Stanford Linguistics

I am a PhD candidate in Linguistics at Stanford University. My main areas of interest are syntax and morphology, particularly theories of case. In my research, I aim to answer questions like:

• How do we express the roles played by different participants in a sentence, i.e. pick out who does what to whom?
• How is this aspect of meaning encoded into word order and/or parts of words?
• How do languages differ in the way these roles are expressed, and how can we explain generalisations across languages?

My thesis project focuses on a phenomenon known as "quirky case" in Faroese and Icelandic, where the subject of the sentence is marked with a case not typical of subjects (e.g. dative). The key question I am trying to answer is: why does the object in such sentences get marked accusative in Faroese but nominative in Icelandic?

Another area I am interested in is metrical phonology, in other words:

• What are the sound rules or constraints that govern stress in words and sentences?
• How can we best formulate such rules for metrical verse?
• How does stress interact with other subsystems in language?

The main language I am working on is Faroese. I have long-term interests in Nordic languages more broadly, Romance languages, and Lithuanian.

N.B. I pronounce my last name [ˌɡalˈbɹɛːθ], with main stress on the second syllable.

Stanford University
Department of Linguistics
Margaret Jacks Hall
Bldg 460-122
Stanford, CA 94305-2150
USA

Email: dagalb@stanford.edu
Tel: +1-650-723-2213

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