E-mail: emhanink [at] iu.edu
Welcome!
I'm an Assistant Professor in the Department of
Linguistics at Indiana
University. I received my Ph.D. in Linguistics from the University of
Chicago in 2018.
My primary research area is theoretical
syntax, with a particular focus on understanding how
syntax interacts
with semantics and morphology.
More narrowly, my work investigates theoretical issues surrounding
relativization, nominalization,
clausal embedding, agreement/concord, and categorization.
Much of my research draws from my fieldwork on Wá·šiw (Washo),
an Indigenous language spoken around Lake Tahoe
(dáʔaw). More recently, I have also become
involved with the
Chin Languages Research Project. Through these community-based
collaborations I hope to help highlight the
contributions of understudied languages to the development of linguistic
theory.
Recent and upcoming
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December 2025. Paper published in the Proceedings of the 27th Workshop on Structure and Constituency in Languages of the Americas (with Andrew Koontz-Garboden): What makes a bipartite verb? A case study from Wá·šiw.
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September 2025. Elicitation instrument published in Indiana Working Papers in South Asian Languages and Cultures (with Kelly Berkson, Grayson Ziegeler, Amanda Bohnert, Samson Lotven, Dillon Smith, Kenneth Van Bik, and James C. Wamsley): Chin Languages Elicitation Guide.
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September 2025. Book chapter published in Generative Perspectives on Degrees: The Semantics and Morphosyntax of Scalarity (with M. Ryan Bochnak, Margit Bowler, and Andrew Koontz-Garboden): Reconsidering a parametric approach to cross-linguistic variation in degree constructions.
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July 2025. Paper published online at Natural Language & Linguistic Theory (with Andrew Koontz-Garboden): Variation in the lexical semantics of property concept roots: Evidence from Wá·šiw.
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May 2025. Paper published at Glossa (with Andrew Koontz-Garboden, Jens Hopperdietzel, Colin Bannard, and Margit Bowler, a.o.): Verbhood and state/change of state lability across languages
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April 2025. Talk given at WCCFL 43, University of Washington: Verb stem alternation and successive cyclic movement in Falam Chin
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February 2025. Invited talk at the How we do (not) talk about mistaken beliefs workshop, Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf (joint work with M. Ryan Bochnak): Two paths to clausal embedding in Wá·šiw.
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September 2024. Paper published online at Linguistic Inquiry (with Andrew Koontz-Garboden): Possession in categorization across language and category
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May 2024. Talk at the Joint Workshop on Multiword Expressions and Universal Dependencies (MWE-UD) at LREC-COLING with Meesum Alam, Francis Tyers, and Sandra Kübler): Universal dependencies for Saraiki. Torino, Italy.
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April 2024. Poster at the 24th Workshop on Structure and Consituency in Languages of the Americas (WSCLA) (with Andrew Koontz-Garboden): What makes a bipartite verb? A case study from Wá·šiw. University of Toronto.
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February 2024. Colloquium at Rutgers University. Deriving entities in the syntax at the A and A' level.
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January 2024. Talk at the Linguistic Society of America's annual meeting with Andrew Koontz-Garboden: Resultative bipartite verbs in Wá·šiw. New York City.