STAR aims to combine theoretical and applied approaches in the study of language structure from a formal perspective. It takes the morphosyntactic structure of various languages as a starting point, and from there diverges into several theoretical and applied strains of research, including: theoretical generative syntax and semantics; language acquisition, learner language, and multilingualism; and language history, diachrony, and change, with the application of syntactic theory to language teaching and teacher education.
Our members work across a range of languages and language combinations, with particular focus on phenomena that shed light on the architecture of grammar and cross‑linguistic variation. Our work is grounded in the framework of generative grammar, and we explore how syntactic structures are represented and acquired. The group serves as a collaborative arena where researchers, doctoral candidates, and students exchange ideas, develop joint projects, and contribute to the international syntactic research community.
Topics:
- Nominal domain
- V2 phenomena
- Adverbials and adverbial clauses
- Passives
- Nominalization
- Linguistic categorization
- Language change
- Learner language
- Cross-linguistic influence
- Multilingual language production
Publications
Jędrzejowski, Ł. (2025). On the synchrony and diachrony of causal jako-że-clauses in Polish. Linguistics Vanguard. A Multimodal Journal for the Language Sciences.
Jędrzejowski, Ł. / U. Junghanns U / K. Schwabe & C. Umbach. (2025). Syntax, semantics, and the lexicon: Papers by and in honor of Ilse Zimmermann (Open Slavic Linguistics 9). Berlin: Language Science Press.
Jędrzejowski, Ł. (2025). On the syntax of instrumental clauses: The case of indem-clauses in German. Languages 10(4), 57: 1-36.
Klockmann, H. & Garshol, L. (2024). Agreement errors in Norwegian L1, English L2 quantity pseudopartitives. Revue Roumaine de Linguistique, 69(3-4), 307-325. https://doi.org/10.59277/RRL.2024.3-4.17
Klævik-Pettersen, E. J., & Wullum, I. M. (2024). L’omission de que chez les apprenants norvégiens de français langue étrangère. In C. B. Nilsen, N. F. Stenkløv, H. P. Helland, & P. Larrivée (Eds.), Complexité et transfert: Le cas des apprenants scandinaves du français L2/L3 (pp. 123-146). Presses Universitaires de Caen.
Klævik-Pettersen, E. & A. Cournane (2023). The role of the conservative learner in the rise and fall of verb-second. Journal of Historical Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18148/hs/2023.v7i6-19.160
Peters, D. (2024). The syntax of clock time expressions: A cross-linguistic comparison of clock time expressions as temporal adverbials in English and Dutch. BA thesis. University of Agder.
Network
Formal Linguistics in the Nordic Countries (FLiNC)
Upcoming and past events
Upcoming events
LALC conference - From theory to practice: Linguistics in the additional language classroom (23. Nov 2026 — 24. Nov 2026, Campus Kristiansand
Past events)
Microvariation and microchange in the Scandinavian languages (Kristiansand, May 14th-16th, 2024): https://synergylinguistics.wordpress.com/conference-microvariation-and-microchange-in-the-scandinavian-languages/
Residual verb second in Romance (ReVerSe2) in cooperation with Silvio Cruschina (University of Helsinki), 15-16 May 2023, University of Agder (Norway): https://blogs.helsinki.fi/reverse/second/