Ksenia Ershova

Associate Professor
Linguistics | Psychology and Language Sciences
University College London

Research

See CV for full list.

Dissertation: Syntactic Ergativity in West Circassian (2019)

The dissertation can be downloaded here: lingbuzz or knowledge@uchicago.

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In progress

Ergativity in the syntax without syntactic ergativity. Submitted. (lingbuzz)

No logic in conflicting requirements: Reply to Branan 2023. Resubmitted. (draft)

West Circassian lessons on Phase Theory. Invited submission to Theoretical Issues in the Languages of the Caucasus (ed. Balkız Öztürk). (draft)

Peer-reviewed

2024. Phasehood as defective intervention: Possessor extraction and selective DP islandhood in West Circassian. In Syntax (Early View). https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12275. (pre-print on lingbuzz)

2023. Syntactic ergativity and the theory of subjecthood: Evidence from anaphor binding in West Circassian. In Language 99(2), 193-241. https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2023.a900086. (pre-print on lingbuzz)

2021. Diagnosing clause structure in a polysynthetic language: Wh-agreement and parasitic gaps in West Circassian. In Linguistic Inquiry 52(1), 1-38. https://doi.org/10.1162/ling_a_00371 (pre-print on lingbuzz)

2020. Two paths to polysynthesis: Evidence from West Circassian nominalizations. In Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 38(2), 425-475. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11049-019-09455-w (pre-print on lingbuzz | read-only)

Conference proceedings

to appear. Phi-feature mismatches in Samoan resumptives as postsyntactic impoverishment. In Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistics Society (2023).

2022. Configurationality in Polysynthesis: Weak Crossover in West Circassian. In Aitha, Akshay, Steven Castro, and Brianna Wilson (eds.) Proceedings of the Chicago Linguistic Society (2020), 79-94.

2017. Unaccusativity and the syntax of imperatives in East Circassian. In Farrell, Patrick (ed.) Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, vol. 2, 36:1-14.

2013. Reported speech and reportative grammaticalization in Besleney Kabardian. In B. Surányi (ed.) Proceedings of the 2nd Central European Conference in Linguistics for Postgraduate Students. Pázmány Péter Catholic University, 71-87.

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Select presentations

Invited talks

2024. (with Nikita Bezrukov) Moving away from antilocality: A defense of very local movement. Presented at LASER Workshop at Göttingen University (April 9-11, 2024).

2023. What's in a (polysynthetic) phase: Dynamic domains, spellout and locality. Presented at CYCLOPS-Colloquium at Leipzig University (December 13, 2023).

2023. The nuanced typology of syntactic ergativity: Insights from parasitic gaps in Samoan and West Circassian (UCL handout). Presented at Rutgers University (January 27), University of Washington (February 17), University of Maryland (April 6), the Leibniz-Center for General Linguistics in Berlin (April 12), and University College London (April 19).

2023. The interaction between movement, licensing, and spell-out: What c-commands what in West Circassian nominalizations. Presentation at UMass Syntax Workshop (March 3, 2023).

2022. Unexpected consequences of polysynthesis: deficient probes, dynamic phases and the role of C. Presentation at Penn Linguistics Speaker Series (October 20, 2022).

2022. Unexpected A'-movement in West Circassian: Theoretical implications for syntactic ergativity. Presentation at the Princeton Symposium on Syntactic Theory (April 1, 2022).

Conference presentations

2024. Syntactic ergativity without `syntactic ergativity'. Poster at NELS 55, Yale University (17-18 October, 2024). (poster | handout)

2024. (with Satyawidya Wulansari) Covert passive agents in Jakarta Indonesian: Unpronounced or missing?. Presented at APLL 16 at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (1-3 July, 2024).

2023. Licensed to license: Deficient probes in West Circassian nominalizations. Presented at GLOW 46 (April 12-14, Vienna, Austria).

2023. Ergatives are special: Parasitic resumptives and the Ergative Extraction Constraint in Samoan. Presented at LSA 2023 (January 5-8, Denver, CO).

2021. Multiple feature inheritance makes polysynthesis: Evidence from West Circassian nominalizations. Presented at LSA 2021 Annual Meeting (January 7-10, online).

2019. (with Itamar Francez). From quotation to concession: The case of East Circassian. Presented at the 41st Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (March 6-8, University of Bremen)