About

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I'm a linguist, working as a Teaching Fellow in Semantics (fixed-term UK Lecturer) at the University of Edinburgh.

 

I received my PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019 (supervised by Florian Schwarz). In 2020-2022, I was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the University of Konstanz. In 2019-2020, I did a postdoc in Konstanz, working with Maribel Romero on the semantics of questions, as part of the DFG-funded Questions at the Interfaces project.

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I work on topics in formal semantics and pragmatics, and their interfaces with different parts of the grammar. My work focuses on the questions around how different dimensions of meaning interact and are represented in the grammar and lexicon, and how the interpretation and distribution of different types of expressions (like questions, declaratives, and nominals) are constrained across embedding contexts. Topics I've worked on include attitude reports, clausal complementation, factivity, argument structure, speech acts, main clause syntax, presupposition, and copular sentences.

 

I'm also interested in how experimental and quantitative methods can be used to inform theoretical and empirical questions about structure and meaning in language.

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(Helpful note for referring to me: the "aj" cluster in Kajsa is pronounced like the English PRICE vowel [aɪ], and my pronouns are she/her/hers.)

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Recent

 

Djärv. 2022. On the interpretation and distribution of embedded main clause syntax: new perspectives on complex discourse moves. Glossa.

 

Djärv. Knowing and believing things: what DP-complements can tell us about the argument structure and composition of (factive) attitudes. To appear in Journal of Semantics.

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Contact

 

k dot djarv at ed dot ac dot uk

 

Affiliations

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• Edinburgh University Meaning and Grammar Research Group

• MECORE - Cross-linguistic investigation of meaning-driven combinatorial restrictions in clausal embedding (principal investigators: Wataru Uegaki, Maribel Romero & Floris Roelofsen)
• Florian Schwarz's Experimental Study of Meaning Lab at the University of Pennsylvania (alumn)

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