Fae Hicks

I am a PhD researcher at the University of Edinburgh working on Theoretical Historical Linguistics supervised by Patrick Honeybone and Rob Truswell.  I am interested in theoretical comparison in both phonology and syntax (and indeed, between phonology and syntax) specifically as it pertains to language change. My PhD research focuses on integrating theories of the synchronic mind with complex systems thinking to address how facts of the I-language and general cognition are reflected in patterns of historical change.  

My interest in the nature and causes of linguistic change on both an individual (I-language, grammar, competence) level and a capital-L-Language (English, French, Hindi, et c.) level have lead me to address broad philosophical questions like

• What is a historical process? 

• What does it mean for one change to 'cause' another? 

• At what point can a change be considered 'complete'? 

As well as more specific questions pertaining to the nature of historical developments in phonology and syntax such as 

• Is 'phonetic erosion' a phonological change?

• Can a phonological change be said to cause syntactic change (or vice versa)? 

Spoiler, the answer to both of these is a resounding no! My PhD combines elements of syntactic and phonological theory with theories of change and a sprinkling of linguistic philosophy to create a project that is very hard to categorise into a subfield. This very problem led my collaborator and I, to create ETHL (Edinburgh Theoretical Hisotrical Linguistics) a venue catering to the intersection of historical and theoretical linguistics. The first installment of ETHL was a workshop in 2025 and in 2026 ETHL returns as a full summer school!

I am well grounded in both theoretical and historical linguistics. My background is in historical syntax having completed my Masters by research (MRes) with Giuseppe Longobardi at York on the parametric development of Latin. I have also recently started working more with phonological theory developing modells of syllable structure within the framework of Logical Phonology.

While my current work focuses on how I-linguistic properties show up in the emergent system that is the historical language I am hoping to consider the effect of historical change in on the current state of I-langauge. I am interested in delineating the edge of the I-langauge, determining what must be accounted for as an active phonological rule in the mind of a speaker and whether there are phonological processes that can be better explained as a confluence of historical accidents rather than a specific I-linguistic process.