Mark Baker is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. He received his Ph.D. in Linguistics in 1985 from MIT. He specializes in the syntax and morphology of less-studied languages, particularly Native American languages (Mohawk, Mapudungun, Winnebago) and African languages (Edo, Chichewa, Nupe, Kinande, Lokaa). His goal is to bring together generative-style theorizing and fieldwork-style data in a way that deepens and illuminates both. He is the author of three technical research books (Incorporation: A Theory of Grammatical Function Changing (1988, University of Chicago Press), The Polysynthesis Parameter (1996, Oxford University Press) and Lexical Categories: Verbs, Nouns, and Adjectives (2003, Cambridge University Press)), as well as various research articles. He has also written one book for a popular audience that tries to communicate the fun and interest of linguistic research to people outside the discipline (The Atoms of Language (2001, Basic Books)).

Syntactic Categories: Formal and Functionalist Approaches | LSA.127
with William Croft
TR 4:50-6:30
Three Week Course | First Session

The Syntax of Agreement | LSA.131
TR 8:15-9:55
Three Week Course | First Session