{"id":19,"date":"2022-12-23T18:19:10","date_gmt":"2022-12-24T01:19:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/?page_id=19"},"modified":"2026-07-23T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T22:02:08","slug":"research","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/research\/","title":{"rendered":"Research Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/www.googletagmanager.com\/gtag\/js?id=G-EW7KDZFD0M\"><\/script><script>\n  window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || [];\n  function gtag(){dataLayer.push(arguments);}\n  gtag('js', new Date());<\/p>\n<p>  gtag('config', 'G-EW7KDZFD0M');\n<\/script><strong>Non-intersective modification<br \/>\n<\/strong>I have developed and am continuing to build on a semantics for a class of non-intersective modifiers I call <em>quality adjectives.\u00a0<\/em>These adjectives influence grammatical properties of the nominals they modify\u2014they i) resist a non-intersective reading when modifying nouns that denote inherent classes, ii) alter the temporal properties of nominals, and iii) facilitate a natural interpretation of relational nouns with an unpronounced second argument. Peripheral topics I research in the context of this project and independently include\u00a0<em>as<\/em>-phrases, hypothetical comparatives, manner and agent-oriented adverbials and their influence on the VP structure, the representation of nominalized degrees and their interface with modification, and the influence of genericity on the interpretation of relational nouns.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Expressive meaning in Ktunaxa<br \/>\n<\/strong>I am working to document and analyze expressive meaning in Ktunaxa. Examples of phenomena I am investigating include inventories of insults and compliments and their attitude-mappings, exclamative constrictions, and particles\u00a0<em>\u0294at\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0<em>si\u2c61<\/em>, which can be used to mark verbal aspect but also surface in questions of incredulity. This research is funded by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.grad.ubc.ca\/psi\">UBC Public Scholar&#8217;s Initiative<\/a>\u00a0and its planned output includes educational resources for the Ktunaxa community and elicitation resources on expressive meaning for linguistics fieldworkers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The relationship between cross-categorical degree modification and monotonicity<br \/>\n<\/strong>I am working to empirically categorize and formally represent the semantic distribution of <em>wi\u2c61i\u2c61, <\/em>an intensifier in Ktunaxa that can modify states, event intensity, and times. A common link between variables modifiable by\u00a0<em>wi\u2c61i\u2c61\u00a0<\/em>is that they have a\u00a0<em>monotonic part-whole structure <\/em>(as discussed by e.g. Schwarzschild 2002, Wellwood 2015). In my representation of\u00a0<em>wi\u2c61i\u2c61<\/em>, I aim to provide cross-linguistic support for this theory (which has mostly been discussed in the context of English\/Indo-European languages), and shed light on degree modification strategies in languages like Ktunaxa that do not morpho-syntactically distinguish verbs and adjectives.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nonlocal readings of adjectives<br \/>\n<\/strong>I am interested in adjectives that access the meaning of a proposition beyond the nominal it syntactically modifies. I have collaborative work with Daniel Greeson and Marcin Morzycki on the influence of modification on bare instrument nouns, such as\u00a0 <em>plays <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">good<\/span> piano.\u00a0<\/em>I additionally research nonlocal readings of expressive language (e.g. <em>I left my <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">damn<\/span> keys in the car<\/em>, Potts 2007), and I am working with Marcin Morzycki to develop a precise semantics for transferred epithets, as first discussed by Hall 1973.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Wh- word inventories<br \/>\n<\/strong>I am a member of a project emerging from the UBC Questions Lab that investigates question word inventories across languages with a focus on strategies for asking for <em>manners<\/em>,\u00a0<em>methods<\/em>, and\u00a0<em>reasons <\/em>(i.e. the semantic distribution of English <em>how <\/em>and <em>why<\/em> and the availability of cross-linguistic counterparts or approximates).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Non-intersective modification I have developed and am continuing to build on a semantics for a class of non-intersective modifiers I call quality adjectives.\u00a0These adjectives influence grammatical properties of the nominals they modify\u2014they i) resist a non-intersective reading when modifying nouns &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/research\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":94900,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-19","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/94900"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/19\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/starrsandoval\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}