Aron Finholt
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​I am a 4th year PhD student in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Kansas.  My research focuses on the interfaces between syntax, semantics, and morphology. I explore these domains through a combination of fieldwork and experimental methods, focusing particularly on understudied languages of the Bantu language family of Central and East Africa.

One topic of particular interest to me is the expression and interpretation of copular BE-verbs in non-verbal predication, particularly in languages with complex copular systems. Some of the broad questions my current work aims to address include: What are the different types of meanings copulas may express (e.g. stage/individual, temporary/permanent, habitual, generic, etc.)? How do we derive copular contrasts in languages that overtly express them? Are there multiple distinct copulas, or rather contextually-derived allomorphs of BE? If we assume the latter, what factors condition the realization of BE? What is the distribution of the copulas in complex copular systems? Do languages with multiple copulas always utilize corresponding copulas in similar ways/contexts/constructions?   

My interest in copular systems and non-verbal predication also extends to a range of other related phenomena as well, including the derivation of possessive HAVE-verbs, the distribution and semantic function of complementizers, and focus constructions.  


I am also a Graduate Teaching Assistant (Syntax I), and recent Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellow at the Kansas African Studies Center. I am advised by John Gluckman.  ​


TALKS/POSTERS
2023 "Three-way Copular Contrast in Kifuliiru", at 97th Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, Denver, CO. (handout)

2022 (alternate; with John Gluckman) "Evidentiality and Modality in the Mashi complementizer system", at TripleAFLA 2022, University of Manchester

2022 "On the Semantic Contribution of Complementizers: Data from Mashi", at 53rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, University of California San Diego

2022 (with John Gluckman, Stephanie Born, Jack Foster and Lucy Whittington) "Non-verbal Predication in Kihavu", at 53rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics, University of California San Diego

2022 "On Complementizer Choice in Swahili", at 44th Annual Conference of the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS), University of Tübingen (handout)

2022 "States and Possession in Mashi: Novel Evidence for Decomposing HAVE", at 96th Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, Washington D.C.

2022 (with John Gluckman) "Complementizer Choice and Relative Belief: On Swahili Complementizer Variation", at 96th Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of America, Washington D.C (poster)

2021 "A Parallelism between be and have: Evidence from Mashi for the decomposition of have", Monday Linguistics Colloquia Series, University of Florida

2021 "
Decomposing HAVE: Evidence from Possessive Predication in Mashi", at 52nd meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Rutgers University

2021 "Evidence and Relative Belief: Swahili Complementizer Variation", at New Ways of Analyzing Variation 49, University of Texas

2021 (with John Gluckman) "Reason and Result in Kinyamulenge" at TripleA 8, National University of Singapore (recording) and (handout)

2021 "A New Perspective on Swahili's Dual-Complementizer System", at 37th Annual Northwest Linguistics Conference, University of British Columbia

2021 (with John Gluckman) "A Corpus Study of Swahili's Dual-Complementizer System",  at 51st & 52nd Annual Conference on African Linguistics (ACAL), University of Florida (handout)

2019 "The Scope of Negation In Romance", at WWU Scholars Week, Western Washington University

2019 (with Grace deMeurisse) "Western Talks", at WWU Scholars Week, Western Washington University


PAPERS
Under review (with John Gluckman) "A preliminary typology of causal clauses in Bantu languages" 

Accepted (with John Gluckman) "A corpus analysis of Swahili's dual complementizers" Journal of African Languages and Linguistics


PROCEEDINGS
​Accepted (with John Gluckman) "A New Perspective on Swahili's Dual-Complementizer System" in Proceedings of ACAL 51/52

2022
 "Decomposing HAVE: Evidence from Possessive Predication in Mashi", in Proceedings of the Fifty-Second Annual Meeting of the North East Linguistic Society, Volume One

2022 (with John Gluckman) "Reason and result in Kinyamulenge", in Proceedings of TripleA 8 (accessible at https://scholarbank.nus.edu.sg/handle/10635/231238)
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​M.A. THESIS

2021 "Attitude Reports and Relative Belief: A New Perspective on the Swahili Dual-Complementizer System", University of Kansas

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