Dan Brodkin
I'm a Postdoctoral Fellow in Syntax at the University of Pennsylvania. My research is centered around syntax and prosody, with an empirical focus on Mandar (Austronesian). I believe that careful work on lesser-studied languages can shed light on the most fundamental questions in generative theory.
My research program investigates the emergence of A-like locality restrictions around low A'-movement. In earlier work, I have defended an ergative analysis of the Austronesian voice system in Mandar, argued that vocabulary insertion must occur in a global and parallel phonological evaluation, built an analysis of Mandar clause structure from the facts of prosodic phrasing, and documented a case of phonological displacement to the intonational phrase edge.
An important part of my career involves supporting linguistics in Indonesia. I have built relationships with local departments, given talks on the value of generative work, prepared workshops for language documentation offices, advised undergraduates, collaborated with local linguists, and served as an external committee member on theses in the field.
I completed my PhD at UCSC in 2025. Thesis here.
The searchable Mandar corpus is here.
Contact: ddbrodki (at) ucsc (dot) edu
