Research

Professor Bhadra studies and teaches modal logic and the natural language semantics of all types of modality. In studying the semantic interaction of deontic modal verbs and their types of complements across a diverse array of SA languages, we find a LOT of variation in complement choice -- obligation and prohibition necessarily take non-finite clausal complements, yet the shape of this non-finite configuration can be infinitives or nominalized/gerund. We present a two-pronged approach: (i) a formal analysis of the interaction of two distinct domains -- modal semantics (specifically prohibition and obligation, comparatively) and non-finite structures (infinitives and gerunds, comparatively); (ii) a typological picture of how such complementation patterns occur across linguistic areas, with a focus on South Asia, while drawing essential comparisons with historical and current empirical trends in English.

Pedagogical material: 

• Bhadra, D. (2022). Embedding and Complementation in the Modal Domain, invited course taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. 

• Bhadra, D. (2020). Modality: Patterns, Theories, Logic I and II, invited course taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University, India. 
  
  

Research: 

• Bhadra, D. and Banerjee, A. (in review). Modals of prohibition and obligation: semantics, complementation, typology (at Natural Language and Linguistic Theory) 

• Bryant, S. and Bhadra, D. (2021). Situation types in complementation: Oromo attitude predication. Proceedings of SALT 30. 

• Bhadra, D. and Banerjee, A. (2021). What gerund complements tell us about deontic necessity modals. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung (SuB) 25

In our lab we extensively study how fundamental cognitive concepts such as evidence, epistemicity, doxasticity, perception interact with language.

• Law, HK, Li, Haoze and Bhadra, D. (2024). Force shift: a case study of Cantonese ho2 particle clusters.
  Natural Language Semantics. Pages 1-43.  

• Bhadra, D. (2022). Evidentiality: unifying nominal and propositional domains. Invited chapter in Linguistics meets Philosophy, pages 243 - 274. ed. D. Altshuler, Cambridge University Press. 

• Bhadra, D. (2020). The Semantics of Evidentials in Questions.  Journal of Semantics, Volume 37, Issue 3, August 2020, Pages 367–423. 

• Bhadra, D. (2018). Evidentials are syntax-sensitive: The view from Bangla.  Glossa,  3(1): 106. pages 1--39.

• Bhadra, D. (2017). Evidentiality and Questions: Bangla at the Interfaces. Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers University. 

Mirativity, or the linguistic category of surprise, corresponds to a gamut of emotional and cognitive aspects. Current work in the lab studies the cross-linguistic interactions of mirativity with speech acts like questions. 

Research: 

Bhadra, D. (2024). Counterexpectional wh-questions with miratives. Invited chapter in press in the forthcoming volume The Oxford Handbook of Non-Canonical Questions, edited by Regine Eckhardt, George Walkden, Nicole Dehe. 

South Asia as a linguistic area is characterized by over 700 languages spread across 4 major language families. Yet this rich linguistic diversity remains very understudied, to the extent that many online databases contain contradictory information and published sources disagree on vital linguistic information. Compiling information from all current available records on online databases, published scholarship, government census data, and resources on endangered languages, we provide two exhaustive genealogical resources covering the expanse of South Asia in this work: genealogical trees of each of the language families (including all endangered languages) and a searchable database containing vital information about all South Asian languages (including disputes and discrepancies). We provide a manual of how our methodology can be employed to similarly chart other linguistic areas containing understudied and under-resourced languages, and reinforce the claim that progress in typological and theoretical work on such languages requires a good genealogical foundation.

Research: 

Laufenberg, D., Bhattacharjee, N., Bhadra, D. (2024). Snapshot of a Linguistic Area: a Comprehensive Overview of South Asian Language Taxonomy. Under review at Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. (the link has our paper, the trees, and the database). 

These topics and more are investigated through in-person fieldwork by Professor Bhadra or through virtual surveys and online or in-person follow-up interviews. The NSF grant guiding this project includes fieldwork across the 4 major language families in the Indian sub-continent -- Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman -- to uncover, describe and analyze underlying semantic typological patterns and how they affect or shape extant formal theories in semantics and pragmatics.

• Bangla

• Assamese

• Odia

• Hindi

• Nepali

• Khasi

• Meiteilon

• Chungli Ao

• Lepcha 

• Adi 

• Bagri 

• Dhundhari 

• Santhali

• Munda 

• Kol/Ho 

• Mahali 

• Nagamese 

• Toto 

• Angami (Naga) 

• Sambalpuri 

• Yimkhiung 

Grad students in the lab study focus particles along a few lines: 

• interactions between scalar-exclusive and scalar-additive particles like Bangla -i/-o, Marathi -ts/-pəɳ, Hindi hii/bhii

• Cross-linguistic comparisons among these particles which contribute in similar ways to information structure

• observing the relative order between these particles as they appear within the same

clause, hosted by different constituents.

• exploring the nature of the aforementioned particles in the syntax-semantics-pragmatics

interface.

Professor Bhadra also studies the morpho-semantics interface, especially topics related to the lexical semantics of verbs, compositionality in affixation, event structure, event decomposition, result states and affectedness.

Research: 

Bhadra, D. (2024). Verb roots encode outcomes: argument structure and lexical semantics of reversal and restitution. Linguistics and Philosophy. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-024-09409-5