Welcome to my homepage!
I am a researcher at the Institute of Linguistics, Goethe Universität, Frankfurt am Main.
I investigate association with focus phenomena in Mabia (Kasem and Kusaal) and Yoruboid (Yoruba) languages, with a direct focus on the conventional focus-sensitive operators (only, also, and even). My research investigates the syntax-semantic properties of these focus-sensitive operators in the three West African languages, as well as their relationship with the morphosyntactic focus marking patterns present in these languages.
More generally, I'm interested in syntactic theories, syntax-semantics interface, focus, focus sensitivity, islandhood, resumption, and morpho-syntax, among others, in West African languages.
I conduct my research as part of the DFG-funded project on the "VP-periphery of the Mabia languages," spoken in Ghana (PI: Prof. Katharina Hartmann).
News & Upcomings
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Publication alert!
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My paper on the "The syntax of focus in ÌkálèÌ£" just got published by the Language Science Press as part of a collection titled Crossdisciplinary approaches to Information Structure in Niger-Congo languages, Eds: Akinlabi, A., S. Korsah, S. Rose, and A.-R. Sulemana.
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I have successfully defended my doctoral dissertation on "Focus Sensitivity in Mabia and Yoruboid"!
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The thesis will be made public soon!​
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29-31/10/2025: I will give a talk on "Focus association and Cross-clausal dependencies in Yorùbá" at the Workshop on Cross-Clausal Dependencies (CCD), Bielefeld University, Germany.
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07/11/2025: tba. Invited talk at the Syntax & Semantics Circle, UC Berkeley.
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24-27/02/2026: I will give a talk on "Anti-pied-piping and focus marking mis-matches in Kasem (Gur/Mabia)" at the Workshop on Tracing Mismatches: Deviations from One-to-one Patterns to be held during the 48th Annual Conference of the German Linguistic Society (DGfS), University of Trier, Germany.