People

Prof Louisa Sadler

Emeritus Professor
Department of Language and Linguistics
Prof Louisa Sadler

Profile

Biography

I studied French (African and Asian Studies) at Sussex and taught English in Algeria before coming to Essex for an MA and PhD in theoretical linguistics. My doctoral thesis was on Welsh and Government-Binding theory; it was published by Croom Helm in 1987. I taught for a short period at the University of East Anglia before returning to Essex in 1986. Since then I have been involved in a number of large research projects in the Department, first in computational linguistics and machine translation and more recently projects using Lexical Functional Grammar. Currently, my main research interests are syntactic theory (LFG and HPSG), particularly in relation to the interfaces to morphology and semantics, and the grammatical description of the Arabic vernaculars and Welsh. I am also interested in using the Glue approach to semantic composition for the analysis of various phenomena. Lexical Functional Grammar Research Group: http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~louisa/lfgrg/

Qualifications

  • BA Sussex

  • MA Essex

  • PhD Essex

Research and professional activities

Research interests

Syntactic Theory [LFG/HPSG]

Description of the Arabic vernaculars

Description of Welsh and other Celtic Languages

Morphology-Syntax and Syntax-Semantics interfaces

Grammar Development using XLE/XFST

Current research

See privatewww.essex.ac.uk/~louisa/research.html for Personal Research Page.

Teaching and supervision

Previous supervision

Pori Saikia
Pori Saikia
Thesis title: Children's Acquisition of Assamese Split Ergativity
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 20/12/2023
Sharaf YI Yassin
Sharaf YI Yassin
Thesis title: Agreement in Palestinian Arabic: An Lfg Perspective
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 11/2/2022
Fatema Modaf D Alharthy
Fatema Modaf D Alharthy
Thesis title: Masdar Constructions in Southern Arabic: A Concise Reference
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 5/1/2022
Abdullah Gulayil S Almalki
Abdullah Gulayil S Almalki
Thesis title: The Active Participle in Hijazi Arabic: An Lfg Perspective
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 22/2/2021
Shatha Fahad S Alruwaili
Shatha Fahad S Alruwaili
Thesis title: Negation in Turaif Arabic: Not the Last Word
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 26/6/2019
Paloma Carretero Garcia
Paloma Carretero Garcia
Thesis title: A Lexical Functional Grammar Account of Spanish Weak Dative Pronominals
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 27/6/2017
Shaimaa Elsadek Sarhan Elsadek
Shaimaa Elsadek Sarhan Elsadek
Thesis title: Verbal Complementation in Egyptian Colloquial Arabic: An Lfg Account
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 11/1/2017
Maris Camilleri
Maris Camilleri
Thesis title: Temporal and Aspectual Auxiliaries in Maltese
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 4/7/2016
Imran Shahir Ata Alrashdan
Imran Shahir Ata Alrashdan
Thesis title: Clause Structure of North Jordanian Arabic with Special Reference to Negation: A Minimalist Approach
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 20/4/2015
Ahmad Alsharif
Ahmad Alsharif
Thesis title: The Syntax of Negation in Arabic: An Lfg Perspective
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 27/11/2014
Muhammad Swaileh Alzaidi
Muhammad Swaileh Alzaidi
Thesis title: Information Structure and Intonation in Hijazi Arabic
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 27/6/2014
Yasir Hameed A Alotaibi
Yasir Hameed A Alotaibi
Thesis title: Conditional Sentences in Modern Standard Arabic and the Taif Dialect
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Doctor of Philosophy
Awarded date: 23/6/2014
Maris Camilleri
Maris Camilleri
Degree subject: Linguistics
Degree type: Master of Research
Awarded date: 6/10/2010

Publications

Journal articles (26)

Villavicencio, A., Sadler, L. and Arnold, D., An HPSG account of closest conjunct agreement in NP coordination in Portuguese. Proceedings of the International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2020). THE GRAMMATICALISATION OF AN AUXILIARY AND A COPULA: THE ARABIC ‘SIT’ PARTICIPLE. Journal of Historical Syntax. 4 (6), 1-60

Sadler, L., (2019). Multiple Controllers in Nominal Modification. Argumentum. 15, 617-638

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2019). The grammaticalisation of a copula in vernacular Arabic. Glossa. 4 (1), 1-33

Sadler, L. and Camilleri, M., (2018). Free Relatives in Maltese. Brill's Journal of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics. 10 (1), 115-159

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2016). Relativisation in Maltese. Transactions of the Philological Society. 114 (1), 117-145

Camilleri, M., ElSadek, S. and Sadler, L., (2014). A cross dialectal view of the Arabic dative alternation. Acta Linguistica Hungarica. 61 (1), 3-44

Sadler, L. and Camilleri, M., (2013). Ditransitive predicates and dative arguments in Maltese. Lingua. 134, 36-61

Sadler, L., (2011). Indeterminacy, complex features and underspecification. Morphology. 21 (2), 379-417

Sadler, L. and Nordlinger, R., (2010). Nominal juxtaposition in Australian languages: An LFG analysis. Journal of Linguistics. 46 (02), 415-452

Dalrymple, M., King, TH. and Sadler, L., (2009). Indeterminacy by underspecification. Journal of Linguistics. 45 (01), 31-68

Nordlinger, R. and Sadler, L., (2008). When is a temporal marker not a tense?: Reply to Tonhauser 2007. Language. 84 (2), 325-331

Borsley, RD., Roberts, I., Sadler, L. and Willis, D., (2006). Introduction. Lingua. 116 (11), 1745-1749

(2006). Celtic Linguistics. Lingua: International Review of General Linguistics. 116 (11), 1745-2022

Sadler, L., (2006). Function spreading in coordinate structures. Lingua. 116 (11), 1777-1806

Sadler, L. and Nordlinger, R., (2006). Case stacking in realizational morphology. Linguistics. 44 (3), 459-487

Nordlinger, R. and Sadler, L., (2004). Tense Beyond the Verb: Encoding Clausal Tense/Aspect/Mood on Nominal Dependents. Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 22 (3), 597-641

Nordlinger, R. and Sadler, L., (2004). Nominal Tense in Crosslinguistic Perspective. Language. 80 (4), 776-806

Sadler, L. and Arnold, DJ., (1994). Prenominal adjectives and the phrasal/lexical distinction. Journal of Linguistics. 30 (1), 187-226

Arnold, D., Moffat, D., Sadler, L. and Way, A., (1993). Automatic Test Suite generation. Machine Translation. 8 (1-2), 29-38

Arnold, D., Sadler, L. and Humprheys, RL., (1993). Evaluation: An assessment. Machine Translation. 8 (1-2), 1-24

(1993). Special Issue on Evaluation of MT Systems. Machine Translation. 8 (1-2)

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (1992). Unification and Machine Translation. Meta. 37 (4), 657-680

SADLER, L. and ARNOLD, D., (1992). UNIFICATION AND MACHINE TRANSLATION. META. 37 (4), 657-680

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (1991). Transfer formalisms. Machine Translation. 6 (3), 193-200

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (1990). The theoretical basis of MiMo. Machine Translation. 5 (3), 195-222

Books (3)

Sadler, L., Börjars, K. and Nordlinger, R., (2019). Lexical-Functional Grammar: An introduction. Cambridge University Press. 9781107170568

Sadler, L., (2016). Welsh Syntax. Routledge. 9781138698536

Sadler, L. and Spencer, A., (2004). Projecting Morphology. CSLI Publications. 9781575864709

Book chapters (19)

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2023). Raising in Arabic. In: Studies in Arabic Linguistics. John Benjamins Publishing Company. 153- 184. 9789027212832

Sadler, L. and Nordlinger, R., (2018). Morphology in Lexical-Functional Grammar and Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar. In: The Oxford Handbook of Morphological Theory. Editors: Audring, J. and Masini, F., . Oxford University Press. 212- 243. 978-0-19-966898-4

Sadler, L. and Spencer, A., (2017). Morphology and Argument Structure. In: The Handbook of Morphology. Wiley. 206- 236. 9780631226949

Sadler, L., (2016). Agreement in Archi: An LFG perspective. In: Archi: Complexities of Agreement in Cross-Theoretical Perspective. Editors: Bond, O., Corbett, GG., Chumakina, M. and Brown, D., . Oxford University Press. 150- 183. 978-0-19-874729-1

Sadler, L., Alotaibi, Y., Alzaidi, M., Camilleri, M. and ElSadek, S., (2013). Psychological Predicates and Verbal Complementation in Arabic. In: Proceedings of the LFG13 Conference. Editors: Butt, N. and Holloway King, T., . CSLI Publications. 6- 26

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (2010). Pottsian LFG. In: Proceedings of the LFG10 Conference. Editors: Butt, M. and King, TH., . CSLI Publications. 43- 63

Al-Sharifi, B. and Sadler, L., (2009). The Adjectival construct in Arabic. In: Proceedings of the LFG09 Conference. Editors: Butt, M. and King, TH., . CSLI Publications. 26- 43

Arnold, D., Sadler, L. and Villavicencio, A., (2008). Portuguese: Corpora, coordination and agreement. In: Roots: Linguistics in Search of its Evidential Base. Mouton de Gruyter. 9- 28. 9783110193152

Nordlinger, R. and Sadler, L., (2008). From juxtaposition to incorporation: an approach to Generic-Specific constructions. In: Proceedings of LFG08. Editors: Butt, M. and King, TH., . CSLI Publications. 394- 412

Mittendorf, I. and Sadler, L., (2008). NP would like to meet GF: A Welsh Adjectival Construction. In: Proceedings of LFG08. Editors: Butt, M. and King, TH., . CSLI Publications. 373- 393

Nordlinger, R. and Sadler, L., (2007). Verbless Clauses: Revealing the Structure Within. In: Architectures, Rules and Preferences: A Festschrift for Joan Bresnan. Editors: Zaenen, A., Simpson, J., King, TH., Grimshaw, J., Maling, J. and Manning, C., . CSLI Publications. 139- 160. 9781575865607

Sadler, L., (2006). Gender Resolution in Rumanian. In: Intelligent Linguistic Architectures: Variations on Themes by Ron Kaplan. Editors: Butt, M., Dalrymple, M. and Holloway King, T., . CSLI Publications. 9781575865324

Sadler, L. and Nordlinger, R., (2004). Relating Morphology to Syntax. In: Projecting Morphology. Editors: Sadler, L. and Spencer, A., . CSLI Publications. 9781575864709

Butt, M. and Sadler, L., (2003). Verbal morphology and agreement in Urdu. In: Syntactic Structures and Morphological Information. DE GRUYTER. 57- 100. 9783110178241

Sadler, L., (2003). Coordination and Asymmetric Agreement in Welsh. In: Nominals: Inside and Out. Editors: Butt, M. and Holloway King, T., . CSLI Publications. 85- 118. 9781575864747

Frank, A., Sadler, L., van Genabith, J. and Way, A., (2003). From Treebank Resources to LFG F-Structures. In: Treebanks: Building and Using Parsed Corpora. Editors: Abeill�, A., . Springer. 367- 389. 978-94-010-0201-1

Sadler, L. and Spencer, A., (2001). Syntax as an exponent of morphological features. In: Yearbook of Morphology 2000. Editors: Booij, G. and van Marle, J., . Springer. 71- 96. 978-90-481-5738-9

Sadler, L., (2000). Noun Phrase Structure in Welsh. In: Argument Realization. Editors: Butt, M. and Holloway King, T., . CSLI Publications. 73- 110. 9781575862668

Bredenkamp, A., Sadler, L. and Spencer, A., (1997). Investigating Argument Structure: The Russian Nominalization Database. In: Linguistic Databases. CSLI Publications. 137- 159. 9781575860923

Conferences (22)

Sadler, L. and Camilleri, M., (2019). Schematising (Morpho)Syntactic Change in LFG: Insights from grammaticalisation in Arabic

Sadler, L. and Alruwaili, S., (2019). Negative Coordination in (Turaif) Arabic

Sadler, L. and Camilleri, M., (2019). A non-canonical diachronic formation of raising predicates

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2017). Negative Sensitive Indefinites in Maltese

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2017). Posture Verbs and Aspect: A View from Vernacular Arabic

ElSadek, S. and Sadler, L., (2015). EGYPTIAN ARABIC PERCEPTUAL REPORTS

Camilleri, M., ElSadek, S. and Sadler, L., (2014). Perceptual Reports in (Dialects of) Arabic

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (2014). The `big mess' construction

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (2013). Displaced dependent constructions

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (2012). Affected experiencers and mixed semantics in LFG/Glue

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (2012). Affected experiencers and mixed semantics in LFG/Glue

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2012). On the analysis of non-selected datives in Maltese

Arnold, D. and Sadler, L., (2011). Resource Splitting and Reintegration with Supplementals

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2011). Restrictive Relative Clauses in Maltese

Mittendorf, I. and Sadler, L., (2011). Welsh Prenominals: at the syntax-morphology interface

Baker, B., Horrack, K., Nordlinger, R. and Sadler, L., (2010). Putting it All Together: Agreement, Incorporation, Coordination and External Possession in Wubuy (Australia)

Al Sharif, A. and Sadler, L., (2009). Negation in Modern Standard Arabic: An LFG approach

Markantonatou, S. and Sadler, L., (1997). Linking indirect arguments and verb alternations in English

Bredenkamp, A., Markantonatou, S. and Sadler, L., (1996). Lexical rules

Arnold, D., Badia, T., van Genabith, J., Markantonatou, S., Momma, S., Sadler, L. and Schmidt, P., (1993). Experiments in reusability of grammatical resources

Sadler, L. and Thompson, HS., (1991). Structural Non-Correspondence in Translation

Noord, GV., Dorrepaal, J., Arnold, D., Krauwer, S., Sadler, L. and Tombe, LD., (1989). An Approach to Sentence-Level Anaphora in Machine Translation

Reports and Papers (3)

Camilleri, M. and Sadler, L., (2011). An LFG Approach to Non-Restrictive Relative Clauses in Maltese

Sadler, L., (2007). Agreement features, indeterminacy and disagreement

Markantonatou, S. and Sadler, L., (1996). Linking indirect arguments

Other (1)

(1989).Essays on Grammatical Theory and Universal Grammar,Clarendon Press

Grants and funding

2016

Complementation Patterns in Vernacular Arabic

Leverhulme Trust

2015

Negation in Maltese

Ministry of Education & Employment

2011

From Competing theories to fieldwork:the challenge of an extreme agreement system

Arts And Humanities Research Council

Contact

louisa@essex.ac.uk

Location:

Colchester Campus