Research
My primary research area is syntax, focusing on the nature of syntactic representations and dependencies, the way these interact with other cognitive processes, and the way they are acquired over the lifespan. I have worked on many languages, including English, Spanish, and Chinese. I am especially interested in experimental techniques for the study of sentence acceptability and I direct the Experimental Syntax Lab. Alongside my purely scientific work, I have a longstanding interest in how linguistic research can improve people’s lives, particularly in the area of second language learning.
Publications
27 chapters written by top scholars on all aspects of experimental syntax. Includes a chapter by me on how and why to do sentence acceptability experiments.
A collection of previously published articles from all stages of my career, plus a completely new chapter on cross-linguistic variation in island effects.
An introductory-level textbook in Spanish based on a video corpus of spontaneous interviews with hundreds of Spanish speakers in Latin America and Spain and using active learning / "desirable difficulty" techniques to promote engagement and learning.
An extended argument that natural language makes use of three-dimensional structures that go beyond the syntactic representations typically assumed. Contains extensive discussion of coordination, causatives, and restructuring.
2024
Goodall, Grant. “Wh-movement.” In International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd edition, edited by Petar Milin and Hilary Nesi (section editor: Pius ten Hacken). To appear.
Goodall, Grant. “Revisiting the COMP-trace effect: Syntax after all?” In Syntax in uncharted territories:
Essays in honor of Maria Polinsky. In press.
Dasgupta, Probal and Goodall, Grant. “Universal language.” In International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd edition, edited by Petar Milin and Hilary Nesi (section editor: Florian Coulmas). In press.
Kim, Boyoung and Goodall, Grant. “The source of the that-trace effect: New evidence from L2 English.” Second Language Research 40(1), 79-102.
2023
Takahashi, Maho and Goodall, Grant. “Island sensitivity with relativization in Japanese: The case of double relatives.” Proceedings of the 58th Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, 455–467.
Jung, Duk-Ho and Goodall, Grant. “Filler-gap dependencies and the remnant-correlate dependency in backward sprouting: Sensitivity to distance and islands.” Journal of Linguistics 59(2), 235–255.
Goodall, Grant. “Constructed languages.” Annual Review of Linguistics 9, 419-437.
Goodall, Grant. “Esperanto kaj lingvistiko: cent jaroj da (mal)amikeco.” Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies 4 (12), 24-34. [English translation: "Esperanto and linguistics: a hundred years of love and hate."]
2022
Kim, Boyoung and Goodall, Grant. “The island/non-island distinction in long-distance extraction: Evidence from L2 acceptability.” Glossa. 2022.
Goodall, Grant. “D-linking, non-finiteness, and cross-linguistic variation in island phenomena.” In Theory and Experiment in Syntax. Routledge Leading Linguists Series, Routledge. Pp. 309-340. 2022. [Pre-publication version]
Goodall, Grant. “Introduction: Five themes in the study of syntax.” In Theory and Experiment in Syntax. Routledge Leading Linguists Series, Routledge. Pp. 1-7. 2022.
Goodall, Grant. Theory and Experiment in Syntax. Routledge Leading Linguists Series, Routledge, 2022. Pp. xi, 351.
Goodall, Grant and Darcy Lear. Conéctate: Introductory Spanish, Third Edition. McGraw-Hill, 2022. Pp. xxxii, 565.
2021
Jung, Duk-Ho and Goodall, Grant. “There is no wh-movement in sprouting.” NELS 51: Proceedings of the Fifty-First Annual Meeting of the North East Lingusitic Society, edited by Alessa Farinella and Angelica Hill. Graduate Linguistics Student Association, University of Massachusetts. 2021.
Goodall, Grant. “Sentence acceptability experiments: What, how, and why.” In The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax, edited by Grant Goodall. Cambridge University Press. Pp. 7-38. 2021. [Pre-publication version]
Goodall, Grant (ed.). The Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Syntax. Cambridge University Press, 2021. Pp. xi, 773.
Goodall, Grant. “Why does D-linking reduce the need for inversion in Spanish wh-questions?” In East and West of The Pentacrest: Linguistic Studies in Honor of Paula Kempchinsky, edited by Timothy Gupton and Elizabeth Gielau. John Benjamins Publishing. 2021.
2020
Goodall, Grant. “The design(ing) of language.” In Language Invention in Linguistics Pedagogy, edited by Jeffrey Punske, Nathan Sanders, and Amy V. Fountain. Oxford University Press. 2020.
Goodall, Grant. “Alproprigo de dua lingvo: Ĉu ebla post la infanaĝo?” In Internacia Kongresa Universitato 2020, edited by Anna Striganova, Dmitrij Ŝevĉenko, and Amri Wandel. Impeto (Moscow). 2020. [Video of presentation]
2019
Guajardo, Gustavo and Grant Goodall. “On the status of Concordantia Temporum in Spanish: An experimental approach." Glossa. 4(1), 116.. 2019
2018
Grinstead, John, Mariana Vega-Mendoza, and Grant Goodall. “Inversion and Finiteness in Spanish and English: Developmental Evidence from the Optional Infinitive and Optional Inversion Stages.” Language 94, 575-610. 2018.
2017
Goodall, Grant. “Referentiality and resumption in wh-dependencies.” In Ostrove, Jason; Kramer, Ruth; and Sabbagh, Joseph (eds.), Asking the Right Questions: Essays in Honor of Sandra Chung. Pp. 65-80. eScholarship, University of California. http://escholarship.org/uc/item/8255v8sc. 2017.
Goodall, Grant. “Contraction.” The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax (2nd ed.), Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.). Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford. 2017.
Goodall, Grant. “Coordination in syntax.” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, edited by Mark Aronoff. Oxford University Press. DOI:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.36. 2017.
2016
Kim, Boyoung and Grant Goodall. “An experimental investigation of island effects in Korean.” Japanese/Korean Linguistics, Vol. 23. CSLI Publications. 2016.
Kim, Boyoung and Grant Goodall. “Islands and non-islands in native and heritage Korean.” Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences (special volume on The Grammar of Multilingualism). 2016
Ritchart, Amanda, Grant Goodall, and Marc Garellek. “Prosody and the that-trace effect: An experimental study.” Proceedings of the 33rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. 2016
2015
Goodall, Grant. “The D-linking effect on extraction from islands and non-islands.” Frontiers in Psychology: Language Sciences (special volume on Encoding and navigating linguistic representations in memory) 5, 1493, doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01493. 2015
2014
Kim, Boyoung and Grant Goodall. “Islands and non-islands in heritage Korean.” In BUCLD 38: Proceedings of the 38th annual Boston University Conference on Language Development, edited by Will Orman and Matthew James Valleau. Pp. 216-228. Cascadilla Press. 2014.
2013
Goodall, Grant. “Coordination.” Oxford Bibliographies in Linguistics, Mark Aronoff (ed.). Oxford University Press, doi: 10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0128. 2013.
Michel, Dan and Grant Goodall. “Finiteness and the nature of island constraints.” In Proceedings of GLOW in Asia IX 2012: The Main Session, edited by Nobu Goto, Koichi Otaki, Atsushi Sato & Kensuke Takita. Pp. 187-197. 2013
2012
Fukuda, Shin, Grant Goodall, Dan Michel, and Henry Beecher. "Is Magnitude Estimation Worth the Trouble?" In Proceedings of the 29th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, edited by Jaehoon Choi, E. Alan Hogue, Jeffrey Punske, Deniz Tat, Jessamyn Schertz, and Alex Trueman. Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Pp. 328-336. 2012
2011
Kim, Boyoung and Grant Goodall. "Age-related Effects on Constraints on Wh-movement." In Proceedings of the 11th Generative Approaches to Second Language Acquisition Conference (GASLA 2011), edited by Julia Herschensohn and Darren Tanner. Cascadilla Proceedings Project. Pp. 54-62. 2011.
Goodall, Grant. “Syntactic satiation and the inversion effect in English and Spanish wh-questions.” Syntax 14, 29–47, 2011.
2010
Goodall, Grant. “Input from Spanish textbooks: Two case studies of poverty/richness of the stimulus.” Selected Proceedings of the 12th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Claudia Borgonovo, Manuel Español-Echevarría, Philippe Prévost (eds.). Cascadilla Proceedings Project, Somerville MA. Pp. 260-269. 2010.
Goodall, Grant. “Experimenting with wh-movement in Spanish.” Romance Linguistics 2008, Interactions in Romance: Selected Papers from the 38th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, Karlos Arregi, Zsuzsanna Fagyal, Silvina A. Montrul and Annie Tremblay (eds.). John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Pp. 233-248. 2010.
2008
Goodall, Grant. “The limits of syntax in inversion.” Proceedings of the 41st Annual Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Pp. 161-174. 2008.
2007
Goodall, Grant. “Inversion in wh-questions in child Romance and child English.” Selected Proceedings of the 36th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, María José Cabrera, José Camacho, Viviane Déprez, Nydia Flores and Liliana Sánchez (eds.). John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Pp 169-182. 2007.
2005
Goodall, Grant. “Contraction.” The Syntax Companion, Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.). Blackwell, Oxford. 2005.
2004
Goodall, Grant. “On the Syntax and Processing of Wh-questions in Spanish.” Proceedings of the 23rd West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, Benjamin Schmeiser, Vineeta Chand, Ann Kelleher and Angelo Rodriguez (eds.). Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press. Pp. 237-250. 2004.
2003
Goodall, Grant. “El sujeto en español y la propiedad PPE.” Memoria del VI Encuentro Internacional de Lingüística en el Noroeste, Gerardo Bobadilla Encinas (ed.), Universidad de Sonora. 2003.
Goodall, Grant. “Coordination.” International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, 2nd edition, William Frawley (ed.), Oxford University Press. Pp. 393-395. 2003.
Goodall, Grant. “The EPP in Spanish.” Objects and Other Subjects, William Davies and Stanley Dubinsky (eds.). Kluwer. Pp. 193 - 223. 2001.
2001
Goodall, Grant. “On preverbal subjects in Spanish.” Current Issues in Linguistic Theory: Selected Papers from the 29th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, Diana Cresti, Teresa Satterfield, and Christina Tortora (eds). John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Pp. 92 - 106. 2001
Goodall, Grant. “Pri la transitiveco de verboj en Esperanto.” Language Planning and Lexicology: Proceedings of an International Symposium, Christer Kiselman and Geraldo Mattos (eds.). Fonto, Chapecó/Brasília. Pp. 115-131. 2001.
2000
Goodall, Grant. “What Spanish can tell us about the EPP.” Current Issues in Generative Grammar: Papers from the 10th Colloquium on Generative Grammar, Manuel Leonetti, Olga Fernández-Soriano and Victoria Escandell-Vidal (eds.). Universidad de Alcalá. Pp. 109 - 128. 2000.
1999
Goodall, Grant. “Passives and arbitrary plural subjects in Spanish.” Formal Perspectives on Romance Linguistics: Papers from the 28th Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, J.-Marc Authier, Barbara Bullock, and Lisa Reed (eds.). John Benjamins, Amsterdam. Pp. 135-150. 1999.
Goodall, Grant. “Accusative case in passives.” Linguistics 37, 1-12, 1999.
1997
Goodall, Grant. "θ-alignment and the by-phrase." Chicago Linguistic Society 33, vol. I: The Main Session, Chicago Linguistic Society. Pp. 129-139. 1997.
1994
Goodall, Grant. “El movimiento QU y la estructura de la cláusula en español.” Revista Argentina de Linguística 10, 115-130 (special issue of invited papers on the generative syntax of Spanish, edited by José Pascual Masullo) 1994.
1993
Goodall, Grant. "On Case and the Passive Morpheme." Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 11, 31-44. 1993.
Goodall, Grant. "SPEC-head Agreement as the Motivation for NP-movement." Proceedings of the 22nd Western Conference on Linguistics, Vida Samiian (ed). CSU Fresno. Pp. 89-99. 1993.
Goodall, Grant. "SPEC of IP and SPEC of CP in Spanish wh-questions." Linguistic Perspectives on the Romance Languages: Selected Papers from the XXI Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages, William J. Ashby, Marianne Mithun, Giorgio Perissinotto, and Eduardo Raposo (eds.). John Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam. Pp. 199-209. 1993.
Goodall, Grant. "Passives and Case." Actes du XVe Congrès International des Linguistes/Proceedings of the XVth International Congress of Linguists. André Crochetière, Jean-Claude Boulanger et Conrad Ouellon (eds.). Les Presses de l'Université Laval. 4 pages. 1993.
1992
Goodall, Grant. "On the status of SPEC of IP." Proceedings of the Tenth West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, Dawn Bates (ed.). Stanford Linguistics Association/Center for the Study of Language and Information (Stanford). Distributed by University of Chicago Press. Pp. 175-182. 1992.
1991
Goodall, Grant. "Coordination." International Encyclopedia of Linguistics, William Bright (ed.), Oxford University Press. Pp. 311-313. 1991.
Goodall, Grant. "Wanna-contraction as restructuring." Interdisciplinary Approaches to Language: Essays in Honor of S.-Y. Kuroda, Carol Georgopoulos and Roberta Ishihara (eds.), Kluwer Academic Publishers, pp. 239-254. 1991.
1990
Goodall, Grant. "X'-internal word order in Mandarin Chinese and Universal Grammar." Linguistics 28.2, 241-261 (special issue on Chinese syntax, Stephen Harlow (ed.)), 1990.
1989
Goodall, Grant. "Evidence for an asymmetry in argument structure." Linguistic Inquiry 20.4, 669-674, 1989.
1988
Goodall, Grant. "Kelkaj rimarkoj pri la subjekto en Esperanto" [Some remarks on the subject in Esperanto]. Waiguoyu/Journal of Foreign Languages of Shanghai International Studies University 3, 91-93, 104, 1988.
1987
Goodall, Grant. Parallel Structures in Syntax: Coordination, Causatives and Restructuring. Cambridge University Press, 1987. Pp. xiii, 194.
Goodall, Grant. "On argument structure and L-marking with Mandarin Chinese ba." Proceedings of the Seventeenth Annual Meeting of the North Eastern Linguistic Society, 232-242, 1987.
Goodall, Grant. "Case, clitics, and lexical NP's in Romance causatives." Studies in Romance Languages, Carol Neidle and Rafael A. Núñez Cedeño (eds.), Foris Publications, 93-105, 1987.
1986
Goodall, Grant. "Across-the-Board movement in Spanish." Studies in Romance Linguistics, Osvaldo Jaeggli and Carmen Silva-Corvalán (eds.), 75-86, Foris Publications, 1986.
Goodall, Grant. "Parallel structures in syntax." The Linguistic Review: Dissertation Abstracts 5, 173-184, 1985-1986.
1985
Goodall, Grant. "Notes on reanalysis." MIT Working Papers in Linguistics, vol. 6, 62-86, 1985.
1984
Goodall, Grant. "Across-the-board movement, the ECP, and the Bijection Principle." Proceedings of the West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics, vol. 3, 129-138, 1984.
Goodall, Grant. "Morphological complexity and cerebral lateralization." Neuropsychologia 22, 375-380, 1984.
1983
Goodall, Grant. "A three-dimensional analysis of coordination." Papers from the Nineteenth Regional Meeting, 146-154, Chicago Linguistic Society, 1983.
1982
Research results from UCLA senior honors thesis presented in C. Li and S. Thompson, Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar, pp. 490-1, University of California Press, 1982.
1981
Goodall, Grant. "Unbounded dependencies and apparent violations of strict subcategorization rules: evidence for wh-movement." Linguistic Notes from La Jolla 9, 29-42, 1981.