Dr Christopher Lucas
BA (London); MPhil, PhD (Cantab)
Overview
Department of the Languages and Cultures of Near and Middle East
Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics
Department of Linguistics
Lecturer in Arabic Linguistics
Centre for Language Pedagogy
Member
London Middle East Institute (LMEI)
Member
- Name:
- Dr Christopher Lucas
- Email address:
- cl39@soas.ac.uk
- Telephone:
- +44 (0)20 7898 4318
- Address:
- SOAS, University of London
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1H 0XG - Building:
- Russell Square: College Buildings
- Office No:
- 447
- Office Hours:
- Tuesdays 11:00-12:00/Wednesdays 11:30-12:30
- Curriculum Vitae:
- Christopher Lucas' Curriculum Vitae (pdf; 94kb)
- Website:
- http://mercury.soas.ac.uk/users/cl39/
Biography
I did my undergraduate studies in Arabic at SOAS, and my postgraduate studies in Linguistics at the University of Cambridge. Before taking up my current position at SOAS, I was Research Associate in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Cambridge and then British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Linguistics at SOAS.Teaching
Programmes Convened
Courses Taught
- Arabic 1
- Dynamic Syntax
- Historical Linguistics
- Historical Linguistics (Masters)
- Introduction to Arabic Dialects
- Introduction to Arabic Linguistics
PhD Students supervised
- Abel Zadoks, Tibetan Historical Syntax
Research
My principal research interests are in grammatical change and the interface between syntax, semantics and pragmatics, with a primary focus on Arabic and other Afro-Asiatic languages. To date, much of my research has centred around two empirical domains: the expression of negation and of definiteness, and the historical developments observed cross-linguistically in each of these domains. I also have significant interests in language contact and the development of general cognitive theories of contact-induced grammatical change.
I welcome inquiries from PhD students wishing to focus on any aspect of Arabic linguistics, or on grammatical change in Arabic, Afro-Asiatic or other languages.
Publications
Edited Books
Breitbarth, Anne and Lucas, Christopher and Watts, Sheila and Willis, David, eds. (2010) Continuity and Change in Grammar. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. (Linguistik aktuell, Bd. 159)
Book Chapters
Lucas, Christopher (2011) 'Form-function mismatches in (formally) definite English noun phrases: Towards a diachronic account.' In: The Noun Phrase in Romance and Germanic: Structure, Variation and Change. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 159-174. (Linguistik Aktuell/Linguistics Today)
Lucas, Christopher (2011) 'Definiteness, Procedural Encoding and the Limits of Accommodation.' In: Escandell-Vidal, Victoria and Leonetti, Manuel and Ahern, Aoife, (eds.), Procedural Meaning: Problems and Perspectives. Bingley, UK: Emerald Publishing, pp. 157-182. (Current Research in the Semantics/Pragmatics Interface 25)
Articles
Lucas, Christopher (2012) 'Contact-induced grammatical change: towards an explicit account.' Diachronica, 29 (3). pp. 275-300.
Lucas, Christopher and Willis, David (2012) 'Never again: the multiple grammaticalization of never as a marker of negation in English.' English Language and Linguistics, 16 (3). pp. 459-485.
Lucas, Christopher and Lash, Elliott (2010) 'Contact as catalyst: The case for Coptic influence in the development of Arabic negation.' Journal of Linguistics, 46 (2). pp. 379-413.
Lucas, Christopher (2010) 'Negative -ลก in Palestinian (and Cairene) Arabic: Present and possible past.' Brill's Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics, 2 (1). pp. 165-201.
Lucas, Christopher (2007) 'Jespersen's Cycle in Arabic and Berber.' Transactions of the Philological Society, 105 (3). pp. 398-431.
