Dr. Martina Wiltschko

Biography

Martina Wiltschko is an ICREA Research Professor focusing on the sources and limits of language variation within the realm of grammatical categories. Her research examines the genetic predispositions of the language faculty and employs comparative analysis between diverse languages that, at a surface level, may appear to differ radically. This juxtaposition provides crucial insights into the nature of the human language faculty. As part of her work, she and her collaborators have developed discovery procedures to determine the formal and functional identity of specific grammatical categories across languages, a framework rooted in her studies of Indo-European languages. Wiltschko has applied these discovery procedures in her investigations of various languages, including Upriver Halkomelem (Salish), Blackfoot (Algonquian), Ktunaxa, and her native dialect of German, with a focus on Upper Austrian variants. She is also the director of the Syntax Speech Acts project, known as 'Eh-Lab'.

Research Interests

Experience