{"id":679,"date":"2024-09-12T21:07:45","date_gmt":"2024-09-12T21:07:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/?page_id=679"},"modified":"2026-06-12T18:26:06","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T18:26:06","slug":"elaine-francis-homepage","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/elaine-francis-homepage\/","title":{"rendered":"Elaine Francis Profile Page"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-915\" src=\"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Elaine-Francis-profile-photo2025-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with short light brown hair and glasses smiles at the camera, wearing a dark blazer over a patterned blouse, posed against a neutral brick wall background.\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Elaine-Francis-profile-photo2025-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Elaine-Francis-profile-photo2025-683x1024.jpg 683w, https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Elaine-Francis-profile-photo2025-768x1152.jpg 768w, https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Elaine-Francis-profile-photo2025-1024x1536.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Elaine-Francis-profile-photo2025.jpg 1365w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\u00a0<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>Professor, <a href=\"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/academic\/english\/\">Department of English<\/a>, Purdue University<\/li>\n<li>Affiliate Faculty Member, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cla.purdue.edu\/academic\/sis\/p\/linguistics\/index.html\">Department of Linguistics<\/a>, Purdue University<\/li>\n<li>Courtesy Faculty Member, <a href=\"https:\/\/hhs.purdue.edu\/slhs\/\">Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences<\/a>, Purdue University<\/li>\n<li>Ph.D. Linguistics, 1999, <a href=\"https:\/\/linguistics.uchicago.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">University of Chicago<\/a><\/li>\n<li>B.A. Linguistics, 1993, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wm.edu\/as\/linguistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">College of William and Mary<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Recent book<\/strong>: <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/gradient-acceptability-and-linguistic-theory-9780192898951?cc=us&amp;lang=en&amp;subjectcode2=1802703\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gradient Acceptability and Linguistic Theory<\/a> is now available in <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/gradient-acceptability-and-linguistic-theory-9780192898951?q=Francis%2C%20Elaine&amp;cc=us&amp;lang=en#\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">paperback<\/a> from Oxford University Press and in <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/books\/details\/Elaine_J_Francis_Gradient_Acceptability_and_Lingui?id=8oNSEAAAQBAJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">e-book format<\/a> from Google Play and Amazon Kindle. Feel free to request a free examination copy <a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/bookrequest\/?isbn=9780192898951&amp;pubtitle=Gradient%20Acceptability%20and%20Linguistic%20Theory&amp;author=Elaine%20Francis&amp;lang=en&amp;cc=us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> and contact Elaine personally (ejfranci@purdue.edu) if you are interested in possibly using it for teaching. You can <a style=\"font-size: revert\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/books\/edition\/Gradient_Acceptability_and_Linguistic_Th\/8oNSEAAAQBAJ?hl=en&amp;gbpv=1&amp;dq=gradient+acceptability&amp;printsec=frontcover\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">read the first chapter<\/a><span style=\"font-size: revert;color: initial\"> for free at Google Books. Please consider putting in a request to your university library to purchase <a href=\"https:\/\/academic.oup.com\/book\/38831?searchresult=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">online access from Oxford Academic Online.<\/a> Read this <\/span><a style=\"font-size: revert\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/journals\/english-language-and-linguistics\/article\/abs\/elaine-j-francis-gradient-acceptability-and-linguistic-theory-oxford-surveys-in-syntax-morphology-oxford-oxford-university-press-2022-pp-xv-270-isbn-9780192898951\/44A5E95842958BD8CE04989781C2ACBD\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">review by Tobias Ungerer in the journal <em>English Language and Linguistics.<\/em><\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Research interests:<\/strong> Elaine Francis&#8217;s research deals with syntax and its interfaces with semantics, discourse information structure, and language processing in production and comprehension. Most recently, she has worked on word order alternations, filler-gap dependencies, and resumptive pronouns. Some of her goals are:\n<ul>\n<li>to identify the various factors that contribute to the realization of grammatical alternations in language use<\/li>\n<li>to explore the hypothesis that processing pressures in production and comprehension contribute to the development of grammatical conventions<\/li>\n<li>to investigate the nature of grammatical knowledge<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Administration<\/strong>: Elaine is the <a href=\"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/academic\/english\/administration\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Associate Head<\/a> of the Department of English.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Brief bio:<\/strong> After earning her B.A. in linguistics at the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wm.edu\/linguistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">College of William and Mary<\/a> (1993), Elaine completed her MA (1995) and PhD (1999) at the <a href=\"https:\/\/linguistics.uchicago.edu\/\">University of Chicago<\/a> under the direction of <a href=\"https:\/\/linguistics.uchicago.edu\/salikoko-s-mufwene\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Salikoko Mufwene<\/a>. Her other committee members were <a href=\"https:\/\/linguistics.uchicago.edu\/amy-dahlstrom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Amy Dahlstrom<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/linguistics.uchicago.edu\/jerry-sadock\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jerry Sadock<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/linguistics.uchicago.edu\/jim-mccawley\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jim McCawley<\/a>. Her dissertation examined variation among members of the same lexical category in English, using Sadock\u2019s Autolexical Grammar framework. Her first faculty position was at the <a href=\"https:\/\/english.hku.hk\/\">University of Hong Kong<\/a>, where she taught English linguistics for three years. In collaboration with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linguistics.hku.hk\/staff\/sjm.html\">Stephen Matthews<\/a>, she conducted research on syntactic categories and relative clauses in Cantonese. She also started working in experimental syntax during this time. She left Hong Kong in 2002 for Purdue University, where she still teaches in the <a href=\"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of English<\/a> and in the <a href=\"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/linguistics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Department of Linguistics<\/a>.<\/li>\n<li>For more information, please see her <a href=\"https:\/\/www.researchgate.net\/profile\/Elaine_Francis3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ResearchGate<\/a> page and her <a href=\"https:\/\/scholar.google.com\/citations?user=1P5Bxh8AAAAJ&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Google Scholar<\/a> page.<\/li>\n<li>Contact: ejfranci@purdue.edu<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Publications<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Book<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. 2022. <em><a href=\"https:\/\/global.oup.com\/academic\/product\/gradient-acceptability-and-linguistic-theory-9780192898951?q=Francis%2C%20Elaine&amp;cc=us&amp;lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Gradient Acceptability and Linguistic Theory<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em>Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Refereed Journal Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Chaves, Rui and Elaine J. Francis. 2024. Long-term effects of repeated exposure to Subject Island constructions: Evidence for syntactic adaptation. <em>Glossa Psycholinguistics<\/em>, 3(1), 1-45. <a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5070\/G601120321\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">https:\/\/doi.org\/10.5070\/G601120321<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Laura A. Michaelis. 2017. When relative clause extraposition is the right choice, it\u2019s easier. <em>Language and Cognition<\/em> 9(2): 332-370.<\/p>\n<p>Hitz, John and Elaine J. Francis. 2016. On the usefulness of formal judgment tasks in syntax and in second-language research: The case of resumptive pronouns in English, Turkish, and Mandarin Chinese. <em>Linguistics<\/em> 54: 1241-1280.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J., Charles Lam, Carol Chun Zheng, John Hitz, and Stephen Matthews. 2015. Resumptive pronouns, structural complexity, and the elusive distinction between grammar and performance: evidence from Cantonese. <em>Lingua<\/em> 162: 56-81.<\/p>\n<p>Huber, Jessica E., Meghan Darling, and Elaine J. Francis. 2012. Impact of typical aging and Parkinson\u2019s disease on the relationship among breath pausing, syntax, and punctuation.\u00a0 <em>American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology<\/em> 21: 368-379.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J., Stephen Matthews, Reace Wing Yan Wong, and Stella Wing Man Kwan.\u00a0 2011. Effects of weight and syntactic priming on the production of Cantonese verb-doubling. <em>Journal of Psycholinguistic Research<\/em> 40: 1-28.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. 2010. Grammatical weight and relative clause extraposition in English. <em>Cognitive<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">\u00a0Linguistics<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\"> 21(1): 35-74.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Etsuyo Yuasa. 2008. A multi-modular approach to gradual change in\u00a0 grammaticalization. <em>Journal of Linguistics<\/em> 44(1): 45-86.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Stephen Matthews. 2006.\u00a0 Categoriality and object extraction in Cantonese serial verb constructions. <em>Natural Language and Linguistic Theory<\/em> 24:\u00a0751-801.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Stephen Matthews. 2005. A multi-dimensional approach to the category &#8216;verb&#8217; in Cantonese. <em>Journal of Linguistics<\/em> 41(2): 269-305.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J.\u00a0 1998.\u00a0\u00a0 Some semantic reasons why iconicity between lexical\u00a0 categories and their discourse functions isn&#8217;t perfect.\u00a0 <em>Language Sciences<\/em> 20(4):\u00a0399-414.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Chapters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Laura A. Michaelis. 2014. Why move? How weight and discourse factors combine to predict relative clause extraposition in English.\u00a0 Edith Moravcsik, Andrej Malchukov, and Brian MacWhinney. Eds. <em>Competing Motivations in Grammar<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">\u00a0and Usage<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">, pp. 70-87. Oxford: Oxford University Press.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. 2011. Constraining mismatch in grammar and in sentence comprehension: The\u00a0 role of default correspondences. Etsuyo Yuasa, Tista Bagchi, and Katharine Beals, eds.\u00a0\u00a0<em>Pragmatics and Autolexical Grammar: In honor of Jerry Sadock, <\/em>pp. 279-298. Amsterdam:\u00a0John Benjamins.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J.\u00a0 2005.\u00a0 Syntactic mimicry as evidence for prototypes in grammar. Salikoko S. Mufwene, Elaine J. Francis, and Rebecca S. Wheeler, eds.\u00a0 <em>Polymorphous Linguistics: Jim McCawley\u2019s Legacy, <\/em>pp. 161-181.\u00a0 Cambridge: MIT Press.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Laura A. Michaelis. 2003.\u00a0 Mismatch: a crucible for linguistic theory. Elaine J. Francis and Laura A. Michaelis, eds. <em>Mismatch: Form-Function<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">\u00a0Incongruity and the Architecture of Grammar<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">, 1-27. Stanford: CSLI<\/span>\u00a0Publications.<\/p>\n<p>Yuasa, Etsuyo and Elaine J. Francis.\u00a0 2003.\u00a0 Categorial mismatch in a multi-modular theory of grammar.\u00a0 Elaine J. Francis and Laura A. Michaelis, eds. <em>Mismatch: <\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">Form-Function Incongruity and the Architecture of Grammar<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">, pp. 179-227.\u00a0 Stanford:\u00a0 CSLI Publications.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Edited Books <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Mufwene, Salikoko S., Elaine J. Francis and Rebecca S. Wheeler, eds. 2005. <em>Polymorphous<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">\u00a0Linguistics: Jim McCawley\u2019s Legacy<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">.\u00a0 Cambridge: MIT Press. (550 pp.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Laura A. Michaelis, eds. 2003. <em>Mismatch: Form-Function Incongruity and<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">\u00a0the Architecture of Grammar<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">.\u00a0 Stanford: CSLI Publications. (430 pp.)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Book Reviews<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. 2015. Review of: <em>Cross-linguistic variation and efficiency, <\/em>by John A.\u00a0Hawkins. <em>Language <\/em>91(1): 253-255.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J.\u00a0 2002.\u00a0 Form and function in syntactic theory: a reaction to Newmeyer.\u00a0<em>Language Sciences <\/em>24(1): 29-56<em>.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J.\u00a0 2000.\u00a0 Two perspectives on the grammar of possession.<em> Language<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\">\u00a0Sciences<\/em><span style=\"font-size: inherit\">. 22(1): 87-107.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Alexander L. and Elaine Jones (Francis). 1996. Phonetics and phonological theory. <em>Language &amp; Communication<\/em> 16(4): 381-395.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Replies and Commentaries<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. 2017. Structural priming can inform syntactic analyses of partially grammaticalized constructions. <em>Behavioral and Brain Sciences<\/em> 40: 22-23. (commentary on target article by Branigan and Pickering)<\/p>\n<p>Mufwene, Salikoko S. and Elaine J. Francis. 2007. McCawley\u2019s legacy: a response to Pieter A.M. Seuren. Language Sciences 29: 566-570.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Edited Journal Issue<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Jones (Francis), Elaine and Gail Brendel Viechnicki, eds.\u00a0 1997.\u00a0 Special issue on the importance of theory in discourse analysis. <em>Language &amp; Communication<\/em> 17(2).\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conference Proceedings<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Laura A. Michaelis. 2012. Effects of weight and definiteness on speakers\u2019 choice of clausal ordering in English. <em>LSA Annual Meeting Extended Abstracts<\/em> <em>2012<\/em> 3(5).<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. 2007. The role of default constructions in the processing of mismatch:\u00a0The case of possessive free relatives. Stefan M\u00fcller, ed. <em>Proceedings of the 14th<\/em><em style=\"font-size: inherit\"> International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar: <\/em><em>Workshop on Constructions and Grammatical Theory, <\/em>345-363. Stanford: CSLI\u00a0Publications.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J. and Laura A. Michaelis. 2000.\u00a0 Approaches to mismatch: introduction. <em>Proceedings of the BFG00 Conference Workshops<\/em>, ed. by Miriam Butt and Tracy\u00a0Holloway King.\u00a0 Stanford: CSLI Publications.<\/p>\n<p>Francis, Elaine J.\u00a0 1998.\u00a0\u00a0 When form and meaning come apart: quantificational nouns,\u00a0predicate nominals, and locative subjects in English. <em>Chicago<\/em><em> Linguistic Society<\/em>\u00a034: 159-170.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<h2>\u00a0<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Professor, Department of English, Purdue University Affiliate Faculty Member, Department of Linguistics, Purdue University Courtesy Faculty Member, Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Purdue University Ph.D. Linguistics, 1999, University of Chicago B.A. Linguistics, 1993, College of William and Mary Recent book: Gradient Acceptability and Linguistic Theory is now available in paperback from Oxford [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":8,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-679","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=679"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":996,"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/679\/revisions\/996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cla.purdue.edu\/english\/francislab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}