Research Interests

• Grammar-discourse-prosody interface

• Copular constructions

• Clause-combining

• Information structure

• Question-answer interaction

• Discourse analysis (e.g., climate discourse)

About Me

I am a Senior Assistant (‘Oberassistent’) in the English Department at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. My research examines the interface between grammar, discourse, and prosody, with a particular focus on English grammar and information structure. I currently study how stance and interactional meanings are conveyed in spontaneous English dialogue through grammatical, prosodic, and pragmatic features. My work aims to integrate formal, functional, and interactional perspectives to deepen our understanding of how grammar operates in authentic communication.

I obtained a joint PhD in Linguistics from the Universities of Leuven and Namur (Belgium) in 2020, under the supervision of Kristin Davidse and Lieven Vandelanotte. My doctoral research investigated English copular constructions. In subsequent postdoctoral positions at the Universities of Louvain-la-Neuve and Liège, I expanded this work to cross-linguistic analyses of clause-combining patterns, including insubordination, within the grammar–discourse–prosody interface. Beyond my core grammatical research, I have also conducted discourse-analytic studies on climate change communication, focusing on political communication, on social media, and in news media.

Teaching

• “Grammar, discourse, and prosody” (BA seminar) (AS, 2025)

• “Introduction to English Linguistics” (BA seminar) (AS, 2025)

• “English linguistics II: Phonology” (AS, 2024) (University of Ghent, Belgium)

• “English linguistics I” (FS, 2024) (University of Namur, Belgium)

• “General linguistics: Usage-based approaches to language study” (FS, 2024) (University of Namur, Belgium)

• “English language and linguistics I: History of the English language” (AS, 2023) (University of Namur, Belgium)

• “English linguistics III: Pragmatics” (FS, 2021) (University of Leuven, Belgium)

• “English linguistics: Grammar & Discourse” (AS, 2020) (University of Leuven, Belgium)

• “Dutch proficiency I” (AS, 2020) (University of Namur, Belgium)

• “English linguistics I” (AS, 2020) (University of Liège, Belgium)

• “English synchronic linguistics: Corpus linguistics” (AS, 2020) (University of Liège, Belgium)

• “English linguistics I” (FS, 2020) (University of Namur, Belgium)

• “General linguistics: Usage-based approaches to language study” (FS, 2020) (University of Namur, Belgium)

• “English language and linguistics II” (AS, 2019) (University of Leuven, Belgium)

• “Engels: written proficiency I” (AS, 2019) (University of Leuven, Belgium)

• “English: oral proficiency III” (AS, 2019) (University of Leuven, Belgium)

• “English linguistics II: Phonology” (AS, 2019) (University of Ghent, Belgium)

Supervision

I supervise BA and MA theses in the following areas:

• Usage-based grammar (e.g. argument structure, structure of the English NP, clause-combining)

• Information structure

• Discourse analysis (e.g. climate change communication)

• Conversation analysis

Links

• ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4221-1573

• Researchgate: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Wout-Van-Praet