Fachbereich Linguistik Universität Salzburg

01/10/2026

As part of her Early Career Project “Unidirectional Mismatches at the Syntax-Semantics Interface” Magdalena Lohninger gave a talk at MIT Syntax Square, titled “Form of a CP, meaning of a vP: Event CPs in Austrian German”

29/09/2026

Salzburg Linguistik was present at the Fox Fest at MIT (https://linguistics.mit.edu/foxfest/), a celebration workshop for Danny Fox: Filipe Hisao Kobayashi presented the poster
“Generalizing von Stechow’s problem” and Susi Wurmbrand gave a talk “Questions and thoughts about LF from a syntax−first perspective”, which was commentated by David Pesetsky.

28/09/2026

ÖLT 2026 is coming to Salzburg! 🎉

Join us for the 50th Austrian Linguistics Conference, taking place on 20–21 November 2026 at UNIPARK Nonntal, University of Salzburg. Two days of linguistic research, exchange and discussion across a wide range of fields.

📝 Abstract submissions for paper and poster presentations are open until 1 October 2026.
Please note that individual workshop calls may have different submission deadlines.

🎟️ Registration is open until and including 9 November 2026.

📍 Salzburg
📅 20–21 November 2026
🔗 Programme, workshops, submissions, registration & further details – scan the QR code on the flyer or visit:
https://oelt2026.wixsite.com/oelt2026

12/09/2026

Filipe Hisao Kobayashi (Postdoc) recently taught a three-day mini-course at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ) in Brazil. Entitled “Modals and Conditionals: A Formal Introduction,” the course introduced students to modality and, more broadly, to formal approaches to meaning.

01/09/2026

One of our PhD students, Franziska Keller, gave a talk at the SLE Workshop "The New Arabic/Semitic Lexicon" in Osnabrück. She presented an analysis of verb form II in Jordanian Arabic by making use of allosemic rules to derive the different semantics of this verb form.

07/08/2026

More linguistics under the Cretan sun! 🏝️

Here’s another snapshot from the 7th Crete Summer School of Linguistics, which has just come to an end. Our doctoral student, Anita Riedl, presented her poster, “Tiny bearers of positivity: Slovenian clitic polarity answers,” showing how polar questions can receive emphatic positive answers using clitic pronouns.

From Anita:
The greatest positivity, however, came not from clitics or the Cretan sun, but from the amazing team of teachers, the organizers, and the wonderful community of young researchers at the school. It was a pleasure to meet you all! ☀️

06/08/2026

Magdalena Lohninger (PostDoc), Filipe Kobayashi (PostDoc), Janina Braun (BSc student), and Sayuri Arafune (PhD student) are currently attending the OVA Summer School in Debrecen, Hungary. Magdalena is a co-founder and co-organizer of the school and is also teaching a course on “Scientific Problem Solving for Linguists” together with Timea Szarvas (University of Potsdam). Filipe is teaching a semantics course on “Comparative Constructions.” Janina and Sayuri are attending the school as students, while Sayuri is also offering a Japanese language class as part of the extracurricular program.

04/08/2026

Julia Krebs and Julia Martetschläger took part in the Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory conference (FEAST 2026), held from July 6–8, 2026 in Amsterdam.

Together with Ronnie Wilbur, they presented a talk titled:
"Spatiotemporal trajectories in sign language motor learning: Displacement-velocity dissociation in novice signers"

The full list of contributors: Julia Krebs, Eric Harbour, Evie A. Malaia, Ronnie B. Wilbur, Julia Martetschläger, Hermann Schwameder, and Dietmar Roehm.

Formal and Experimental Advances in Sign Language Theory (FEAST 2026) took place at the University of Amsterdam, on July 6th–8th, 2026. We thank all attendees for their presence! The official conference languages were International Sign (IS), Dutch Sign Language (NGT) and English.

03/08/2026

One of our PhD candidates, Franziska Keller, presented a poster entitled "Fake resumptive pronouns in Jordanian Arabic" at Creteling, 23rd of July 2026. The poster explores resumptive pronouns that can be fake indexical at the same time. Creteling was overall an excellent experience with many inspiring encounters and discussions. Many thanks to the teachers and organizing team!

29/07/2026

Magdalena Lohninger recently taught the course "Scientific Method and Theory in Linguistics" at the V-NYI Summer School (The Virtual New York Global Institute of Cultural, Cognitive and Linguistic Studies).

The course was inspired by an MSc seminar she developed and taught at the University of Salzburg last year. Following its positive reception, she decided to bring it to a broader international audience.

It addressed the following topics:
Is linguistics the hardest of the soft sciences or the softest of the hard sciences? Positioned between the humanities and the natural sciences, linguistics raises important questions about what counts as scientific inquiry in the study of language. This course explores key philosophies of science through the work of Popper, Kuhn, and Lakatos, and considers how their ideas apply to linguistic research. It will be discuss to what extent linguistic methodology can be compared to that of the “hard” sciences, focusing on questions such as the nature of linguistic data, whether and how our claims are falsifiable, and what constitutes empirical evidence in the field. The discussion will also address the basic steps of scientific inquiry—induction, deduction, hypothesis formation, and testing—and how these processes manifest in linguistic research practices.