Professor Peter Sells
BA (Liverpool), PhD (Massachusetts, Amherst)
Overview
Department of Linguistics
(Professor of Linguistics)
Centre of Korean Studies
(Member, Centre of Korean Studies)
Japan Research Centre (JRC)
(Member, Japan Research Centre)
Korean and Japanese grammar and linguistic theory, negation and modality in Korean, Japanese historical syntax, the syntax-semantics interface, the morphology-syntax interface
Contact Details
- Name:
- Professor Peter Sells
- Email address:
- sells@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- 020 7898 4652
- Address:
- School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office No:
- 372
- Personal Website:
- http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/ps58/
Teaching
In 2009/10, I am co-teaching Intermediate Syntax with Shin-Sook Kim (Term 2) and Advanced Syntax (Term 2). I am also convenor of the MPhil Research Training Seminar.Students supervised
Programmes Convened
Courses Taught
Research
My primary interests involve the nature of grammatical theory, in particular what the components of morphology, syntax and semantics look like, and how they relate to each other. I have worked in a variety of theoretical frameworks on a variety of languages, primarily Korean, Japanese, Chinese, Philippine languages, and Swedish. My research right now is focussed on the relation between syntax, semantics and information structure in Korean. A relatively complete overview of my work can be found here.
A secondary interest is the use of linguistic approaches to the analysis of the language and design of advertising. I have some earlier work online. I hope to offer classes on this topic in the future.
Publications
Authored Books
Kim, Jong-Bok and Sells, Peter (2008) English Syntax: An Introduction. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Sells, Peter (2001) Structure, Alignment and Optimality in Swedish. Stanford: Stanford Monographs in Linguistics.
Edited Books
Matsumoto, Yoshiko and Oshima, David and Orrin, Robinson and Sells, Peter, eds. (2007) Diversity in Language: Perspectives and Implications. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Chapters in Books
Gerassimova, Veronica and Sells, Peter (2008) 'Long-Distance Dependencies in Tagalog: The Case for Raising.' In: Chang, Charles B. and Haynie, Hannah J., (eds.), Proceedings of the 26th West Coast Conference. Somerville, Mass.: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, pp. 190-198.
Levin, Beth and Sells, Peter (2008) 'Unpredicated Particles.' In: Uyechi, Linda and Wee, Lian Hee, (eds.), Reality Exploration and Discovery: Pattern Interaction in Language & Life. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Kim, Jong-Bok and Sells, Peter and Wescoat, Michael T. (2008) 'Korean Copular Constructions: A Lexical Sharing Approach.' In: Clancy, P. and Hudson, M. E. and Jun, S.-A. and Sells, P., (eds.), Japanese/Korean Linguistics. Vol.13. CSLI Publications.
Sells, Peter (2007) 'Finiteness in Non-Transformational Syntactic Frameworks.' In: Nikolaeva, I., (ed.), Finiteness. Theoretical and Empirical Foundations. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 59-88.
Chung, Chan and Kim, Jong-Bok and Sells, Peter (2007) 'On the Role of Argument Structure in Focus Projections.' In: Papers from the 39th Regional Meeting. Chicago: Chicago Linguistics Society, pp. 386-404.
Sells, Peter (2006) 'Interactions of Negative Polarity Items in Korean.' In: Kuno, S., (ed.), Harvard Studies in Korean Linguistics. Vol.11. Dept. of Linguistics, Harvard University, pp. 724-737.
Sells, Peter (2006) 'Direct vs. Oblique Expression of Core Arguments in Korean.' In: Proceedings of the 2006 LSK International Conference. Seoul: Linguistic Society of Korea, Seoul National University, pp. 239-248.
Sells, Peter (2001) 'Form and Function in the Typology of Grammatical Voice Systems.' In: Legendre, G. and Grimshaw, J. and Vikner, S., (eds.), Optimality-Theoretic Syntax. The MIT Press, pp. 355-91.
Sells, Peter 'Pragmatics in Advertising.' In: Cummings, Louise, (ed.), Encyclopedia of Pragmatics. London: Routledge. (Forthcoming)
Articles
Iida, Masayo and Sells, Peter (2008) 'Mismatches between Morphology and Syntax in Japanese Complex Predicates.' Lingua, 118 (7). pp. 947-968.
Sells, Peter and Kim, Jong-Bok (2007) 'Korean Honorification: A Kind of Expressive Meaning.' Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 16 (4). pp. 303-336.
Sells, Peter and Kim, Jong-Bok (2007) 'Korean Honorification: A Kind of Expressive Meaning.' Journal of East Asian Linguistics, 16 . pp. 303-336.
Kim, Jong-Bok and Sells, Peter (2007) 'Some Remarks on Korean Nominalizer 'kes' and Information Structure.' Studies in Generative Grammar, 17 . pp. 479-494.
Sells, Peter and Kim, Shin-Sook (2006) 'Korean NPIs Scope Over Negation.' Language Research, 42 . pp. 275-297.
Sells, Peter (2003) 'Stylistic Fronting in Icelandic: A Base-Generated Construction.' Gengo Kenkyu, 123 . pp. 257-297.
Conference or Workshop Items
Fang, Ji and Sells, Peter (2007) A Formal Analysis Of The Verb Copy Construction In Chinese. In: Proceedings of the LFG-07 Conference.
Kim, Jong-Bok and Sells, Peter (2007) Two Types of Multiple Nominative Construction: A Constructional Approach. In: Proceedings of the HPSG-07 Conference.
Sells, Peter (2006) Using Subsumption Rather Than Equality in Functional Control. In: Proceedings of the LFG-06 Conference.
Peck, Jeeyoung and Sells, Peter (2006) Preposition Incorporation in Mandarin: Economy within VP. In: Proceedings of the LFG-06 Conference.
Sells, Peter How Negation Scopes in Japanese and Korean. In: 18th Japanese-Korean Linguistics Conference. (Forthcoming)
