Bringing together a globally representative team of scholars, this Handbook provides a comprehensive overview of comparative syntax, the study of universal and variable properties of the structure of building blocks in natural language.

Seminar

Knowledge and culture subproject 4:

All languages use melody in speech, primarily via rises and falls of the pitch of voice. Such pitch variation is pervasive, offering a wide spectrum of nuance to sentences – an additional layer of meaning. For example, saying “yes” with a rising pitch implies a question (rather than an affirmation).…

This dissertation provides crucial but as yet missing empirical data on the tone accent opposition in the so-called

On April 26th, Kate Bellamy succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Kate on this great result.

Edited by linguists Jenny Audring (Leiden University) and Francesca Masini (University of Bologna), this is a unique handbook with a focus on morphology theories rather than morphological data. It covers a wide array of morphological theories, from traditional twentieth century models to current theoretical…

This dissertation is the first comprehensive description of Makalero, a language spoken by approximately 6,500 speakers in the Iliomar subdistrict, in the south-east of the Republic of East Timor. While previous sources considered it to be a dialect of the larger language Makasae, the present study,…

On the 5th of November, Timothy Gaved successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Timothy on this achievement!

On the 12th of November, Xander Vertegaal successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Xander on this achievement!

On the 4th of June, Andreas Joswig successfully defended his doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Andreas on this great result.

At LUCL, researchers aim to contribute to a comprehensive and informed perspective on the human past.

Descriptive linguistics at LUCL covers documentation and descriptive analysis of lesser-studied languages as well as typological and historical comparison.

On the 4th of September, Elisabeth J. Kerr successfully defended a doctoral thesis. Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Elisabeth on this achievement!

On the 23rd of March, Alessandro del Tomba successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Alessandro on this achievement!

Newly published: ‘Background to Beakers’; inquiries into regional cultural backgrounds of the Bell Beaker Complex. Harry Fokkens / Franco Nicolis (eds.).

This dissertation presents a comprehensive description of Xinka, an indigenous language from southeastern Guatemala. The description is based on a missionary grammar that is titled Arte de la lengua szinca and was written by the priest Manuel Maldonado de Matos around 1773.

This paper sheds light on how better monetary-fiscal coordination can be expected to play out across very different political-economic contexts.

The current project aims to revive the idea that sound inventories are structured according to a small set of universal principles by applying insights from current phonological theory and by making use of modern database technologies and data assessing methodologies.

On Tuesday 17 October 2017 Alexandre Genest defended his PhD dissertation ‘Performance Requirement Prohibitions in International Investment Law’ as part of a double PhD programme at the Universities of Leiden and Ottawa. The Supervisors are Professors M.E. Koppenol-Laforce. F. Baetens (Universities…

At LUCL, researchers aim to contribute to a comprehensive and informed perspective on the human past.

This thesis investigates the grammar of Gaahmg, a Nilo-Saharan, Eastern Sudanic language spoken in the Blue Nile Province of North Sudan. The comprehensive description provides an analysis of the phonology, morphology, and syntax. Ten texts of various genre are given to help illustrated the grammar…

This article explores how ISIS and the Taliban have fostered support through their parallel legal systems.

On 12 April 2022 Alok Oak successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated.

We are delighted to announce that Speech Prosody 2024 will be held in Leiden, The Netherlands (02–05 July 2024). The conference aims to showcase the facets of prosodic variation and their role in the production, comprehension, and acquisition of speech in order to obtain a better understanding of the…

A new publication that brings together perspectives on language contact phenomena across temporal and spatial dimensions.

Akbik and Diessner expand the classic typology of police-patrol and fire-alarm oversight with two new categories: planning bureaus and ambulance chasers.

This article provides a behavioral perspective that examines responsibility attribution to the national government (upward) and policy implementers (downward) as a function of performance relative to decision-makers' aspiration levels. The study proposes that perceived accountability increases the propensity…

On 12 March, Frederik Heitmüller defended the thesis 'Combatting tax avoidance, the OECD way? The impact of the BEPS Project on developing and emerging countries’ approach to international tax avoidance'. The doctoral research was supervised by Madeleine Hosli and Irma Mosquera Valderrama.

Lecture, Digital Archaeology Group

What are the circadian disturbances underlying depression vulnerability? How are they related to mood, cognition and sleep ?

In this article, Marco Cinelli, assistant professor at Leiden University College The Hague, examines proper and improper uses of Multiple Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) methods in energy systems analysis.

In this study, Bibi van den Berg and Sanneke Kuipers from ISGA, explore the ways in which cyber-related incidents may lead to crises

On 27 May 2021, Hirad Abtahi defended his thesis 'Adjudicating Attacks Targeting Culture'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof.dr. C. Stahn.

Industrial Ecology

A liveable planet. More biodiversity. And resources which are being managed wisely. At the CML, we want to make an impact with our research and education. On this website you can read what we do to achieve that.

This study offers a comprehensive but balanced grammatical analysis of Ik (Icetod), Northeast Uganda’s last thriving Kuliak language.

On the 13th of November, Hanna Fricke successfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Hanna on this achievement.

This dissertation provides a description of Konso, a Cushitic language spoken by about 250,000 speakers in the South-West Ethiopia.

This project aims at investigating the syntactic role of focus in ellipsis across languages.

A project to explore the configuration of different types of settlement and its role in the evolution of landscape, both in pre-Roman times and in the so-called Colonial landscape. We used several techniques of field survey, pottery classification and other non-invasive approaches to the archaeological…

The Supplementa series of BABESCH is designed as a platform for thematic publications, in juxtaposition to the annual and varied mix of contributions offered by the journal itself. The thematic publications will include proceedings of colloquia, collections of particular studies by one or more authors,…

On 21 March 2019, James Welch defended his thesis 'The Grotius Sanction: Deus Ex Machina. The legal, ethical, and strategic use of drones in transnational armed conflict and counterterrorism'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. P.B Cliteur.

How do crises produce changes in specific European Union foreign policy areas, and how should we conceptualise these policy changes?

The rise and fall of the cesspit in an urban context

The Intelligence and Security research group focuses on intelligence and security within the European Union. Its approach is interdisciplinary and reflects ISGA’s broad perspective, combining insights from ethics, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology.

PhD defence