John Sundquist

Ph.D., Indiana University

Specialization

Historical Germanic Linguistics, Syntax and Morphology, Language Variation and Change, Second Language Acquisition Theory, Language Pedagogy

My main area of research is historical Germanic linguistics with an emphasis on syntactic change. In particular, I am interested in identifying patterns of variation that Germanic languages have shown in earlier stages, examining internal and external causes for change in the areas of syntax, morphology, and semantics. Although my research focuses mainly on the Scandinavian languages, I attempt to draw parallels with historical developments in other Indo-European languages.

A secondary area of my research deals with the relationship between language acquisition and language change. I am mainly interested in variable use of morphology and word order in first and second language acquisition. A long-term research project of mine examines whether language change is more attributable to language acquisition among children or to language usage among adults.