Englisches Seminar

Prof. Dr. Susanne Winkler

Chair of English Linguistics

My primary research interests target syntactic theory, information structure and the syntax-prosody and syntax-pragmatics interface. There are three core research questions: 1. How does syntax influence interpretation in discourse? 2. How is missing and ambiguous information processed? 3. How does prosody and information structure contribute to processing of sentences in discourse?

A new focus is directed towards the following questions: How are sentences integrated into larger discourse segments? Where does the notion of coherence come from and how is it related to ambiguity? What is the difference between a spoken and a written text? Or to put it more pointedly: What makes a discourse a discourse and a text a text? To answer these questions, I look closely at the syntactic structure of language in discourse, its interpretation, the way it is processed and intonated. One of my favorite pastimes is finding attested examples that provide answers to the above questions.

Contact:
Englisches Seminar
Universität Tübingen
Wilhelmstr. 50
72074 Tübingen, Germany
Tel: +49(0)7071-29-75451
susanne.winkler[at]uni-tuebingen.de
Office hours, Room 473