegeman & A. van Kemenade (eds). (2014). Particles in syntax: synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Studia Linguistica 68(1). [a special edition]
Biberauer, T., L. Haegeman & A. van Kemenade (2014). Putting our heads together: towards a syntax of particles. Studia Linguistica 68(1 – The Syntax of Particles): 1-15.
Biberauer, T., A. Holmberg, I. Roberts & M. Sheehan (2014). Complexity in comparative syntax: the view from modern parametric theory. In: F. Newmeyer & L. Preston (eds.). Measuring Linguistic Complexity. Oxford: OUP, 103-127.
Biberauer, T., A. Holmberg & I. Roberts (2014). A syntactic universal and its consequences. Linguistic Inquiry 45(2): 169-225.
