Fae Hicks

PhD Linguistics & English Language

  • Linguistics and English Language
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Dugald Stewart Building

City
3 Charles Street, Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9AD

Biography

Background

I am a second year PhD student working on historical syntax and phonology, specifically their interaction at points of linguistic change. Alongside my PhD I am a research assistant at Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia working on the project "Parameter theory on historical corpora: measuring the power of parameter setting theory on historical corpora" where my focus is Old Latin syntax. 

Qualifications

  • MA(by research) University of York (2023) 
  • BA(Hons) 1st Class University of York (2022) 

Responsibilities & affiliations

Chair, Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference, 2023 - 

Assistant Editor, York Papers in Linguistics, 2022 - 23 

Undergraduate teaching

I have tutored on the following courses

  • LEL1B: Linguistics and English Language 1B (2023)
  • LEL2A: Linguistic Theory and the Structure of English (2023, 2024)
  • LEL2C: English in Time and Space (2024)
  • PPLS Skills Centre: one-to-one academic writing support (2024) 

Research summary

Theoretical historical linguistics, historical phonology, historical syntax, and phonology. 

Current research interests

In my PhD, I am investigating the relationship between inflection reduction, functional word development and word order rigidification that occurred in English between the Old and Middle periods and to a lesser extent in the development of early Romance varieties from Latin. My research focuses on whether causative links between changes in syntax and changes in phonology can be drawn and indeed what it means for one change to cause another. To that end, I am also interested in the philosophy of linguistics, particularly considering the role of theory in historical linguistics and of historical linguistics in linguistic theory.

Past research interests

My MA by research focused on the development of Latin syntax between the Classic and Late periods using the novel Parametric Comparative Method.

Organiser

Chair

Organising Committee

Papers delivered

Annual Meeting of the LAGB, August 2024 spoken presentation on the nature of data in historical linguistics and the relevance of historical linguistics to formal linguistics

Naxos Summer School on Diachronic Linguistics, July 2024 spoken presentation comparing the challenges faced by historical linguists reconstructing past grammars to those faced  by children acquiring language .

Lancaster Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference, June 2023 spoken presentation on applying the Parametric Comparison Method to Classical and Late Latin texts.

International Conference of Undergraduate Research, September 2021 spoken presentation on Cantonese natives’ English pronoun usage.

International Laidlaw Scholars Conference, November 2020 poster presentation on the perceived prestige in English.

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