Research

Research Interests

Aside from my wider research interests in Romance linguistics, I am particularly interested in Romance syntax and the diachronic development of changes in word order and the interaction between functional categories in the licensing of certain syntactic phenomena within Romance. A lot of my research investigates lesser-studied varieties within Romance such as the Italian dialects and Eastern Romance dialects to the end of adding a richer understanding of certain phenomena within the domain of Romance syntax.

My PhD project investigates the phenomenon known as Differential Object Marking in Romance. In particular, I am investigating the development and diachronic evolution of DOM within Romance both in synchrony and diachrony. I aim to shed light on the cross-linguistic development of differential object marking and analyse and account for the interaction between DOM and other syntactic phenomena in its licensing, such as the Verb Second constraint argued to be present in old Romance and the fine-structures of the DP and CP.

I am also a research assistant on the Grammars of Judeo-Spanish project, under Dr. Alice Corr at the University of Birmingham, a research project funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust (sites.google.com/view/judeospanish). As part of this project, I assist with data collection in various Romance languages, conduct interviews with Ladino speakers and heritage speakers, and catalogue and analyse primary data collected as part of the project.

Articles

Singh, Onkar. 2021. Verb Second in Old Venetian. In Isogloss. Open Journal of Romance Linguistics 7, 7:1-28.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/isogloss.110

Theses

2019 - The Emergence of Differential Object Marking in Spoken Northern Italian - a syntactic investigation.

MPhil thesis at the University of Cambridge. Supervisor: Professor Adam Ledgeway. [Pdf].

2018 - Verb Second in Old Venetian. B.A. Thesis at the University of Cambridge. Supervisor: Dr. Luigi Andriani.

Talks

Sept. 2021 - Emergența sistemului de marcare diferențială a obiectului direct în italiana regională din nord.

Presented at the second edition of the Atelier Lingvistic Online, Institutul de Lingvistică Iorgu Iordan - Alexandru Rosetti. [pdf]

Sept. 2021 - A me mi convince. An investigation on the emergence of Differential Object Marking in Spoken Italian.

Presented at the Centre de Lingüística Teòrica at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. [Link to talk]

June 2021 - V2 reconsidered: a comparative analysis of verb-participle inversion in old Daco- and (old) Italo-Romance.

A joint project with Ștefania Costea. Presented at Anglia Ruskin and Cambridge Romance Linguistics Seminars. [Pdf].

Oct. 2020 - CP-licensing of DOM: evidence from northern Italian and beyond?.

Presented at the Romance Linguistics Online Seminars, University of Birmingham. [Pdf]

April 2019 - Verb Second in Old Venetian.

Presented at the Venetian in a Comparative Romance Context workshop at St. Catherine's College, University of Oxford. [Pdf]

March 2019 - Incipient Differential Object Marking systems.

Presented at Selwyn College, University of Cambridge. [Pdf].

Jan. 2019 - Verb Second in Old Venetian.

Presented at Anglia Ruskin and Cambridge Romance Linguistics Seminar. [Pdf].

Funding

2021-2024 - Sykes Postgraduate Research Studentship in Italian (PhD). Fully funded PhD grand (approximately £75,000).

2018-2019 - Newton College Masters Award, Selwyn College, University of Cambridge.

Approximately £12,000 to cover course costs and maintenance fees during my MPhil studies.

2018 - Foundation Scholarship, Downing College, University of Cambridge

2015-2018 - Platt Prize for Especial Distinction, Downing College, University of Cambridge.

2015 - 2018 - Seton Cavendish Book Prize, Downing College, University of Cambridge.

2015 - 2018 - Landrum and Brown Scholarship, Downing College, University of Cambridge.

2018 - Italian department prize. Prize for appearing in top 2.5% of Part II Italian tripos.

Language training

2021 - Advanced Portuguese Course, University of Cambridge.

2017-2018 - Advanced Romanian Language seminars, University of Cambridge.

2016-2017 - Intermediate Romanian Language seminars, University of Padua

2016 - Advanced Italian Language course (C1), Romanica Accademia Italiana di Lingua e Cultura.

2018 - B.A. in Modern and Medieval languages (Spanish and Italian). Advanced language classes in Spanish and Italian.

2014 - A* grade in A-levels in Spanish and French.