Mal Shah
Syntax, semantics, and their interfaces
I'm a first-year PhD student in Linguistics at the University of Maryland, where I am advised by Jeff Lidz and Alexander Williams. I work mostly on syntax and its interface with semantics, with a focus on event- and argument-structure, as well as how linguistic meaning interacts with cognition at large in quantification. Besides that, I maintain an interest in the philosophy of language, especially in 'meaning internalism'. I help organize Maryland's Syntax Lab.
Before coming to Maryland, I studied at St. Hugh's College, Oxford (2019-2022), where I was advised by Matt Husband. I read Philosophy and Linguistics BA, for which I was awarded a Congratulatory First Class.
The best way to reach me is by email: mpshah at umd dot edu.
You can also find me on Twitter with the handle @compositiomal. I would have preferred the handle "compositiomality" for the true rhyme allowed by the stress-shifting 'ity' affix; alas, this is too many characters for the system.
Pictured: me looking very happy at D.C.'s Planet Word Museum on my 22nd birthday, where I happened to be dressed as fellow language-science enthusiast, Paddington Bear.
I would like to thank my cohort-mate Utku Turk for the idea behind the logo (a syntactician's favourite thing, a phrase structure tree, blending into the semanticist's favorite thing, a lambda.)