Professor of Linguistics
Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures
Adjunct Professor, Speech and Hearing Sciences
(812) 855-8169 (Linguistics), 855-2616 (Slavic Lang. and Lit.)
franks@indiana.edu
See also: My CV

Ph.D., Cornell University, 1985

My major research interests lie in syntactic theory, focusing on issues broadly related to case. Much of my work compares grammatical patterns within the closely related Slavic family, in order to uncover the parameters that delimit the range of possible variation. This research is conducted within the context of generative grammar.

The fundamental goal of linguistics as a cognitive science is to discover the nature of knowledge of language. I believe that coming to "know a language" involves the internalization of a system of rules (a grammar), and that by studying the properties of grammars we can learn about the structure of the human language faculty. A grammatical analysis is a theory of mind, making specific empirical claims about abstract mental representations. Facts garnered through introspection into native linguistic knowledge can be analyzed into grammatical systems, and these systems can be studied for general organizational principles. Linguistic theory thus defines a research program for investigating the language faculty, and this methodology for seeking the principles that regulate grammars currently provides one of our best avenues into the workings of the human mind.

(under review). Clitic Placement in Bulgarian Compound Tenses: PF–Side versus Syntactic Approaches. [Franks]
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(in progress). Another Look at li Placement in Bulgarian. The Linguistic Review.[Franks]
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(forthcoming). Franks, S., "Clitics in Slavic". Slavica.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(in press). Agnostic Movement. In Proceedings of NELS 36 , ed. by C. Davis, A. R. Deal and Y. Zabbal. [Franks]
(Available for download in.pdf format.)

(in press). Case and Word Order in Lithuanian. In Journal of Linguistics. 42.2. [Franks & Lavine]
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(in press). Adverb Interpolation in the Bulgarian Clitic Cluster. In A Festschrift for Charles Gribble, ed. by R. Rothstein, E. Scatton, & C. Townsend.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2005). What is that? In Indiana University Working Papers in Linguistics, 5, 33-62. ed. by Y. Kitagawa and D. Roehrs.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2005). Bulgarian Clitics as Kº Heads. In Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: The South Carolina Meeting, ed. by S. Franks, F. Gladney & M. Tasseva-Kurktchieva, 106-118. [Franks & Rudin]
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2005). Slavic Languages. In Handbook of Comparative Syntax, ed. by G. Cinque & R. Kayne. Oxford University Press, 373-419.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2004). Functional Categories in the Nominal Domain. In Formal Approaches to Slavic Linguistics: The Ottawa Meeting, ed. by O. Arnaudova et al, 109-128. [Franks & Pereltsvaig]
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2002). A Jakobsonian Feature Based Analysis of the Slavic Numeric Quantifier Genitive. Journal of Slavic Linguistics 10, 141-181.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2001). An Argument for Multiple Spell-Out. Linguistic Inquiry 32, 174-183.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2000). Across-the-Board Movement and LF. Syntax 3.2, 107-128. [Boskovic & Franks]
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2000). Clitics at the Interface. In Clitic Systems in European Languages, ed. by F. Beukema and M. Den Dikken, 1-46.
(Available for download in .pdf format.)

(2000). A Handbook of Slavic Clitics. Oxford University Press. [Franks & King]

(1999). A Copy and Delete Analysis of Second Position Clitics. Zeitschrift für Slawistik 44.2, 155-166.

(1998). The Syntax of Adverbial Participles in Russian Revisited. Slavic and East European Journal 42.3 , 117-149. [Babby & Franks]

(1996). Knowledge of binding in normal and SLI children. Journal of Child Language, 23.2, 431-464. [Franks & Connell]

(1995). Asymmetries in the scope of Russian negation. Journal of Slavic Linguistics, 3.2, 239-287. [Franks & Brown]

(1995). Parameters of Slavic Morphosyntax. Oxford University Press.

(1994). Parametric Properties of Numeral Phrases in Slavic. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 12.4, 570-649.

(1993). On parallelism in across-the-board dependencies. Linguistic Inquiry, 24.3