Research

• The introduction and thematic licensing of external arguments
  My dissertation is about how the external argument is licensed: how it comes to be associated with verbs, and what happens to it when it's not there. This study draws on various phenomena, including transitivity alternations, passivization, causativazion, and nominalization, with data from a wide array of languages, including Kinande, Japanese and Turkish.
  
  

• By hook or by crook:  What by-phrases tell us about Japanese passives
  This project looks at two different by-phrases in Japanese passives, and argues that they occur with two different types of passives heads

Mitchley, H. 2022.  Transitivization, causative constructions, and the thematic licensing of external arguments. In: Proceedings of the 2022 Linguistics Society of America Conference.

Mitchley, H. 2015. Coordination and Agreement in Xitsonga, Sesotho and isiXhosa: An Optimality Theoretic Perspective. MA thesis, Rhodes University, South Africa.

De Vos, M. & Mitchley, H. 2012. Subject marking and preverbal coordination in Sesotho: A perspective from Optimality Theory, Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 30:2, 155-170. 

2022:

• Nominal agents and the thematic licensing of external arguments. Talk. ACAL53. San Diego, California [Virtual].

• Transitivization, causative constructions, and the thematic licensing of external arguments. Poster. LSA Washington DC.

2021:

• A new way of introducing the external argument, and its implications for 'bundling'. Talk [virtual]. Manchester Forum in Linguistics. Manchester, UK. 

2019:

• The importance of causative data in syntactic studies. Poster. at APDW 3.

• From Micro to Macro: Testing theoretical syntactic models of Bantu conjunct agreement through experimental approaches on a larger scale. Talk at  SAMWOP 8. (With Mark de Vos, Kristina Riedel, Jochen Zeller, Jana Willer-Gold, Maseanakoena Mokoaleli, Mfundo Didi and Andrew Nevins; presented by Mark De Vos)

• The Phonology and Syntax of Tone Spreading in Dan. Talk at ACAL50 (with Akin Akinlabi, Gildas Bleu Gondo,  and Tadjou-N’Dine Mamadou; Presented by Tadjou-N’Dine Mamadou and Hazel Mitchley)

2018:

• Causative constructions in Kinande. Talk at University of The Free State, Linguistics Department Research Week. 

• Causing Trouble in Kinande. Talk at RULing (Rutgers)

• Stress never attracts tone. Talk at ACAL49

2017:

• A computational method for evaluating theories of phonological representation. Talk at CLS53  (With Nick Danis, Eileen Blum, Luca Iacoponi, and Adam Jardine. Presented by Nick Danis and Adam Jardine)

• Raising to object across an agreeing complementizer in Lubukusu. Talk at  ACAL48

2016:

• Constraints on coordinated subject agreement in isiXhosa and beyond. Poster. 42nd Annual meeting of the Linguistics Society of America. Washington DC. (Mark de Vos, and Will Bennett; Presented by Hazel Mitchley)

2013:

• Coordinating agreement in isiXhosa. Talk at LSSA/SAALA/SAALT joint annual conference. 

• A typology of agreement. Talk at SAMWOP2

2012:

• Subject marking and preverbal coordination in Sesotho: A perspective from Optimality Theory. Talk at LSSA/SAALA/SAALT joint annual conference.