Fellow in Linguistics — Trinity College Dublin
Thomas
Stephen
Formal semanticist working on the meaning of clauses, the syntax–semantics interface, and where grammar meets thought.
AboutBio & research focus
I completed my PhD in Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh in 2023, under the supervision of Robert Truswell, Bryan Pickel, and Wataru Uegaki. Before taking up a fellowship at Trinity College Dublin, I was a Lecturer in Semantics at Queen Mary University of London.
My work focuses on formal semantics, with particular attention to the syntax–semantics interface, the connections between linguistic theory and philosophy of language, and the relationship between grammar and cognition. I explore the semantics of finite clausal embedding and argument structure, aiming to give a unified explanation of their entailment patterns and alternations.
I am developing DACE (the Dictionary of Alternations in Clause Embedding), an online resource mapping the alternation patterns of clause-embedding predicates, initially with a focus on English.
I am also currently interested in the mechanistic interpretation of LLMs and, together with Fausto Carcassi, in the evolution of compositionality in natural languages.
Sometimes I walk up tall hills.
Research keywords
Doctoral supervision
ResearchCurrent projects
My research gives a formally explicit account of how clauses contribute to meaning — joining the syntax–semantics interface to the philosophy of language and the study of cognition.
DACE
The Dictionary of Alternations in Clause Embedding — an online resource mapping the alternation patterns of clause-embedding predicates, beginning with English.
Clausal embedding
A unified account of the entailment patterns and alternations of finite clausal embedding and argument structure at the syntax–semantics interface.
Evolution of compositionality
With Fausto Carcassi — explaining the observed inventory of composition operations in natural language and the universals that constrain it.
Mechanistic interpretation of LLMs
Bringing tools from formal semantics to bear on how large language models internally represent and compose meaning.
TeachingCourses, summer school & supervision
Undergraduate
- Semantics I
- Semantics II
- Semantics III
- Pragmatics I
- Pragmatics II
Postgraduate
- Linguistic Pragmatics
- Describing Meaning
11-Week In-depth
- Scalar Implicature
- Presuppositions
- Model Theory & Indirect Semantics
- Modality
Undergraduate
- Introduction to Semantics
- Syntax II
- Meaning in the Real World
Postgraduate
- Formal Semantics
- Research Practicum
UG — as Lecturer
- Logic 1
- Puzzles and Paradoxes
UG — as Tutor
- Logic 1
- Mind, Matter, and Language
- LEL 1A
- LEL 1B
PG — as Tutor
- Introduction to Syntax
- Semantic Theory
The Function of Composition
An introduction to the formal tools and theoretical background for formulating and addressing questions about universals of the composition function in natural language — surveying the empirical landscape, describing composition as a single operation on meanings, introducing richer type theories, and formulating universals that constrain the observed variation (function application, type shifting, predicate modification, event identification, restriction, and intensional variants).
Supervision
ResourcesTeaching materials & demos
A Game for Modal Logics
A game for building intuitions about necessity, possibility, and the accessibility relations between possible worlds — used in Semantics III.
Open PDF ↗Lambda Calculus — Exercises
Exercise files for Lambda Calculator, by Lucas Champollion, Josh Tauberer & Maribel Romero.
Talks & PresentationsSelected, reverse chronological
Research assistant
- University of Göttingen
- Norwegian University of Science & Technology
Reviewer
- Oxford University Press
- Amsterdam Colloquium
- Western Canadian Philosophy Association
Curriculum VitaeFull academic record
A complete record of education, positions, teaching, and presentations.
Download CV ↗ContactGet in touch
School of Linguistic, Speech & Communication Sciences, Trinity College Dublin.