Jason Grafmiller

Lexical semantics and syntax: Esp. the role of animacy, agency, and other properties in argument realization and transitivity alternations
Syntactic variation: e.g. construction alternations, "end-weight" effects, and stylistic variation in the English genitive construction
Case alternation and anaphoric reference in Finnish
The use of experimental and corpus methods in the investigation of syntactic and semantic variation in general

My dissertation is a usage-based analysis of English psychological verbs, exploring how the interaction of semantic and contextual factors gives rise to patterns in preferences for active or passive use, the selection of preposition complements and the use with agentive subjects. I argue that the varying behavior of different verbs with stative and/or agentive uses follows from the nature of the emotions the verbs describe. I provide independent support through experimental studies of folk emotion concepts.
End weight effects on constituent order in English dative and genitive constructions (with Stephanie Shih)
The interaction of semantic and other cognitive factors in stylistic variation in the English genitive construction
Sociolinguistic fieldwork on dialects of California English, as part of the Voices of Califonia project aimed at understanding the diversity of life and language across the state of California.

"Modeling verb meaning with corpus data: A usage-based investigation of argument realization in English psych-verbs". American Association for Corpus Linguistics, San Diego, CA. January 18-20. (abstract.pdf)
"Object-Experiencer Verbs as True Transitive Verbs". Poster at the 87th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Boston, MA. January 5. (poster.pdf)

In prep. The Semantics of Syntactic Choice: An analysis of English emotion verbs. Ph.D. Thesis, Stanford University.
To Appear. Levin, Beth and Jason Grafmiller. "Do you always fear what frightens you?". From Quirky Case to Representing Space. King, T. H. and V. de Paiva (eds). (manuscript.pdf)
Forthcoming. "Variation in English genitives across modality and genres." English Language and Linguistics.
To Appear. Shih, Stephanie, Jason Grafmiller, Richard Futrell, and Joan Bresnan. "Rhythm's role in genitive construction choice in spoken English." Rhythm in Phonetics, Grammar, and Cognition. Vogel, R. and R. van de Vijver (eds). (manuscript.pdf)
In prep (with Stephanie Shih) "Weighing in on end weight." (abstract.pdf)
2010. "Non-structural influences on binding in Finnish possessives." MS.

2012. Grafmiller, Jason. "On the status of agentivity in experiencer-object verbs". Agents and causes: Interdisciplinary aspects in mind, language and culture, Bielefeld, Germany. March 22.(slides.pdf)
2012. Grafmiller, Jason. "On the status of agentivity in the semantics of experiencer-object verbs". The 13th Annual Semantics Fest, Stanford, CA. March 16.
2012. "Agency is inferred in causal events: evidence from object experiencer verbs." Poster at the 86th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Portland, OR. January 6. (poster.pdf)
2011. "New approaches to end weight". Variation and Typology: New Trends in Syntactic Research, Helsinki. August 26. (handout)
2011. (with Stephanie Shih) "Weighing in on end weight". The Crosslinguistic Investigation of Syntactic Alternations Workshop, Stanford, CA. March 28.
2011. "Non-structural influences on binding in Finnish Possessives". The 85th Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America, Pittsburg, PA. January.
2011. (with Stephanie Shih) "Weighing in on end weight".
2010. "Variation in English Genitives Across Modality and Genre". The 7th Annual QP Fest, Stanford University. May 14.