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Research Interests
My research focuses on the subconscious system of rules that allows speakers to construct and
understand complex sentences (the so-called syntax-semantics interface).
I have for the most part focused on coordination phenomena, filler-gap dependencies,
ellipsis, and extraposition. Although most of my work is empirical and theoretical, some of it also has
an experimental and computational component. I have specialized in constraint-based theories of grammar such
as HPSG
because of their formal explicitness and surface-driven nature (see this overview). Such theories not only allow the implementation of
efficient large-scale computational
grammars with many practical and theoretical applications, but may also be ideally suited for a direct integration
with psycholinguistic models of
language comprehension and production (such as this), given their surface-based declarative nature.
Other theoretical research interests of mine pertain to dynamic semantics, semantic underspecification formalisms, and computational semantics.
In the works:
Chaves, R. P. "English Subject and Adjunct islands and their exceptions", pp. 36. Unpublished manuscript.
Chaves, R. P. "Reassessing Extraposition and Right-Node Raising", pp. 57. Unpublished manuscript.
Representative publications
Chaves, R. P. (in press) "Conjunction,
cumulation and respectively readings" Journal
of Linguistics, pp.48. [prepublication draft]
Chaves, R. P. (2012) "On the grammar of extraction and coordination"
Natural
Language and Linguistic Theory, 30(2), 465–512. [prepublication draft]
Chaves, R. P. 2010 "Crash-free syntax
and crash phenomena in model-theoretic grammar". In Michael T. Putnam (Edt), Exploring Crash-Proof
Grammars (Language Faculty and Beyond), pp. 269–298. John Benjamins.
Chaves, R. P. 2009 "Construction-based
cumulation and adjunct extraction". In Proceedings of the 16th International Conference on Head-Driven
Phrase Structure Grammar, Goettingen, Germany, pp. 47–67. Stanford: CSLI Publications.
Chaves, R. P. and J. E. Dery 2009 "Complexity, ellipsis and agreement puzzles in NP
coordination". Poster in AMLAP 2009, 15th Annual Conference on Architectures and
Mechanisms for Language Processing. Barcelona, Spain.
Chaves, Rui P. 2008 "Linearization-based word-part ellipsis"
Linguistics and Philosophy, 31(3): 261–307.
Chaves, R. P. and Denis Paperno 2007 "On
the Russian hybrid coordination construction". In Stefan Müller (Edt.), Proceedings of the 14th
International Conference on Head-Driven Phrase Structure Grammar, pp. 46–64. Stanford University.
Chaves, R. P. 2007 "Dynamic model checking for discourse representation structures
with pluralities". In J. Geertzen, E. Thijsse, H. Bunt, and A. Schiffrin (Eds.), 7th International Workshop
on Computational Semantics, pp. 28–40. Tilburg University, The Netherlands.
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