Lauren Clemens

Academic Website

I’m a theoretical linguist primarily interested in generative syntax and the syntax-prosody interface. I work primarily with data from the Austronesian and Mayan families, using both traditional and quantitative methods. Recent projects include investigating the syntactic and prosodic constituency in Niuean (Polynesian), verb-initial word orders in the Polynesian and Mayan families, and the syntactic and prosodic encoding of focus in Ch'ol (Mayan) and Copala Triqui (Otomanguean). I am also very involved with the Copala Triqui community of the Capital District and co-direct UAlbany's Copala Triqui Working Group. Courses I regularly teach include Introduction to Syntax, Advanced Syntax, Field Methods in Anthropological Linguistics, and Linguistic Structures.