Research
Currently working on...
Northern Tutchone curriculum In collaboration with Kwanlin Dün First Nation, the Yukon Native Language Centre, and Vicki Sear, I am developing the first grammar course for the Northern Tutchone language. Topics included will be morphological and sentential structures not currently documented for this language. This grammar course is part of the larger Northern Tutchone curriculum offered at YNLC that is designed to build speaker and language teacher capacity for communities.
Recent projects
Dissertation I investigate how light verbs contribute to event structure across three, typologically different languages: English, Hindi-Urdu, and Korean. I first show that light verbs across the three languages vary in their structural position and function. English light verbs take and give remain low in the structure, in VP, while the Hindi-Urdu light verb le 'take' occupies an intermediary (Inner) Aspect head just below the head that introduces the external argument, vP. The Korean light verb peli sits even higher in the structure, in an aspect head above vP. This structural variation is reflected in the effect that the light verbs have on the lexical aspect of the predicate. Light verbs in all three languages make the event telic, regardless of the type of event the light verb combines with. In summary, this dissertation provides a brief typological overview of the syntactic function and semantic role of light verbs, providing new insights into how light verbs contribute to event structure.
Voice typology Butt & Ramchand (2005) propose that different `Light Verbs' (LVs) in Hindi-Urdu sit in different syntactic heads, roughly correlating to Voice and v. These structural positions reflect the semantic effects that LVs have on the event. Sana Kidwai and I are investigating the structural and semantic properties of two Urdu LVs, jaa 'go' and paR 'fall,' first showing that they are in Voice (=Init, Ramchand, 2008), then showing that while they have similar properties to the non-active Voice head in classic passives, they differ enough to warrant a separate Voice head with slightly different functionalities and selection properties. Our project (i) highlights variation in LV structural positions and properties, and (ii) reveals variation in Voice head functionality beyond Kratzer's (1996) original 'Active' and 'Non-active' typology.
Publications
Kidwai, Sana and Frances Sobolak. forthcoming. Urdu Light Verbs reveal Voice head variation. (f)ASAL-13 Proceedings.
Sobolak, Frances. 2023. The event structure of light verbs. PhD dissertation. Cornell University. Ithaca, NY. [view here]
Sobolak, Frances. 2023. The event structure of light verbs. PhD Dissertation. Cornell University. Ithaca, NY.
Sobolak, Frances. 2021. "Salish Denominals: ‘Full’ and Light Verb Interpretations of have". ICSNL 56. pp. 410–426. [view here]
Sobolak, Frances. 2020. "Parallels between passive allomorphy and object agreement in Montana Salish". ICSNL 55. pp 314–325. [view here]
Presentations
April 2023. with Sana Kidwai. 'Urdu light verbs reveal Voice head variation.' (f)ASAL-13. Ann Arbor, MI. [handout]
October 2022. Complex predicates via Incorporation in Korean light verb constructions. Syntax & Morphology Circle at Stanford University. Palo Alto, CA.
September 2022. Light verbs, Case, and Voice head functionality. Syntax & Semantics Circle at University of California, Berkeley. Berkeley, CA.
May 2022. Light verbs, selectional requirements, and Incorporation. 8th Annual Symposium on Language Research at University of California, Davis. Davis, CA (online).
May 2021. Salish denominals: Light and 'Full' verb interpretation. Cornell University Linguistics Research Workshop. Ithaca, NY (online).
January 2021. Parallels between object agreement and passive in Selis. Linguistic Society of America Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA (online).
October 2020. Investigating Salish denominal constructions. UBC Salish Working Group. Vancouver, BC (online).
May 2020. Asymmetrical agreement in Selis. Cornell University Linguistics Research Workshop. Ithaca, NY.
January 2020. Montana Salish epenthesis and consonant class division. Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages Annual Meeting. New Orleans, LA.
Cornell University is located on Gayogo̱hó:nǫ́ land. The Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫ’ presence here, where I live and work, precedes the establishment of Cornell University, New York State, and the United States of America.