Current Project:
Patterns in Ellipsis: Syntax, Variation, and Interpretive Mechanisms
ZUKOnnect Fellowship | University of Konstanz, Germany | August 2025 - July 2026
This project investigates ellipsis and silence as structured linguistic strategies that shape human communication. Building on my doctoral work on sluicing, the research comprises three interconnected objectives:
Cross-linguistic Comparative Analysis: I compare clausal ellipsis mechanisms across typologically diverse languages, particularly Indo-Aryan and European Romance families, to unify theories in clausal ellipsis.
Computational Modeling: Ellipsis poses significant challenges to current NLP systems, as interpreting what is unsaid requires sophisticated inferencing mechanisms. My documentation of typologically distinct ellipsis types informs the development of algorithms that better emulate human linguistic reasoning, bridging theoretical linguistics and artificial intelligence.
The SiNoSi Initiative: Through the Silence as Notation and Signal (SiNoSi) initiative, I explore ellipsis as a form of grammatical silence, contributing to the Collaborative Research Centre's Algorithm of Interpretation. This work frames ellipsis not as absence but as an active signal that guides interpretation, a perspective that fundamentally reshapes how we understand linguistic economy.
This interdisciplinary project bridges linguistic theory, cognitive science, and AI, advancing our understanding of silence as a universal and computationally relevant phenomenon in language.
Others:
Sluicing in Hindi-Urdu and Bangla: Syntactic and Theoretical Implications
PhD in Linguistics | The English and Foreign Languages University | 2019-2025
My doctoral dissertation provides a comprehensive syntactic analysis of sluicing in two major Indo-Aryan languages: Hindi-Urdu and Bangla. I identified and analyze multiple types of sluicing in Hindi-Urdu, including canonical sluicing, relative sluicing, and focus sluicing, documenting their syntactic properties and distributional patterns. I also attempted to establish a focus movement analysis for Hindi-Urdu and topic movement analysis for the underlying mechanisms behind language.
Dissertation Committee: Prof. Hari Prasad (Supervisor), Dr. Utpal Lahiri, Prof. Hemlatha Nagarajan,
Viva completed: Aug, 2025
Deletion in Relatives (with Dr. Rajesh Bhatt, University of Massachusetts, Amherst): We examine ellipsis in relatives that involve degrees, times, and locations, i.e., comparatives/equatives to determine the nature of deletion while exploring certain asymmetries between a relative deletion in right adjoined headed relatives. The manuscript is in development.
A Unified Analysis of TP Ellipsis (with Dr. Saurov Syed, University of Auckland, Auckland): We explore sluicing in Hindi-Urdu and also in Coorgi (a severely understudied and threatened Dravidian language) and put forward the claim that these two languages exhibit focus-sluicing. Through such an analysis, we contribute to our understanding of sluicing in a threatened language like Coorgi and explore sluicing strategies in the Indian Subcontinent. The manuscript is in development.
Indefinites and Polar Disjoint Interrogatives (with Kousani Banerjee, EFLU, Hyderabad): We examined polar questions, polar disjoint questions, alternative questions and disjunction particles in Bangla and Hindi-Urdu, trying to explore why indefinite s like 'kichu/kuch' (something), 'keu/koi' (someone) etc. are allowed only in polar disjoint interrogatives but not in alternative questions in both languages. The results of our study were published in the proceedings of the 24th Seoul International Conference on Generative Grammar (SICOGG 24).
On the Nuanced Landscape of Linguistic Revitalisation in Nagaland (with Aienla Aier, EFLU Hyderabad) : Marking my first foray into anthropological linguistics, this study focused on the current language archiving, preservation, and revitalization efforts in as observed in the North-Eastern Linguistic community in India. It attempted to continue the discourse in a manner that reflects contemporary realities while maintaining a steady focus on situating the same within the context of linguistic revitalization in the tribal, linguistic communities of the state of Nagaland. This study is forthcoming in Language and Identity in Northeast India (Edited Volume).