I am assistant professor of French linguistics, with a specific focus on the interplay between language and gender.

My research mainly concerns the domains of syntax and morphology, both from a theoretical (generative) point of view, as well as from a more sociolinguistic perspective. In particular, I am interested in how developments in society may eventually lead to changes in the language system, for instance with respect to gender in language. I mainly work on French, but also on German and Dutch, often taking a comparative perspective, from which I hope to gain more insight into differences and similarities between these languages, as well as a better understanding of the language system in general.

PhD-project: Gender mismatches in partitive constructions in French and German: How society shapes language

I defended my PhD-dissertation entitled Gender mismatches in partitive constructions in French and German: How society shapes language, at the University of Amsterdam in October 2021. My PhD-project was supervised by prof. dr. Enoch O. Aboh and dr. Petra Sleeman.

Partitive constructions involving human referents (e.g. one of the students) may give rise to gender agreement mismatches between set and subset in some languages. Native speakers have intuitions about whether such mismatches are acceptable or not. Gender mismatches in partitive constructions have not received much attention in the literature yet, but are particularly interesting in the light of the ongoing discussions on gender equal language, which challenge the existing gender systems in many languages. This dissertation investigates which factors influence the acceptance of gender mismatches by speakers of French and German and discusses those factors in the light of the ongoing discussions on gender equal language. Furthermore, it proposes a novel theoretical explanation for the observed facts within the framework of Generative Grammar. As such, this dissertation does not only give insight into an understudied phenomenon, gender agreement in partitive constructions, but also contributes to our understanding of how social factors may influence language and eventually could cause language change.

About me

Originally, I come from the far South-West of the Netherlands, West-Zeeuws-Vlaanderen. At the University of Amstedam, I have followed BA's in French and German language and culture, MA's in French linguistics and German literature, as well as the rMA in Linguistics.

At UvA, I teach courses on French linguistics, as well as on French language proficiency. Most of these courses are part of the BA programme Franse taal en cultuur, or of one of the MA programmes Language & Society, Language, Litterature and Education, or Educatie en Communicatie in de taal- en cultuurwetenschappen. Please check the online course catalogue (Studiegids) for an overview of the courses I currently teach or have taught in the past. I am also regularly involved in courses on French linguistics within Masterlanguage, as well as within Alfa4All.

In the past, I also taught courses on French linguistics and French language proficiency at Universiteit Leiden, Universiteit Utrecht, as well as courses within the French teacher training programme of the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Hogeschool van Amsterdam).

https://www.folia.nl/nl/opinie/163782/en-weer-zit-de-talenstudent-in-het-verdomhoekje

Thesis supervision - BA

• Agnieszka Czech (2022) - The impact of age on attitudes and usage of trans language amidst the online LGBTQIA+ community.
• Eva Hein (2022) - Language alteration in transgender individuals after coming out.
• Valérie Klaver (2022) - A grammatical and attitudinal study on the potential success of introducing gender-neutral pronouns in languages with grammatical gender.
• Ewa Słowińska (2022) - Gender-neutral Polish: An attitude study.
• Rik Dijkshoorn (2023) - Empêtré dans le piège des faux amis : À la recherche des régularités dans l'évolution de sens des faux amis
• Eva ten Have (2024) - Le langage inclusif en français : comment faire l'accord avec le pronom neutre 'iel' ?
• Nina Teule (2024) - L'acquisition de la liaison française par les apprenants L2 néerlandais.
• Nienke Buitelaar (2025) - Moi je pense pas que le redoublement il soit en évolution : nouvelles perspectives sur les clitiques sujets en français oral contemporain.

Thesis supervision - MA

• Sterre de Man (2023) - La citoyenneté et l'enseignement du français : Un guide pour les professeurs de français de l'enseignement secondaire supérieur aux Pays-Bas, suite aux nouvelles exigences légales en matière de développement de la citoyenneté dans le cadre de l'éducation.
• Caitlin Leib (2024) - Assessing the impact of government programs on shifting language attitudes: the case of Gallo in Upper Brittany, France.
• Julia Wędrychowska (2024) - Beyond the language border: French language dynamics in Flanders.
• Yi-Xi He Zhang (2024) - The use of the neopronoun 'elle/elles' in Spanish (Spain).

Internships

• Liv Rendl (Research Master Linguistics, Universiteit Utrecht, 2021-2022) - Inclusive and gender-neutral writing: French language change up close.

PhD candidate David Mateus

Co-supervision with Enoch Aboh and Petra Sleeman

Project title: Inclusive language in French: challenges for L2 education

Starting date: December 2024

The translation of inclusive language

Althought societal discussion about inclusive language are ongoing in many countries and, as a consequence, affect many language as well, languages differ in terms of the impact inclusive language strategies on the language system. While for many languages, such as English (the discussion on singular they) or Swedish (the introduction of the new gender-neutral pronoun hen), the impact of inclusive language mainly concerns pronoun forms, in other languages inclusive language has wider consequences on the language system. In French and German, for instance, nouns typically take different forms for the feminine and the masculine, and gender is marked on other elements through agreement as well.

From that perspective, the recent German novel Blutbuch (2022), written by the Swiss-German author Kim de l'Horizon, presents an interesting case study. The German original novel contains several instances of inclusive language use, for example the use of the gender star (e.g. Lehrer*innen 'teachers') or the pronominal mensch (literally 'human'), used as alternative for the indefinite pronoun man 'one'. The novel has been translated into several languages, including French and, recently, Dutch. Comparing these translations will tell more about the different challenges raised in these languages with respect to inclusive language.

Agreement with the French inclusive pronoun iel

In 2021, the decision of the French Petit Robert dictionary to include the new inclusive pronoun iel (and its plural variant iels) in their online dictionary, and later on in their printed edition as well, sparked severe debates in France. Although iel seems to get into use slowly, in particular in specific contexts, its integration within the French grammatical system raises questions concerning gender agreement in predicative constructions, as neither masculine nor feminine agreement seem to be appropriate in cases such as Iel est gentil/gentille. Alternatively, other strategies could be adopted, such as the use of the point médian (or other typographical signs), Iel est gentil·le, or the use of new morphological markers (Iel est gentix), but this issue has not been addressed in a systematic manner yet. Therefore, this topic is addressed by investigating predicative agreement with iel in a corpus of French web pages.