Wayne Harbert
Professor, Director of Undergraduate Studies
(PhD, University of Illinois, 1978)
Department of Linguistics, 210 Morrill Hall, weh2@cornell.edu, 255-8441
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Research
My main interests center around the syntactic structures of the Germanic languages
(especially the older ones) and the Celtic languages (primarily Welsh and Scottish Gaelic), and what they can
tell us about the principles of syntactic organization operating in natural language. I also have a developing
interest in aspects of the phonology of these languages. My research is carried out within the general framework
of Government-Binding Theory. Problems on which I have worked recently include apparent cross-linguistic and
historical
variation in the syntactic domain of anaphor binding, relative constructions, the syntax of negation and the
syntax of
agreement and case assignment. I am currently completing a systematic construction-by-construction comparison
of the
grammatical structures of both the modern and premodern
members of the Germanic language family.
Graduate Fields Represented: Linguistics, Germanic Studies, Cognitive
Studies,
Medieval Studies
Teaching
The courses I have taught in the past five years include:
Ling 100 Language, Thought and Reality--Words (Writing Seminar)
Ling 101 Introduction to Linguistics
Ling 109 English Words: Histories and Mysteries
Ling 217 History of the English Language to 1300
Ling 218 History of the English Language since 1300
Ling 236 Introduction to Scottish Gaelic
Ling 238 Introduction to Welsh
Ling 246 Minority Languages and Linguistics
Ling 300 Field Methods
Ling 308 Readings in Celtic Languages
Ling 347 Topics in the History of English
Ling 441 Introduction to Germanic Linguistics
Ling 625 Middle Welsh
Ling 645 Gothic
Ling 646 Old High German/ Old Saxon
Ling 649 Structure of Old English
Selected Publications
Harbert, W., ed. to appear. Language and Poverty.
Multilingual Matters. (with Sally McConnell.-Ginet, Amanda Miller and John Whitman).
Harbert, W. 2007.
The Germanic Languages. Cambridge University Press.
Harbert, W. 2002. The Syntax of Indefinite Phrases in Negative Sentences in Germanic.
The Interdisciplinary Journal of Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis. 7: 101-126.
Harbert, W. 2002. A Preliminary Look at the State of Welsh Language Teaching in America."
Journal of Celtic Language Learning, vol 7. 2002.
Harbert, W. and Maher Bahloul. 2002. Postverbal Subjects in Arabic and the Theory of Agreement. in U. Shlonsky and J. Ouhalla, eds.,
Themes in Arabic and Hebrew Syntax. Kluwer.
Harbert, W. 1999. Erino Portun ih Firchnussu. in Gerald Carr, Wayne Harbert and Lihua Zhang, eds.,
Interdigitations: Essays for Irmengard Rauch. Peter Lang.
Harbert, W. (1997). Underspecification and the Old High German monophthongization. In I. Rauch and G. Carr (Eds.),
Insights in German Linguistics II . Mouton de Gruyter.
Harbert, W. (1995). Binding theory, control and pro. In G. Webelhuth (Ed.),
Government binding theory and the minimalist program . Blackwell.
Harbert, W. & Bahloul, M. (1993). Agreement asymmetries in Arabic.
Proceedings of the Eleventh West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Stanford: CSLI.
Harbert, W. (1992). Gothic relative clauses and syntactic theory. In I. Rauch (Ed.),
On Germanic linguistics: Issues and methods . Mouton de Gruyter.
Harbert, W. (1990). Binding, SUBJECT and accessibility. In R. Freidin (Ed.),
Principles and parameters of comparative grammar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Harbert, W. & Pet, W. (1988). Movement and adjunct morphology in Arawak and other languages.
International Journal of American Linguistics .
