Maria Polinsky

I have always been a descriptive and theoretical linguist. My strong belief is that we can make progress in our understanding of language only if we combine careful empirical work with a subtle appreciation of linguistic theory. I began my theoretical career as a typologist but the very range of facts that I have been considering in my research forced me to embrace other theoretical models, from minimalist syntax to language development and loss. I think that it is important to reach a balance between theoretical and empirical work, because in doing so, we can best advance innovative theoretical proposals. I also find it extremely important to develop ways of doing serious experimental linguistics that addresses core issues in the theory of language. These days I divide my time between theoretical and experimental work on long-distance dependencies, ergativity, and subject island effects.