Ljiljana Progovac

Ljiljana Progovac

Department

 English and Linguistics

EDUCATION:
Baccalaureate: BA, University of Novi Sad (Yugoslavia), 1981
Graduate: MA, University of Belgrade (Yugoslavia), 1984
PhD, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1988

POSITIONS HELD

University of Novi Sad, Serbia, Assistant Professor of English, 1982-85

University of Southern California, Los Angeles, English Composition, 1986-88

Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistics, 1990-91

Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, Assistant, Associate, and Full Professor, Linguistics, 1991-present

Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, Linguistics Program Director, 2007-2017

University of Venice, Italy, Visiting Assistant Professor of Linguistics, Spring 1995

University of Chicago, Linguistics Society of America (LSA) Summer Institute Instructor, 2015

MIT, Cambridge, MA, Visiting Scholar, 2018/19

 

Research interest(s)/area of expertise

•  Evolution of language; Evolution of syntax; Syntax; Slavic syntax

Research

Language evolution; human evolution

Education

• Ph.D. in Linguistics, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, 1988
• B.A. in English, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, 1981

Awards and grants

• HONORS/AWARDS in the last ten years:

  -The Humanities Center Marilyn Williamson Endowed Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, 2020,
        $20,000, for the project: “Language Evolution, Self-Domestication, and Verbal Aggression"
  -Charles Gershenson Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, 2020, $20,000
  -Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award, 2020, $2,500, for the book “A Critical Introduction
        to Language Evolution: Current Controversies and Future Prospects. Springer Expert Briefs, 2019
  -Sabbatical Leave, 2018/2019, Visiting Scholar at MIT
  -Board of Governors Faculty Recognition Award, 2016, $2,500, for the book “Evolutionary Syntax,”
       published by Oxford University Press in 2015
  -Keal Faculty Fellowship, Department of English, Summer 2016, $6,000, for the project: “Testing the
       proposal of Evolutionary Syntax: Genetics and neuroimaging”
  -The Humanities Center Marilyn Williamson Endowed Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, 2014,
      $20,000, for the experimental fMRI project “In Search of Protosyntax in the Brain”
   

Selected publications

Scholarly Books

(2019) A Critical Introduction to Language Evolution: Epert Briefs. Cham, Switzerland: Springer. 

(2015) Evolutionary Syntax. Oxford Studies in the Evolution of Language. Oxford: Oxford
University Press. Also: Oxford Scholarship Online: Oxford University Press. August 2015.
DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198736547.001.0001

(2006) The Syntax of Nonsententials: Multidisciplinary Perspectives, co-edited by Ljiljana
Progovac, Kate Paesani, Eugenia Casielles and Ellen Barton. Pages: ix + 372. Linguistik Aktuell
(LA) 93. John Benjamins, Amsterdam.

(2005) A Syntax of Serbian: Clausal Architecture, pp. 245. Slavica Publishers, Bloomington, Indiana.

(1994) Negative and Positive Polarity: A Binding Approach, pp. 168. Cambridge Studies in
Linguistics 68. Cambridge University Press.

Refereed Journal Articles

(2020) “A four-stage model for language evolution under the effects of human self-
domestication.” Joint paper with A. Benítez-Burraco as first author. Language and
Communication 73, 1-17. doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.03.002

(2019) “From physical aggression to verbal behavior: Language evolution and self-domestication
feedback loop.” Joint paper with A. Benítez-Burraco as second author. Frontiers in Psychology
10. 3389, 1-19. doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02807

(2019) “Minimalism in the light of biology: What to retain and what to discard?” Frontiers in Psychology 10:1303. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01303

(2018) “Neural correlates of syntax and proto-syntax: Evolutionary dimension.” Co-authors: Progovac, Ljiljana; Rakhlin, Natalia; Angell, William; Liddane, Ryan; Tang, Lingfei; and Ofen, Noa. Frontiers in Psychology 9:2415, 1-16. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02415

(2018) “Diversity of grammars and their diverging evolutionary and processing paths: Evidence from Functional MRI study of Serbian.” Co-authors: Progovac, Ljiljana; Rakhlin, Natalia; Angell, William; Liddane, Ryan; Tang, Lingfei; and Ofen, Noa. Frontiers in Psychology 9:278, 1-13. Special Issue, Language as Adaptive Systems, edited by Enoch Aboh and Umberto Ansaldo.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00278

(2016) “A Gradualist scenario for language evolution: Precise linguistic reconstruction of early human (and Neandertal) grammars.” Frontiers in Psychology 7:1714. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01714.

(2016) L. Progovac, and M. Ratliff. “Commentary: Beyond tone and climate: Broadening the framework.” Journal of Language Evolution 1.1, 77-79. Doi:10.1093 /jole/izv006

(2013) “Nonsentential vs. Ellipsis Approaches: Review and Extensions.” Language and
Linguistics Compass 7/11: 597-617. Review article.

(2012) “Compounds and commands in the evolution of human language.” Theoria et Historia
Scientiarum: An International Journal for Interdisciplinary Studies IX: 49-70.

(2010) “Syntax: Its Evolution and Its Representation in the Brain.” Biolinguistics 4.2-3, 233-254.

(2009) “Sex and Syntax: Subjacency Revisited.” Biolinguistics 3.2-3, 305-336.

(2009) “The Urge to Merge: Ritual Insult and the Evolution of Syntax.” Joint paper with
John L. Locke as second author. Biolinguistics, 3.2-3, 337-354.

(1999) “Events and Economy of Coordination.” Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental
and Interdisciplinary Research, 2.2., 141-159.

(1999) “Event Pronominal To.” Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 6.1, 3-39 

(1998) "Determiner Phrase in a Language without Determiners." Journal of Linguistics, 34.1,
165-179.

(1998) “Structure for Coordination, Part 1,” State-of-the-Articles. Glot International 3.7, 3-6
(newspaper format).

(1998) “Structure for Coordination, Part 2,” State-of-the-Articles. Glot International 3.8, 3-9
(newspaper format).

(1994) "Negation and Comp," Rivista di Linguistica, 5.2, 329-347.

(1993) "Long-Distance Reflexives: Movement-to-Infl vs. Relativized SUBJECT." Linguistic
Inquiry, 24.4, 755-772.

(1993) "Negative Polarity: Downward Entailment and Binding." Linguistics and Philosophy,
16.2, 149-180.

(1993) "Subjunctive: The (Mis)Behavior of Anaphora and Negative Polarity." The Linguistic
Review 10, 37-59.

(1993) "Locality and Subjunctive-like Complements in Serbo-Croatian." Journal of Slavic
Linguistics 1.1, 116-144.

(1992) "Negative Polarity: A Semantico-Syntactic Approach." Lingua 86.4, 271-299.

(1992) "Relativized SUBJECT: Long Distance Reflexives Without Movement." Linguistic
Inquiry 23.4, 671-680.

(1992) "Non-Negative Polarity Licensing Must Involve Comp." Linguistic Inquiry, 23.2, 341-
347.

(1991) "Polarity in Serbo-Croatian: Anaphoric NPIs and Pronominal PPIs." Linguistic Inquiry
22.3, 567-572.

(1990) "Free-Choice Bilo in Serbo-Croatian: Existential or Universal?" Linguistic Inquiry 21.1,
130-135.

Book Chapters (recent)

(2017) “Where is continuity likely to be found?” Commentary on ‘The social origins of language’ by Robert M. Seyfarth and Dorothy L. Cheney. Edited and introduced by Michael Platt, 46-61. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press.

(2014) “Degrees of Complexity in Syntax: A View from Evolution.” In Measuring
Grammatical Complexity, 83-102, ed. by Frederick J. Newmeyer and Laurel B. Preston. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

(2010) “Imperative in Compounds: Implications for Historical and Evolutionary Studies.” In Development of Language through the Lens of Formal Linguistics, 137-145, ed. by Petr Karlík. Munich: Lincom Europa.

(2010) “When Clauses Refuse to be Recursive: An Evolutionary Perspective.” In Recursion and Human Language, ed. by Harry van der Hulst, 193-211. The Hague: Mouton.

(2009) “Layering of Grammar: Vestiges of Proto-Syntax in Present-Day Languages.” In Language Complexity as an Evolving Variable, ed. by Geoffrey Sampson, David Gil and Peter Trudgill, 203-212. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
 

 

 

Currently teaching

• Syntax (LIN 5300/ENG 5740)

  Introduction to Linguistic Theory (LIN/ENG 5700)

Courses taught

Semantics (LIN/ENG 5745)
Basic Concepts in Linguistics (LIN/ENG 2720)