Profile

Biography

Norman Yeo is a syntactician with considerable interest in formal semantics. He is interested in wh-movement and question particles, especially in the optionality of wh-movement, its availability and constraints in various languages.

Career

• National University of Singapore (2001-2004)
  BA English Language
• University of York (2004-2005)
  MA in Linguistics: Quantification and Distributivity in Singapore English
• University of York (2006-2011)
  PhD in Linguistics: Unifying Optional Wh-movement
• University of York (2007-)
  Teaching Assistant
• University of York (2010-)
  Research Assistant: "A neural Correlate for scalar calculation" by Eytan Zweig

Departmental roles

• Chair of Exceptional Circumstances affecting Assessment

Research

Overview

Syntactic interests lie mainly in wh-movement and its formal optionality in grammars as well as the form and function of question particles in language. Primary semantic interests lie in the contribution of question particles to meaning interpretation. Secondary semantic interests are in quantification and distributivity in natural language. His recently submitted PhD dissertation attempts to put forward a syntactic model to unify formal optionality of optional wh-movement in a variety of languages, especially the employment of wh-in-situ strategies in wh-movement languages. The focus of this research revolves around the use of question particles, and their overt movement in syntax. Ongoing work in neurolinguistics investigates the correlation of neural activity and scalar implicatures.

Projects

Norman Yeo is currently working as a research assistant under Eytan Zweig's project “A neural Correlate for scalar calculation”. This study uses neuroimaging techniques (MEG) to test whether there is any neural activity associated with under informative scalar terms like “some”.

Research group(s)

• Syntax and semantics research group

Teaching

Undergraduate

• Intermediate semantics (L11I)
• Intermediate syntax (L16I)