Johannes Mursell, linguist at Goethe-University, Frankfurt 

Hi! I'm a post-doc at Goethe-University in Frankfurt, at the  linguistics department. I work on syntax (the structure of sentences). For my PhD, I investigated the interplay between information structure and agreement, concretely how notions such as Topic and Focus influence phi-feature agreement.  Since then, I continue investigating the impact of information structure on syntax in various languages.

This is also one of the topics that we investigate in a project called 'The VP-periphery in Mabia languages', funded by the German Science foundation (DFG). For this, we spent August 2022 in Ghana, at the University of Education in Winneba, doing fieldwork, and will travel there again in 2024.

Languages I have worked on (fieldwork): Tagalog, Swahili, Mabia languages.

Other languages and topics I'm interested in: Amazonian languages, discourse particles, embedded clauses.

If you have any questions or comments about my work, please email me!

Contact

j.<lastname>(at)lingua(dot)uni-frankfurt(dot)de

FB10 - Institut für Linguistik, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

Norbert-Wollheim-Platz 1, 60629 Frankfurt am Main

Room 4.256 | Tel.:  (+49) (0)69 798 32384

Recent

Output

Publications

Himmelreich, Anke, Melissa Jeckel and Johannes Mursell (2024). Agreement patterns of coordination. In Anke Himmelreich, Daniel Hole and Johannes Mursell (Eds.), To the left, to the right, and much in between: A Festschrift for Katharina Hartmann (pp. 71-87). Frankfurt: Goethe University Frankfurt. DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/3FX4M [paper]

Himmelreich, Anke, Daniel Hole and Johannes Mursell (Eds.) (2024). To the left, to the right, and much in between: A Festschrift for Katharina Hartmann. Frankfurt: Goethe University Frankfurt. DOI 10.17605/OSF.IO/3FX4M. [volume]

Mursell, Johannes (2021). The syntax of information-structural agreement. Amsterdam: Benjamins. [publisher]

Mursell, Johannes & Katharina Hartmann (2020). Review of: Bodomo, Adams, Hasiyatu Abubakari and Samuel Alhassan Issah (2020). Handbook of the Mabia Languages of West Africa. Glienicke: Galda Verlag. Journal of West African Languages 47(2), 108-115. [pdf, volume]

Smith, Peter W., Johannes Mursell & Katharina Hartmann (2020). Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme. Berlin: Language Science Press. 

Mursell, Johannes (2020). Long distance agreement and information structure. In: P. W. Smith,  J. Mursell & K. Hartmann. Agree to Agree: Agreement in the Minimalist Programme. Berlin: Language Science Press. [pdf]

Mursell, Johannes & Jennifer Tan (2019). Ang-marking and Givenness in Tagalog.  Proceedings of ConSOLE XXVII.

Mursell, Johannes (2018). Object marking in Swahili is topic agreement. Jezikoslovlje 19(3), 427-455. [pdf]

Tan, Jennifer & Johannes Mursell (2018).  Embedding Evidence: On Two Types of Evidentials. In: D. Ayoun, A. Celle & Ḷ. Lansari (eds.). Tense, Aspect, Modality, and Evidentiality. Crosslinguistic perspectives. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 185-213. [pdf, volume

Egg, Markus & Johannes Mursell (2017). The syntax and semantics of discourse particles. In: J. Bayer & V. Struckmeier (eds.). Discourse Particles. Berlin: de Gruyter, 15-49. [pdf, volume]

Mursell, Johannes (2016). Syntactic association with focus - an agreement-based approach. In: K. Bellamy, E. Karkovskaya & G. Saad (eds.). Proceedings of ConSOLE XXIV. Leiden: Leiden University Center of Linguistics, 324-351. [pdf, volume]

Manuscripts

Mursell, Johannes (2014). Discourse Particles and Their Interactions in the Clause. MA Thesis. Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, supervised by Markus Egg and Katharina Hartmann. [pdf]

Talks - upcoming

2024-06. [with Katharina Hartmann and Anke Himmelreich] Information Structure in the Mabia Languages. Syntactic Cartography and African Languages at Collège de France, Paris. 

2024-02. [with Anke Himmelreich] Information-structural constraints on linearization in the DP. ConLin, AG8 at DGfS2024, Bochum.

Talks/Posters - past

2023-12. [with Katharina Hartmann and Anke Himmelreich] Conditions on object drop in Mabia languages. NOCroDeP, Frankfurt. [website]

2023-06. vP as a phase – evidence from information structure. Verbal Domains, Newcastle

2023-04. [with Katharina Hartmann] Subject relative clauses in Dagbani (Mabia) as double-headed structures. CGG32, Vitoria-Gasteiz

2023-04. [with Katharina Hartmann and Anke Himmelreich] When long distance dependencies are actually short: the case of Mabia languages. CGG32, Vitoria-Gasteiz

2023-04. [with Katharina Hartmann and Anke Himmelreich] When long distance dependencies are actually short: the case of Mabia languages. GLOW46, Vienna

2022-10. [with Jennifer Tan] Patterns in the expression of information source: a German and Spanish sample. EviStRom, Alcalá

2022-06. [with Katharina Hartmann and Anke Himmelreich] Morphological marking of in-situ focus: Evidence from the Mabia languages. CGG31, Palma de Mallorca

2022-06. [with Jennifer Tan] The Tagalog ang puzzle - Information structure at the vP edge. CGG, Palma de Mallorca

2022-05. [with Jennifer Tan] How do we know in German? GGS, Stuttgart

2022-02. [with Anke Himmelreich] The optionality and non-optionality of syntactic movement. DGfS 2022, Tübingen

2022-01. [with Katharina Hartmann and Anke Himmelreich] Focus particles in Dagbani and Likpakpaanl. Vienna

2021-07. [with Katharina Hartmann] The landscape of focus particles in Dagbani. Afrikanist*innentag, Frankfurt

2021-06. A' in the vP mirrors A' in the CP. Move & Agree Forum, UBC & McGill

2021-06. [with Katharina Hartmann] Selecting alternatives in Eton. WOCAL, Leiden

2021-04. [with Katharina Hartmann] Typing relative clauses in Dagbani. SAIAL, Potsdam

2019-04. Focus markers with phi-probes: the case of Lavukaleve. DISCO, Leipzig  [handout]

2019-03. [with Sophie Repp] Encoding varieties of topic and focus: The role of contrast and information status. DGfS 2019, Bremen [slides]

2019-02. [with Jennifer Tan] Ang-marking and Givenness in Tagalog. ConSOLE XXVII 2019, Berlin [handout]

2018-11.  Bundling φ-and δ-features: The impact of information structure on Agreement. MAD2018, Berlin [handout]

2018-05.  Givenness-Marking and Contrastive Focus in Swahili and Tagalog. Frankfurt Colloquium [handout]

2017-10. Object Marking in Swahili is Topic Agreement. SinFonIJA 10, Dubrovnik [handout]

2017-05. [with Jennifer Tan] (Non-)modal evidentials: the German wohl vs. the Tagalog yata. 27th Colloquium on Generative Grammar, ​Universidad de Alcalá [slides]

2017-02. Long distance agreement and information structure. 43rd Incontro di Grammatica Generativa, IUSS Pavia [handout]

2016-11. [with Jennifer Tan]  Embedding evidence: on two types of evidentials. TAM-E, Paris Diderot University [slides]

2016-04. A syntactic analysis of association with focus. 26th Colloquium on Generative Grammar, Universidad de Extremadura Cáceres. [handout]

2016-01. A syntactic analysis of association with focus.  ConSOLE XXIV, York [handout]

2014-03. [with Markus Egg] Syntax and semantics of discourse particles . 36. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft, Marburg [handout]

Workshop and Conference Organization

2025. [with Anke Himmelreich and Katharina Hartmann] GLOW47 in Frankfurt

2022-02. [with Anke Himmelreich] Optionality and non-optionality of syntactic movement
Workshop at the meeting of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS)

2019-07. GGS in Frankfurt

2019-03. [with Sophie Repp] Encoding varieties of topic and focus: The role of contrast and information status
Workshop at the meeting of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS)

Teaching

I've taught a variety of courses from a basic general introductory lecture to advanced MA research seminars. For questions related to teaching, please email me!

Current courses in Frankfurt:

Winter Term 2023/24: Morphologie (introductory BA Seminar, German)

Summer Term 2023: Syntax III (advanced MA Seminar, English)

Winter Term 2022/23: Morphologie (introductory BA Seminar, German)

Supervision and Staatsexamen

I'm available for Staatsexamen exams, please contact me via email. The same holds for BA and MA theses: please send me an email for an appoitment. In general, I'm happy to supervise any syntactic topic written about in German or English. As a general guidline, please look at this website. Some theses I have supervised:

Other things I do at the department