Haj Ross

Distinguished Research Professor

Research Interests: Semantax – an interfield that sees syntax and semantics as inseparably interpenetrating; linguistic analysis of poetry

     My primary areas of research are in semantax – an interfield that sees syntax and semantics as inseparably interpenetrating – and poetics – the study of verbal art with the help of detailed linguistic analyses of texts. In the former area, for the past forty-nine years, I have been collecting squibs – short notes about phonological, morphological or semantactic phenomena which defy analysis in current theoretical frameworks.

     In addition, John Goldsmith, of the University of Chicago, and I are building a web-based archive of videos of senior linguists: Lives in Linguistics – a kind of oral history project. While the archive is small at present, our hope is that it may inspire other linguists around the world to assemble a visual record of all of our linguistic forbears.

Email: haj.ross@unt.edu

Phone: (940) 565-4552

Office: G153 Discovery Park

Website: http://haj.nadamelhor.com/

Faculty Page: https://facultyinfo.unt.edu/faculty-profile?query=Haj+Ross&type=name&profile=jrr0041

 

What’s a Squib?  Here’s an example.

Niching problem
 
            Note that so-called “parentheticals” (adverbs(?) like possibly, perhaps, I think, Ed said, said Ed, etc.)
can be inserted into various places in sentences.
 
(1)  Perhaps Tom has a cat. Þ  Tom perhaps has a cat.
           Note also that there are various places where no such insertions are possible.
(2)  Tom should let (*perhaps) go of the cat(*,I think,)’s tail.
 
Your task:
Think up as many different types of sentences like those in (2) as possible, and formulate the maximally general rule of Niching which can correctly predict what is possible (*,said Ed,) where.
 
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