Peter Jenks

C.V.
Publications
Teaching
Advising

About my work

I am a syntactician and a descriptive linguist. In my theoretical work I examine the way existing formal theories apply to new data from a broad range of languages. The goal of this work is to develop a theory of language which is flexible enough to account for the incredible complexity of languages while constrained enough to exclude the existence of languages that we never find. I'm especially interested in interfaces: how syntactic structure encodes information which eventually turns into meanings and sounds.

At the syntax-semantics interface I'm particularly interested in how definiteness, quantification, and relative clauses are syntactically encoded.
At the syntax-phonology interface I'm interested in how phonological rules, especially those which are sensitive to prosody, are or are not syntactically constrained.

I teach courses on syntax, semantics, typology, and fieldwork, as well as introduction to linguistics.

I have worked on several different languages, most of which are spoken either in East and Southeast Asia or Subsaharan Africa. (I like working on languages with tone!) My favorite language is Thai, which I grew up speaking as a second language and which was the topic of my dissertation .

I have also worked for many years on Moro, a Kordofanian language spoken in the Nuba Mountains of Sudan. I co-developed the Moro Story Corpus; a descriptive grammar of Moro is to appear with Language Sciences Press, coauthored with Sharon Rose and our Moro colleagues.

Publications

To appear

Peter Jenks and Hannah Sande. A unified analysis of infixation and prosodic inversion. In a forthcoming Festschrift for Sharon Inkelas.
Justin Royer, Cristina Buenrostro, and Peter Jenks. The syntax of quantification and focus in Chuj . Canadian Journal of Linguistics.
Peter Jenks and Himidan Hassen. Multiple probes and feature deletion in the Tira agreement complex ., In the Proceedings of WCCFL43.
Peter Jenks, Elyasir Julima, Angelo Nasir, and Sharon Rose. A Grammar of Moro: Thetogovela dialect. Berlin: Language Sciences Press. 723pp.

2025

Peter Jenks. 2025. Hyperraising from TP in Moro. In Syntax in uncharted territories: Essays in honor of Maria Polinsky. L. Clemens, V. Gribanova, and G. Scontras (eds.)
Peter Jenks. 2025. The comparative syntax of nominal quantifiers . In The Cambridge Handbook of Comparative Syntax. S. Barbiers, N. Corver, and M. Polinsky (eds.) Cambridge UP.

2024

Badiba Olivier Agodio; Peter Jenks; Hannah Sande; Malte Zimmermann. 2024. Indexed definiteness without demonstratives in Guébie . In J. Lecavelier, N. Geick, M. Grubic, P. Bharadwaj, and M. Zimmermann (Eds.): Proceedings of TripleA 10 : fieldwork perspectives on the semantics of African, Asian and Austronesian languages. pp 90–105. Potsdam.

2023

Dawson, Virginia and Peter Jenks. 2023. Describing definites and indefinites . In Key topics in language description and documentation, Ed. Peter Jenks and Lev Michael.
Peter Jenks and Lev Michael (Eds.) 2023. Five Key Topics in Language Documentation and Description. Special Issue 26 of Language Documentation & Conservation. Hawai'i University Press.

2022

Li Julie Jiang, Peter Jenks, and Jing Jin. 2022. The syntax of classifiers in Mandarin Chinese. In The Cambridge Handbook of Chinese Linguistics, Chu-Ren Huang, Yen-Hwei Lin, I-Hsuan Chen, and Yu-Yin Hsu (eds.) 515-549. Cambridge, UK. (pre-print )
Jenks, Peter and Rassidatou Konate. 2022. Indexed definiteness. Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 7(1). doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.571

2021

Khanin Chaiphet and Peter Jenks. 2021. Names as complex indices: On apparent Condition C violations in Thai . In Proceedings of NELS 51.

2020

Sande, Hannah, Peter Jenks, and Sharon Inkelas. 2020. Cophonologies by ph(r)ase. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 39, 1211–1261.
Jenks, Peter. 2020. Verbal and verbless copular clauses in Moro . 2020. Faits du Langue 51, 117-139

Older publications

2019

Bi, Ruyue and Peter Jenks. 2019. Pronouns, null arguments, and ellipsis in Mandarin Chinese . Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 23, vol. 1, pp. 127–142. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès).
Hyman, Larry M, Nicholas Rolle, Hannah Sande, Emily Clem, Peter SE Jenks, Florian Lionnet, J Merrill, N Baier. 2019. Niger-congo linguistic features and typology . In The Cambridge Handbook of African Linguistics, H. Ekkehard Wolff, pp. 191-245. Cambridge University Press.

2018

Articulated definiteness without articles . Linguistic Inquiry 49.3, 501–536.
Cophonologies by phase . (with Hannah Sande) In Proceedings of NELS 48, Sherry Hucklebridge, Max Nelson (Eds.), 39-52. UMass, Amherst GSLA.
On the lexical semantics of property concept nouns in Basaá . (with Andrew Koontz-Garboden and Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso). In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 21, Robert Truswell, Chris Cummins, Caroline Heycock, Brian Rabern, and Hannah Rohde (Eds.). 643-660. University of Edinburgh.

2017

Dependent accusative case and caselessness in Moro . (with Hannah Sande (1st author)) Proceedings of NELS 47, UMass, Amherst.
Documenting Raising and Control in Moro . (with Sharon Rose). In Africa's Endangered Languages: Documentary and Theoretical Approaches. Jason Kandybowicz and Harold Torrence (Eds.). 207-236 Oxford University Press.
Accessibility and demonstrative operators in Basaá relative clauses . (with Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso and Larry Hyman). In Relative Clauses in Cameroonian Languages. Gratien Gualbet Antindogbe and Rebecca Grollemund (Eds.). 17-46. De Gruyter Mouton.

2016

Moro Story Corpus. (with Angelo Naser, Hannah Sande, Marcus Ewert, Juwon Kim, and Maytas Monsereenusorn). UC Berkeley. (slides describing project here )
Clefts and anti-superiority in Moken . (with Kenny Baclawski). Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistic Society 9, 81-96.

2015

Two kinds of definites in numeral classifier langauges. Proceedings of SALT 25, 103-124.
Mobile object markers in Moro: The role of tone . (with Sharon Rose). Language 91.2, 269-307.

2014

Generalized clausal modifiers in Thai noun phrases. Syntax 17.4, 299-342.
In-situ and ex-situ wh-question constructions in Moro. (with Sharon Rose, Farrell Ackerman, George Gibbard, Laura Kertz, and Hannah Rohde). Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 35.1, 91-125.
Kra-Dai Languages. (with Pittayawat Pittayaporn). Oxford Bibliographies, in “Linguistics.” Ed. Mark Aranoff. New York: Oxford University Press.

2013

Quantifier float, focus, and scope in Thai. Proceedings of BLS 39., 90-107.
Head movement in Moro DPs: Evidence for a unified theory of movement . Proceedings of WCCFL 31, ed. Robert E. Santana-LaBarge, 248-257. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Nominal modification in Chinese and Thai . (with Shi-Zhe Huang) Proceedings of WCCFL 31, ed. Robert E. Santana-LaBarge, 227-237. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
Adjectives as nominal heads in Basaá . (with Larry Hyman and Emmanuel-Moselly Makasso) Selected proceedings of ACAL 43. O. O. Orie and K. W. Sanders (Eds). Somerville: Cascadilla Press.
Noun phrases in Moro . In Nuba Mountain Language Studies, T. Schadeberg and R. Blench, Eds. Berlin: Rüdiger Koppe Verlag, 57-82.

2012

Definite spans and blocking in classifier languages . UC Berkeley ms.
Three ways to modify classifiers in Thai . Presentation at LSA2012, Portland, OR.

2011

High tone in Moro: Effects of prosodic categories and morphological domains. (with Sharon Rose) Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 29, 211-250.
The hidden structure of Thai noun phrases . PhD Dissertation, Harvard University.

2010

Evidence for the syntactic diversity of numeral classifiers. LSA Annual Meeting Extended Abstracts. LSA 84, Baltimore, MD.

2009

Syllable weight and high tone in Moro . (with Sharon Rose) In Proceedings of CLS 45, Volume I, R. Bochnak, N. Nicola, P. Klecha, J. Urban, A. Lemieux and C. Weaver (Eds.), 271-285. Chicago: CLS.

C.V.
Publications
Teaching
Advising

Teaching

2025-2026

I've been chair since Fall 2025, meaning fewer courses and more emails.

Spring 2026 - Ling 121: Formal Semantics

2024-2025

Fall 2024 - Ling 200: First year proseminar for linguistics graduate students
Fall 2024 - Ling 120: Syntax
Fall 2024 - Ling 240A: Advanced Field Methods I
Spring 2024 - Ling 240A: Advanced Field Methods II

2023-2024

In Spring 2024 I was very honored to receive the UC Berkeley Distinguished Teacher award. See the video here.

Fall 2023 - Ling 200: First year proseminar for linguistics graduate students (syllabus)
Fall 2023 - Ling 220A: Advanced Syntax I (Fall 2023) (syllabus)
Spring 2024 - Ling 120: Syntax (syllabus)

2022-2023

Fall 2022 - 100: Introduction to Linguistic Science
Fall 2022 - 201: Third year graduate research proseminar
Spring 2023 - 140: Field methods (syllabus)
215: Advanced Morphology (Spring 2022) (with Hannah Sande!) (syllabus)

2021-2022

Fall 2021 - Ling 100: Introduction to Linguistic Science
Spring 2022 - 220B: Advanced Syntax II: The A/A'-Distinction (syllabus)

Advising

I like to work with students whose interests combine generative syntax and theoretically-informed fieldwork. Students with research interests in these areas, particularly those investigating formal syntax, the syntax-semantics interface, morphology, or the syntax-phonology interface, with strong training in these areas and a clear research trajectory are encouraged to contact me to inquire about our PhD program.