Publications

Books

Code Switching: Experimental answers to theoretical questions. In honor of Kay González-Vilbazo. Luis López, editor. 

Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2018. https://benjamins.com/catalog/ihll.19 

Indefinite objects: Scrambling, choice functions and differential marking. Linguistic Inquiry Monograph 63. Cambridge, Mass: MIT Press. 2012.

 http://mitpress.mit.edu/books/indefinite-objects-0

Reviewed by Peter de Swart for Journal of Linguistics 50: 246-250. http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0022226713000376

 Reviewed by Fuminori Matsubara for Linguistic Analysis 39: 437-451.

 Reviewed by Ross Bilous for Canadian Journal of Linguistics 59: 273-275. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/555344 

A Derivational Syntax for Information Structure.  Oxford Studies in Theoretical Linguistics 23. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2009. 

http://www.oup.com/uk/catalogue/?ci=9780199557400

  Reviewed by Lisa Brunetti for Journal of Linguistics 46: 528-533. 

  http://journals.cambridge.org.proxy.cc.uic.edu/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=7802299

         Reviewed by Andrew Carnie for elanguage

         http://elanguage.net/blogs/booknotices/?p=1640

Locality and the Architecture of Syntactic Dependencies. London: Palgrave-Macmillan. 2007

http://us.macmillan.com/localityandthearchitectureofsyntacticdependencies/LuisLópez 

Language Knowledge and Language Use: Selected Papers from LSRL XXXI. Edited volume with Rafael Núñez-Cedeño and Richard Cameron. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2004

Most Recent Articles and Book Chapters

Most of these papers can be found in: https://uic.academia.edu/LuisLopez, others are published OA. I will be very happy to send you any off-prints.

*Refereed journal article

^Refereed book chapter

C: philosophy of language-law

2025  * “If agreement is pronominal, there is no pro-drop.” Borealis 14(2): 185-209.

Using Irish, Spanish and English data, I argue that the null subject phenomenon is modulated by the presence/absence of unvalued φ-features in the clausal structure. This analysis is contrasted with the two most influential analyses so far: (i) The ellipsis analysis, according to which a null subject is a deleted pronoun and (ii) The rich inflection analysis, according to which an inflection with overt exponents for person and number can license and identify a silent pronoun. I discuss both analyses and present some empirical and conceptual criticisms vis-à-vis my own approach. One additional advantage of my approach is that we conclude that there are no silent subjects in Irish or Spanish-type languages.

2025 * “Remarks on the syntax of bare nouns in Papiamentu.” With Carmen Parafita-Couto, Charlotte Pouw, Rodi Laanen. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Languages. 40(2): 302-337. doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00134.lop

  This article presents an argument that bare (singular) nouns in Papiamentu include additional silent functional structure, as proposed in Kester and

Schmitt (2007). The argument is based on Dutch-Papiamentu codeswitched noun phrases and exploits the crucial datum that a Dutch bare noun is grammatical when inserted in a Papiamentu sentence, although bare nouns are ungrammatical in a Dutch unilingual sentence. We propose that this datum can be accounted for if the Dutch bare noun is the complement of a silent Papiamentu category, D or Num. The locus of crosslinguistic variation that yields the (un)acceptability of bare nouns is a property in D or Num.

2025 *  “Metaphor and Common Ground.” Rivista Italiana di Filosofia del Linguaggio. 18(2): 142-161. doi: 10.4396/20242V04.

  Integrating metaphors into pragmatic theory remains a challenge. Grice argued that the tenor of a metaphor is an implicated proposition while Contextualists have argued that it belongs in ‘what is said’ or the Explicature. I show that the contextualist arguments are inconclusive and they leave the role of the vehicle undefined. Moreover, neither the Gricean nor the Contextualist analyses can account for the most highlighted feature of metaphors: their indeterminacy; we cannot be sure as to what a speaker meant with a metaphor, but communication can proceed, nonetheless. I propose that we move away from binary models of communication (based on what is said/what is implicated) and instead approach the problem from the perspective provided by Common Ground, with special attention paid to the different updates in the discourse models of speakers and hearers that take place when an utterance is shared.

   2024 * The conceptual structure of perjury.’ Law and Philosophy  43(5): 475-506.

Alison Douglis argues that perjury is nothing more than a tool to facilitate court proceedings, conceptually distinct from lying. Instead, I argue that the conceptual structure of perjury and of lying match almost perfectly. Apparent mismatches do not arise as a property of perjury but as a consequence of the juridical context. I present an overview of some of the recent philosophical work on lies with focus on the problem of ‘what is said’ and pragmatic enrichment. I also discuss the question of whether falseimplicatures should be regarded as lies, the intent to deceive condition on lying, and the falsity of the statement as a condition on lying. I then turn to perjury and show that the same philosophical problems that lies give rise to are reproduced almost point by point. I show that the oath condition and the materiality condition on perjury, which would seem to provide an empirical distinction, are in fact rooted in our understanding of lies. Against Jennifer Keiser and Douglis, I argue that a cross-examination is in fact a form of conversation in Grice’s sense.

 2024 * 'The meaning of a yawn.' International Review of Pragmatics 16: 281-295.

I present empirical arguments that bodily gestures may communicate a propositional meaning with assertoric force and trigger implicatures based on violations of Relation. Crucial in the analyses are Paul Grice’s distinction between natural and non-natural meaning as well as Tim Wharton’s extended argument that bodily gestures instantiate a third type of meaning defined by the spontaneous production of a gesture and the explicit exhibition of it. 

Less Recent Articles and Book Chapters

2024 * “The role of INFL in code-switching: A study of heritage Papiamentu speakers in the Netherlands.” With Carmen Parafita-Couto, Charlotte Pouw, Rodi Laanen. Frontiers in Psychology. 2:1288198. doi: 10.3389/flang.2023.1288198

2023 *  “The whole truth? On broadening the scope of the federal perjury statutes.” International Journal of Language and Law 12: 8-30.

2023 *  “Assertion and truth default.” Journal of Pragmatics 203: 17-31. 

2023 *  “Make your mouth agua: Idioms and the integrated lexicon hypothesis.” Borealis 12: 91-121. With Irati de Nicolás, Rodi Laanen, Charlotte Pouw, José Sequeros, M. Carmen Parafita Couto.

  2023 ^  “The ideal speaker-hearer might be bilingual.” In Natascha Pomino, Eva-Maria Remberger & Julia Zwink (eds.) From formal linguistic theory to the art of historical editions: The multifaceted dimensions of Romance linguistics. Vienna, Austria: Vienna University Press (pp 333-346).

2022 *  “Adjective placement in English/Spanish mixed Determiner Phrases: Insights from acceptability judgments.” With Irati de Nicolás (University of Chicago). Languages 7:54 (1-35)

2021 ^ “Contact linguistics: The I-language of a bilingual.” In Sergio Baauw, Luisa Meroni and Frank Drijkoningen (eds.). Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 357. Amsterdam: John Benjamins (pp 131-149).

2021 * “Why is there no Raising to Object in Spanish? An analysis of code-switching. Languages 6: 172 (1-14). With Jeanne Heil (University of Southern Maine).

2021 *  “Did Charles Bronston commit perjury? A study in discourse semantics.” International Journal of Language and Law 10: 1-23.

  2021 *  “Algún quantifier is not bound by adverbs of quantification.” Isogloss 7(1): 1-26.

2020 *  “Acquisition without evidence: English infinitives and poverty of stimulus in adult second language acquisition.” Second Language Research 36: 415-443. With Jeanne Heil (University of Southern Maine).

2020 *  “Case, concord and the emergence of default.” Languages 12: 5 (1-42).

A Selection of Oldies

2018 * “Case and the event structure of nominalizations” Linguistic Inquiry 49(1): 85-121.

2016 ^  “Dislocation and information structure.” In Caroline Féry and Shin Ishihara (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Information Structure, Oxford, UK: OUP, pp 402-421.

2016. ^ “(In)definiteness, specificity and differential object marking in Romance.” In Susann Fischer and Christoph Gabriel (eds.) Manual of Grammatical Interfaces in Romance. Berlin: De Gruyter, pp 241-265.

  2015 * “Parallel computation in word formation.” Linguistic Inquiry 46(4): 657-701.

2012 *  “Little v and parametric variation”. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory Vol 30.1: 33-77. With Kay González-Vilbazo.

2011 *  “Some properties of light verbs in code-switching”. Lingua 121.5: 832-850. With Kay González-Vilbazo.

2010^ “Givenness and discourse anaphors”. In Carsten Breul and Edward Göbbel (eds) Contrastive Information Structure. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp 51-76.

2009 *  “Ranking the Linear Correspondence Axiom”. Linguistic Inquiry 40(2): 239-278.

2008 ^  “The [person] restriction: why and why not”. In Roberta D’Alessandro, Gunnar Hrafbjargarsson and Susann Fischer (eds) Agreement Restrictions. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, pp 129-157.

2007 *  “The Origins of Spanish Revisited: Linguistic Science, Language Ideology and Nationalism in Contemporary Spain” Bulletin of Spanish Studies 84.3: 287-313.

2002 ^  “On Agreement: Locality and feature valuation” In Artemis Alexiadou (ed) Formal Approaches to Universals. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, Linguistik Aktuell 49, pp 165-209.

2001 *  "On the (non)complementarity of Theta Theory and Checking Theory", Linguistic Inquiry 32(4): 694-716.

  2000 *  "Verb Phrase Ellipsis and Discourse-Linking". Lingua 110:183-213.

 1999 *  "Verb Phrase Ellipsis in English and Spanish and the features of auxiliaries" Probus 11.2: 263-297.