Scott DeLancey

Ph.D., Indiana University (1980)
Email: delancey@darkwing.uoregon.edu
Phone: (541) 346-3901
Office: 227 Straub Hall
Website: darkwing.uoregon.edu/~delancey/prohp.html

Scott DeLancey's research activities center on the intersection of several areal and theoretical topics. Areally, his work is centered on the study of languages of South and East Asia, particularly the Tibeto-Burman family, and of western North America, particularly the Penutian stock. He has produced descriptive and analytical studies of aspects of the grammar of Tibetan, Newari, Sunwar, and other Tibeto-Burman languages, and of Klamath and Sahaptin in Oregon, and has also worked extensively on the historical reconstruction of Tibeto Burman and of Penutian, particularly of aspects of their morphology and syntax.

DeLancey's research also addresses several typological/theoretical issues related to the relation between linguistic function (i.e. semantic and pragmatic content) and linguistic form. He has published extensively on aspects of the functional theory of syntax, particularly on grammaticalization and issues surrounding the semantics and syntax of case, and on the cross-linguistic typology of various grammatical categories (e.g. ergativity, inverse marking, evidentiality).