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Fabian Zöfelt

My name is Fabian Zöfelt ([ˈfabiːan ˈtsœfɛlt]). I’m a linguist and PhD student at Bielefeld University. Currently, I’m working in the project Creativity in (morpho)syntactic variation. The role of analogy at CRC 1646: Linguistic Creativity in Communication.

I’m especially interested in (morpho)syntactic phenomena such as non-canonical passive constructions and long-distance dependencies. My work is mainly focused on German and tries to combine descriptive approaches, empirical evidence, and minimal-generative perspectives. In my dissertation and as part of my work in project A01, I explore whether exceptional extraction from islands can be explained by analogy. My PIs and supervisors are Jutta M. Hartmann and András Bárány.

I’m also interested in historical linguistics and language change – in particular, in questions such as what motivates grammaticalization processes and how these can be modeled syntactically.

You can find some of my scientific output here. Click here to find my orcid profile.

Last updated: November, 2025

Curriculum vitae

  • 2023 – 2025: I was an external lecturer at Ruhr University Bochum (German studies and historical linguistics). I taught two courses on (morpho)syntax of historical German (within the generative framework) and a practice course on grammaticalization and corpus research.
  • 10/2022 – 12/2023: Student assistant and tutor, graduate (WHK) | German Studies, Chair: Historical Linguistics, Prof. Dr. Eric Fuß | Ruhr University Bochum
  • 10/2021 – 12/2023: Student Assistant, graduate (WHK) | German Studies, Dr. Judith Berman | Ruhr University Bochum
  • 04/2021 – 09/2021: Student Assistant, undergraduate (SHK) | German Studies, Dr. Judith Berman | Ruhr University Bochum
  • 2021 – 2024: M.A. German Studies (with distinction) | at Ruhr University Bochum | Thesis: Was zu beschreiben ist: Nicht-kanonische Passivstrukturen im Deutschen (Supervision: Eric G. Fuss & Karin Pittner)
  • 2018 – 2021 | B.A. Major: German Studies & History, Minor: Optionalbereich mit Profil Lehramt (=Education) | at Ruhr University Bochum | Thesis: Zur korrelativen Subordination bei satzwertigen Komplementen (Supervision: Judith Berman & Karin Pittner)

Scientific output

  • (in prep.) Was zu beschreiben ist: Towards a taxonomy of German non-canonical passives. In: Russo Cardona, L., F. Longo, T. Sgrizzi, and H. Tamleh, (eds). Proceedings of the 33rd Conference of the Student Organization of Linguistics in Europe (29–31 January 2025, University of Göttingen).
  • (in prep.) A syntactic account on factive islands in German. Languages, Special issue: New Trends in Syntactic Islands.
  • 11/2025 | Factive Islands in German. On Factors influencing the Acceptability of wh-Extraction | Talk | at New perspectives on long distance dependencies (Workshop part of the Annual International Conference of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures 20-22 November 2025); University of Bucharest
  • 10/2025 | Reanalysis by Analogy: The case of extraction from German wenn-clauses | Talk | at CCD; Bielefeld University
  • 07/2025 | On Morphosyntactic Creativity by Analogy. Case Studies on Long-Distance Dependencies in Hungarian and German | together with Daczó, Szilvia | at CRC Colloquium, Bielefeld University
  • 05/2025 | German wenn-clauses and Linguistic Creativity | at LinCreGG, Bielefeld University
  • 04/2025 | Wenn wir es nur wüssten - Syntaktische Ambiguität von und Extraktion aus wenn-Sätzen | at GAKT-BI - Kreativität & Interpretation, Bielefeld University
  • 04/2025 | Wenn wir es nur wüssten - Syntaktische Ambiguität von und Extraktion aus wenn-Sätzen | at STaPs-22, Budapest, Innsbruck, and Tübingen
  • 01/2025 | Towards a taxonomy of German non-canonical passives | at ConSOLE33, Georg-August University Göttingen
  • 11/2025 | Proportional Analogy & Extraction from complement-like wenn-clauses | Poster | at 7th CRC Networking Workshop; Bielefeld University
  • 10/2025 | Reanalysis by Analogy: The case of extraction from German wenn-clauses | Poster | at NELS56; New York University
  • 10/2025 | Creativity in (morpho)syntactic variation. The role of analogy | together with Daczó, Szilvia | Poster | at CRC Day, Bielefeld University
  • 04/2025 | Studies on Long-distance Dependencies | together with Daczó, Szilvia | Poster | at CRC Day, Bielefeld University
  • 01/2026 | Do modal particles improve extraction from factive islands in German? | Poster | at ConSOLE34, University School for Advanced Studies IUSS Pavia

Academic service

  • BieLeiCoS2025
  • ConSOLE33
  • CCD
  • 10/2025 | CCD: Cross-clausal Dependencies | together with Anke Himmelreich, Jutta M. Hartmann, András Bárány, Szilvia Daczó
  • 05/2025 | BieLeiCoS 2025: Bielefeld Leiden Comparative Syntax Conference 2025 | together with Jutta M. Hartmann, Anke Himmelreich, Mary Amaechi, Szilvia Daczó, Shravani Patil
  • 05/2025 | LinCreGG: Linguistic Creativity in Generative Grammar | together with: Jutta M. Hartmann, András Bárány, Anke Himmelreich, Szilvia Daczó :::