Samuel David Epstein

Samuel David Epstein

Professor of Linguistics

Department of Linguistics

University of Michigan

Selected Awards, Honors, Distinctions
Publications
Selected Professional Activities
Thesis Supervision
Contact Information

Selected Awards, Honors, Distinctions

2002	Inducted into Who's Who Among America's College Teachers
2001	Excellence in Research Award, University of Michigan
1999	Excellence in Education Award, University of Michigan
1996	Levenson Excellence in Teaching Prize Nominee, Harvard University
1996	Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize Nominee, Harvard University
1994	Faculty Winner of a Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize for Excellence in the work of undergraduates and the Art of Teaching, Harvard University

Publications

Books

Epstein, S., and D. Seely. To appear 2003. Transformations and Derivations. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge.
Epstein, S., and D. Seely, eds. 2002. Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program. In the Generative Syntax Series, D. Lightfoot, ed. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford.
Epstein, S., and M. Kissock. In progress. Syntactic Theory: Framework and Fundamentals. Under contract, Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Epstein, S. 2000. Essays in Syntactic Theory. In the Leading Linguists Series, Carlos Otero, ed. Routledge: New York. [A collection of some of my previously published articles.]
Epstein, S., and N. Hornstein, eds. 1999. Working Minimalism. M.I.T. Press: Cambridge, MA.
Epstein, S., E. Groat, R. Kawashima, and H. Kitahara.1998. A Derivational Approach to Syntactic Relations. Oxford University Press: Oxford.
Epstein, S., H. Thráinsson, and S. Peter, eds. 1996. Studies in Comparative Germanic Syntax, Volume 2. In the Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory Series, L. Haegeman, J. Maling, and J. McCloskey, eds. Kluwer Academic Publishers: Dordrecht.
Epstein, S., H. Thráinsson, W. Abraham, and J. W. Zwart, eds. 1996. Minimal Ideas: Syntactic Studies in the Minimalist Framework. A collection of papers from Harvard Working Papers in Linguistics and from Groningen Working Papers. In the Linguistics Today Series. John Benjamins Publishers: Amsterdam.
Epstein, S. 1991.Traces and Their Antecedents. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Selected Articles

Epstein, S. and D. Seely. 2002. "Rule Applications as Cycles in a Level-Free Syntax." In Derivation and Explanation in the Minimalist Program, S. Epstein and D. Seely, eds. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford.
Epstein, S. 1999. "Un-Principled Syntax and the Derivation of Syntactic Relations." In Working Minimalism, S. Epstein, and N. Hornstein, eds. M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, MA.
Epstein, S. 1998. "Overt Scope Marking and Covert Verb-Second." Linguistic Inquiry 29 (2).
Epstein, S., S. Flynn, and G. Martohardjono. 1996/1997. "Second Language Acquisition: Theoretical and Experimental Issues in Contemporary Research." Target article: Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 19 (4).
Epstein, S., and R. Berwick. 1995. "On the Convergence of 'Minimalist' Syntax and Categorial Grammar." In Algebraic Methods in Language Processing 1995: Proceedings of the Twente Workshop on Language Technology 10, jointly held with the First Algebraic Methodology and Software Technology (AMAST) Workshop on Language Processing, A. Nijholt, G. Scollo, and R. Steetkamp, eds. Universiteit Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Epstein, S. 1992. "Derivational Constraints on A' Chain Formation." Linguistic Inquiry 23 (2).
Epstein, S. 1990 "Differentiation and Reduction in Syntactic Theory: A Case Study." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 8 (3).

Thesis Supervision

Ph.D. Students:

University of Michigan

2001	Annemarie Toebosch, Ph.D. Prospectus Defense, March 13 (co-supervised with Professor Christina Tortora).
2002	Rose Letsholo: Syntactic Domains in Ikalanga (co-supervised with Prof. Mark Hale).

Harvard University

1997	Marlyse Baptista: The Morphosyntax of Verbs in Capeverdean Creole.
1997	John O'Neil: Means of Control: Deriving the Properties of Control Theory in the Minimalist Program.
1997	Erich Groat: A Derivational Program for Syntactic Theory. (co-supervised with Prof. Noam Chomsky, M.I.T.).
1997	Youngjun Jang: A Minimalist Analysis of Expletives.
1996	Dianne Jonas: Clause Structure and Verb Syntax in Scandinavian and English.
1996	Soo-Yeon Kim: Optionality: The Interaction of Structural and Non-Structural Constraints on Scrambling and Binding.
1996	K. Scott Ferguson: A Feature-Relativized Shortest Move Requirement.
1996	Geoffrey Poole: Transformations Across Components. (co-supervised with Prof. Noam Chomsky, M.I.T.).
1994	Hisatsugu Kitahara: Target-a: A Unified Theory of Movement and Structure Building (co-supervised with Prof. Noam Chomsky, M.I.T.).
1993	Rebecca Klein Kennedy: Reference and Focus in English.
1991	Tomiko Narahara: Nominal Categories and Binding Theory.
1990	Young-joo Kim: The Syntax and Semantics of Korean Case: The Interaction Between Lexical and Syntactic Levels of Representation.

Undergraduate Honors Theses Supervised:

University of Michigan

2002	Kate Golski, The Phono-Syntactic Interfaces. Winner of the Matthew Alexander Award.
2001	Jessica Rett, Japanese Numeral Classifiers: The Effect of Linguistic Configurations on Category Membership. (Second Reader).
2001	Gabriel Williams, Verb Movement in French and English. Graduated with Highest Honors in Linguistics.
2001	Avram Derrow, The Empirical Content of Differentiating Redundancy. Presented at the Michigan Linguistics Society's 2000 Annual (refereed) Meeting. Graduated with Highest Honors in Linguistics. Winner of The University of Maryland's national annual competition for Best Undergraduate Linguistics essay. Paper published in The University of Maryland Working Papers in Linguistics, 2001.
2001	Justin Fitzpatrick, Movement Locality in a Derivational Theory. Winner of the Matthew Alexander award (2001) for outstanding honors thesis in Linguistics. Recipient of NSF pre-doctoral fellowship grant, 2001. Graduated with Highest Honors in Linguistics.
2000	Jon Gajewski, The Syntax and Semantics of Complete-list Questions In a Non-Standard Variety of English and Non-Cyclic Adjunction (Co-supervised with Prof. Christina Tortora). Winner of the Linguistics Program award for outstanding research achievement for an undergraduate (since part of this thesis was published in Linguistic Inquiry 30, 2001.) Received NSF pre-doctoral fellowship grant, 2000.
2000	Aaron Stark, The Syntax of Vietnamese "Submissive" Passives. Winner of the Matthew Alexander award (2000) for outstanding honors thesis in Linguistics. Graduated with Highest Honors in Linguistics.
2000	Monica Takagi, Controlled and Arbitrarily Intrepreted PRO.

Harvard University

1996	Joanna Veltri: Children's Acquisition of Reflexive Verbal Morphology in the Imbabura Dialect of Quechua.
1995	Mark Kille: What Thing is Next, I Don't Quite Know: An Analysis of Variation in Word-Order and Subject-Verb Agreement in Middle Cornish.
1995	Joel Derfner: Abkhaz Wh-Movement.
1994	Ronald A. Fein: The Acquisition of the Genitive of Negation in Russian (co-supervised with Prof. Kenneth Wexler, M.I.T.). Student Winner of Thomas Temple Hoopes Prize for "Excellence in the work of undergraduates." Thesis presented at Boston University Conference on Language Development.
1990	Orin J. Percus: Implicit Arguments in English.

Selected Professional Activities

Journal Co-Founder:

Syntax: A Journal of Theoretical, Experimental and Interdisciplinary Research. First issue April, 1998. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford.

Board Member:

Chair of The Electorate Nominating Committee for Section Z (Linguistics) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1998/9).
Member of the Electorate Nominating Committee for Section Z (Linguistics) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1996-1999).
Member of the Editorial Board of Studia Linguistica, Blackwell Publishers (1995-present).
Member of the Linguistics Advisory Board of Language Acquisition: A Journal of Developmental Linguistics, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers (1995-present).
Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of Lincom Europa, Studies in Theoretical Linguistics (1994-present).
Member of the Associate Editorial Board of Linguistic Inquiry, M.I.T. Press (1992-1999).
Associate of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Cambridge University Press.

Contact Information

Samuel David Epstein

Department of Linguistics

University of Michigan

4080 Frieze Building

105 S. State Street

Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1285

Phone: (734) 647-9701

Fax: (734) 936-3406

Email: sepstein@umich.edu

Selected Awards, Honors, Distinctions

Publications

Books

Selected Articles

Thesis Supervision

Ph.D. Students:

Undergraduate Honors Theses Supervised:

Selected Professional Activities

Journal Co-Founder:

Board Member:

Contact Information

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