Maria Carmen Parafita Couto studies the impact of bilingualism and language contact on language structure, mostly the syntax of code-switching.

More information about Maria del Carmen Parafita Couto

News

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  04 October 2022 Six NWO grants for FGW researchers: this is what the scientists are going to do
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  14 July 2022 Leiden research projects awarded NWO Open Competition grants
• 
  30 May 2022 Maria del Carmen Parafita Couto: ‘I have to speak to my cats in Galician’
• 
  17 September 2019 Conference on Multilingualism 2019: a bird's eye view
• 21 May 2019 CfP: Going Romance 2019
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  01 April 2019 CfP: SCOLAS 2019
• 29 November 2018 New platform for research about heritage languages

PhD students

• 
  Wim Blokzijl Lecturer
• 
  Elena Solá Simón External PhD candidate / Guest
• 
  Hadis Tamleh External PhD candidate / Guest
• 
  Ruixue Wu Guest PhD candidate / Contract

Links

• Follow on ResearchGate
• Follow on X

Fields of interest

• Bilingualism
• Language contact
• Code-switching
• Dialect syntax
• Linguistic interfaces
• Sociolinguistics
• Integration of corpus studies and experimental research

Research

I study the impact of bilingualism and language contact on language structure, mostly the syntax of code-switching. My research program takes a cross-disciplinary approach using converging methodological tools ranging from corpus data to behavioural methods, and more recently also electrophysiological measures.  

Teaching activities

• Spanish Syntax
• Bilingualism in the Spanish speaking world
• De Erfenis van Trajanus
• Master: Language variation and language change in Latin America

Curriculum vitae

I received my PhD in Linguistics at the University of Kansas (2005). After three years as an assistant professor of Spanish and Linguistics at Kenyon College (Ohio, USA), I joined the ESRC Center for Research on Bilingualism (Bangor, Wales) as a project researcher (2008-2012). Before moving to Leiden, I spent one year as a faculty member at the School of Humanities at the University of Strathclyde (Glasgow).

I have worked with colleagues to develop a research center (CeIBA- Centro para la investigación del bilingüismo y aprendizaje) on language, bilingualism and education at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez. I am also an affiliate member of the Bilingualism Research Centre at Bangor University, the Bilingualism Research Lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago, the ELEBILAB at the University of the Basque Country, and the Centre for the Comparative Study of the Americas at Swansea University.

Publications