The SynSem group was initiated thanks to the Primus program of the Charles University and its Faculty of Arts (2019-2022). Its aim is to study natural language syntax and semantics without any a priori methodological or framework-based bias. Members of the group come from different theoretical backgrounds (from generative to usage-based) and use a variety of methods (experiment, corpus, typology, fieldwork). The cross-methodological concept of the group has crystalized from the conviction that different methods and even frameworks are complementary and can be fruitfully combined in the quest for the understanding of various linguistic phenomena.
Prosodic expression of utterance information structure in Czech (2024-2026) (PI: Jan Volín)
Modelling the question-statement opposition in Slavic languages/QueSlav (2021-2024)
From interrogatives to relatives (2019-2022)
Radek Šimík
Michael Andrle (2024); syntax, semantics, Czech
Michaela Chodounská (2023-; semantics, pragmatics, Czech)
Barbora Genserová (2023-; syntax, Czech, German(ic))
Adéla Koštejnová (2023-; semantics, pragmatics, Czech)
Maria Onoeva (2021-2024; semantics, pragmatics, Russian) profile
Edita Schejbalová (2023-; semantics, L1-acquisition) profile
Anna Staňková (2021-2026; syntax-semantics, information structure, Czech) profile
Kateřina Hrdinková (2022-2023; experimental semantics/pragmatics, Czech) profile
Klára Matiasovitsová (2019-2022; L1 acquisition) profile
Adam Pospíšil (2019-2022; Arabic, fieldwork)
Jakub Sláma (2019-2022; corpus, usage-based) profile
Hana Strachoňová (2019-2022; sign language) profile
This project is a collaboration between phoneticians (PI: Jan Volín) and semanticists. Long and rich tradition of Czech research in information structure of utterances provided inspiration for the current project. The project's main question is how the core concepts of information structure (focus, givenness, topic) are encoded prosodically in Czech. While previous studies were generally based on their authors’ intuitions about language, illustrated by invented examples, informal observations or written texts, we intend to test various hypotheses in behavioural speech experiments and corpora of communicatively produced speech material. Thorough acoustical measurements, rigorous experiments in line with current conventions of empirical research and on-line observations of cerebral speech processing with the use of EEG and NIRS methods are to verify or amend the claims proposed in recent literature. The project will thus provide reliable data on Czech as produced and perceived by its current users.
The QueSlav project is funded jointly by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) and the German Research Foundation (DFG). It is a collaboration between the Charles University (PI: Radek Šimík) and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (PI: Roland Meyer). The project will start in October 2022. We currently search for PhD candidates.
The project investigates various types of polar questions and focuses on languages which, despite their genealogical closeness, make use of a whole range of question-encoding strategies, including sentence-initial verb/auxiliary placement (Czech), use of particles (Polish, Russian), placement of prosodic prominence on the verb (Russian), and use of boundary tones (all languages). In addition, the languages under investigation have a rich repertoire of discourse particles, polarity items, and question tags which are often sensitive to the statement–question (or declarative–interrogative) distinction, as well as different bias inferences, and which can be exploited for diagnosing the relevant properties of the investigated utterance/sentence types. Our leading research question is whether the type of form used for the expression of polar or bias meanings influences the conveyed semantics and pragmatics. According to the null hypothesis, question semantics is universal. The competing hypothesis we put forth is that the type of form correlates with different semantics. Syntactic strategies – which are by assumption more deeply entrenched in the grammatical system – lead to more specified semantics than prosodic strategies, which in turn exhibit stronger reliance on pragmatic and contextual cues. Polar questions are thus used as a window into the general issue of the semantics–pragmatics divide. Our approach to addressing the theoretical question is distinctly empirical. We plan on a series of experimental studies of acceptability, offline and online management of polar questions, their answers, and their contextual bias. Besides informing current theories, we wish to attain a better understanding of polar question formation and bias in questions in Slavic, to foster experimental semantic/pragmatic methods in general and to contribute to a more adequate cross-linguistic typology of polar questions.
From interrogatives to relatives is funded by the Primus program. Our starting point is a set of cross-linguistic generalizations about the behavior of wh-words and wh-constructions, suggesting a consistently asymmetric relation between wh-interrogatives and wh-based relatives (a paper on these is in preparation):
The project investigates various issues related to the above generalizations, including the compositional semantics of relative pronouns, the typology and nanosyntax of relative and related pronouns, L1 acquisition of English and Czech wh-words in various wh-constructions, microvariation of wh-word use in Arabic vernaculars, competing relativization strategies in Czech, and wh-words and relative clauses in the Czech Sign Language.
Project-related publications
Šimík, Radek and Jakub Sláma. 2023. Czech evidential relatives introduced by jak 'how': Recognitional cues for the hearer. In Łukasz Jędrzejowski and Carla Umbach (eds.), Non-interrogative subordinate wh-clauses. Oxford University Press.
Šimík, Radek, Klára Matiasovitsová, and Filip Smolík. 2023. From correlativization to relativization: A view from Czech L1-acquisition. In Paris Gappmayr and Jackson Kellogg (eds.), BUCLD 47: Proceedings of the 47th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, Vol. 2, 702-714. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.
Šimík, Radek, Petr Biskup, Kateřina Bartasová, Markéta Dančová, Eliška Dostálková, Kateřina Hrdinková, Gabriela Kosková, Jaromír Kozák, Klára Lupoměská, Albert Maršík, Edita Schejbalová, and Illia Yekimov. 2022. Extraction from clausal adjuncts in Czech: A rating study. In Breanna Pratley, Özge Bakay, Eva Neu, and Peyton Deal (eds.), NELS 52: Proceedings of the Fifty-Second Annual Meeting of the Norht East Linguistic Society, Volume Three, 109-123. Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications. https://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/006632
Strachoňová, Hana. 2022. On question words in Czech Sign Language. Sign Language & Linguistics 25(1), 58-91. https://doi.org/10.1075/sll.21001.str
Sláma, Jakub and Radek Šimík. 2021. Vztažné věty s relativizátorem jak. Naše řeč 104(4), 207-224. http://nase-rec.ujc.cas.cz/archiv.php?art=8637
Šimík, Radek. 2021. Free relatives. In Daniel Gutzmann, Lisa Matthewson, Cécile Meier, Hotze Rullmann, and Thomas E. Zimmermann (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell companion to semantics. John Wiley & Sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118788516.sem093
Šimík, Radek. 2020. Doubling unconditionals and relative sluicing. Natural Language Semantics. 28(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11050-019-09157-4
Biskup, Petr and Radek Šimík. 2019. Structure of conditional and (cor)relative clauses: New evidence from locality. In Maggie Baird and Jonathan Pesetsky (eds.), NELS 49: Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Volume 1, 135-144. Amherst, MA: GLSA Publications.
Šimík, Radek. 2018. Ever free relatives crosslinguistically. In Uli Sauerland and Stephanie Solt (eds.), Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 22, Vol. 2, 375-392. Berlin: Leibniz-ZAS. https://ojs.ub.uni-konstanz.de/sub/index.php/sub/article/view/112