Department of Modern English Language and Linguistics
Professor Giselle Fontaine specialises in theoretical syntax, with particular interests in minimalist approaches to syntactic derivation, parametric variation, agreement relations and the syntax–morphology interface. Her research examines the formal properties of functional categories and the constraints governing syntactic dependencies across clause boundaries.
Her monograph, The Architecture of Agreement: Features, Phases and Syntactic Locality (2018), develops a unified account of agreement relations within a phase-based model of grammar. Her current research investigates the distribution of uninterpretable features in defective intervention environments.
Teaching
MELL303: Advanced Theoretical Concepts in Grammar
MELL318 Language Teaching
Publications
- Fontaine, G. (2026) On the distribution of uninterpretable features in phase-edge configurations: A minimalist reassessment. Journal of Theoretical Syntax 39(2): 177–213.
- Fontaine, G. and Varga, E. (2024) Feature inheritance and the locality of agreement in defective intervention environments. Studies in Generative Grammar 28(3): 301–339.
- Fontaine, G. (2023) The structural conditions on successive-cyclic A-bar movement: Evidence from embedded interrogatives. Linguistic Structures and Interfaces 17(1): 45–82.
- Fontaine, G. (2021) Parametric variation and the limits of syntactic divergence: Towards a restrictive theory of functional feature specification. Journal of Universal Grammar 25(4): 411–459.
- Fontaine, G. and Hoffmann, K. (2020) The status of edge features in phase-based derivations: A reconsideration of the evidence. Theoretical Linguistic Inquiry 16(2): 133–171.
- Fontaine, G. (2018) The Architecture of Agreement: Features, Phases and Syntactic Locality. Northbridge Academic Press: Oxford.
- Fontaine, G. (2017) On the distinction between defective and non-defective intervention in long-distance agreement. Studies in Generative Grammar 21(2): 187–226.
- Fontaine, G. and Varga, E. (2015) The syntax–morphology interface and the representation of unvalued phi-features. Journal of Theoretical Syntax 28(1): 1–37.
- Fontaine, G. (2014) Against the proliferation of functional projections: A note on economy and derivational complexity. Linguistic Structures and Interfaces 8(3): 219–253.
- Fontaine, G. (2012) On the interpretation of intermediate copies in successive-cyclic movement. Theoretical Linguistic Inquiry 8(4): 289–326.
- Fontaine, G. and Hoffmann, K. (2011) Agree, intervention and the structural accessibility of nominal goals. Journal of Universal Grammar 15(2): 101–139.
- Fontaine, G. (2009) The derivational status of subject raising in infinitival complement constructions. Studies in Generative Grammar 13(3): 241–278.
- Fontaine, G. (2007) Case valuation and the distribution of expletive subjects in raising constructions. Journal of Theoretical Syntax 20(2): 155–189.
- Fontaine, G. (2005) On the relationship between EPP satisfaction and the feature composition of T. Theoretical Linguistic Inquiry 1(2): 89–124.
- Fontaine, G. (2004) A minimalist account of subject–verb agreement asymmetries in embedded clauses. Linguistic Structures and Interfaces 1(1): 23–58.