Publications
2024. English Middles and Implicit Arguments. To appear in Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics. [Download pre-publication draft and Appendix (revised February 6, 2024)].
2022. Selectional Violations in Coordination (A Response to Patejuk and Przepiorkowski to appear). To appear in Linguistic Inquiry.[Download final pre-publication draft].
2022. Hebrew Nominals Do Not Require Functional Structure above the NP. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 7(1). DOI: [https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5763] .
2022. Locative Inversion, PP Topicalization, and Weak Crossover in English. Journal of Linguistics 58: 739--757. DOI: [https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022226721000414]. [Download pre-publication draft] (10/24/2021).
2021. Generalizing the Presuppositional Approach to the Binding Conditions. Syntax 24: 417--461. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/synt.12221. [Download pre-publication draft] (8/15/2020).
2021. Implicit Arguments in English Double Object Constructions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 39: 1023--1085. [Download pre-publication draft] (10/3/2020).
2020. The Head of the Nominal is N, Not D: N-to-D Movement, Hybrid Agreement, and Conventionalized Expressions. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics 5(1): 15. 1--19. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.1031.
2020. Benjamin Bruening and Eman Al Khalaf, Category Mismatches in Coordination Revisited. Linguistic Inquiry 51: 1--36.
2020. Idioms, Collocations, and Structure: Syntactic Constraints on Conventionalized Expressions. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 38: 365--424.
2019. Passive Do So. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 37: 1--49.
2019. Benjamin Bruening and Eman Al Khalaf. No Argument-Adjunct Asymmetry in Reconstruction for Binding Condition C. Journal of Linguistics 55: 247-276.
2018. Non-Local Allomorphy in Passamaquoddy-Maliseet. To appear in a special issue of Snippets.[Download final pre-publication draft].
2018. Word Formation is Syntactic: Raising in Nominalizations. Glossa 3: 102.
2018. CPs Move Rightward, Not Leftward. Syntax 21(4): 362--401.
2018. Depictive Secondary Predicates and Small Clause Approaches to Argument Structure. Linguistic Inquiry 49(3): 537--559.
2018. Double Object Constructions and Prepositional Dative Constructions are Distinct: A Reply to Ormazabal and Romero. Linguistic Inquiry 49: 123--150.
2018. Benjamin Bruening, Xuyen Dinh, and Lan Kim, Selection, Idioms, and the Structure of Nominal Phrases with and without Classifiers. Glossa 3: 1--46. DOI http://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.288; download Appendix A: Korean Data; download Appendix B: Vietnamese Data]
2018. The Lexicalist Hypothesis: Both Wrong and Superfluous. Language 49: 1-42. (Winner of the Best Paper in Language Award 2018.)
2017. Subject Auxiliary Inversion. In Martin Everaert and Henk van Riemsdijk (eds.), The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Syntax, Second Edition, Volume VII, pages 4250--4277. Somerset, NJ: John Wiley and Sons.
2017. Syntactic Constraints on Idioms (Do Not Include Locality). In Claire Halpert, Hadas Kotek, and Coppe van Urk (eds.), A Pesky Set: Papers for David Pesetsky. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [Download final pre-publication version]
2016. Alignment in Syntax: Quotative Inversion in English. Syntax 19:111--155.
2016. Bruening, Benjamin and Eman Al Khalaf. Linear Effects in ATB Movement. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America, Volume 1. Article 10:1--6. [Available at http://journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/index.php/PLSA/issue/view/152].
2015. Light Verbs Are Just Regular Verbs. U.~Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 22.1: Proceedings of the 39th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium. [Available at http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol22/iss1/].
2015. The Nature of the Passive, with an Analysis of Vietnamese (with Thuan Tran, Universitaet Potsdam). Lingua 165: 133-172.
2015. Non-Constituent Coordination: Prosody, Not Movement. U.~Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 21.1: Proceedings of the 38th Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium. Available at http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol21/iss1/.
2014. Defects of Defective Intervention. Linguistic Inquiry. 45: 707--719.
2014. Precede-and-Command Revisited. Language 90: 342--388. Available at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/language/toc/lan.90.2.html.
2014. Word Formation is Syntactic: Adjectival Passives in English. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 32: 363-422.
2013. Wh-Phrases as Indefinites: A Vietnamese Perspective. With Thuan Tran (Potsdam University). In Daniel Hole and Elisabeth Loebel (eds.), Linguistics of Vietnamese: An International Survey. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 217--241. [Download final pre-publication draft] (10/2010).
2013. By-Phrases in Passives and Nominals. Syntax 16: 1--41.
2012. Affected Experiencers. With Solveig Bosse and Masahiro Yamada (University of Delaware). Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 30: 1185--1230.
2011. Benefactive Versus Experiencer Datives. With Solveig Bosse (University of Delaware). In the Proceedings of the 28th West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project, 69--77. Available at the Cascadilla Proceedings Project.
2010. Ditransitive Asymmetries and a Theory of Idiom Formation. Linguistic Inquiry 41: 519--562.
2010. Language-Particular Syntactic Rules and Constraints: English Locative Inversion and Do-Support. Language 86: 43--84.
2010. Double Object Constructions Disguised as Prepositional Datives. Linguistic Inquiry 41: 287--305.
2010. Review of Gillian Catriona Ramchand, Verb Meaning and the Lexion: A First-Phase Syntax. Journal of Linguistics 46: 260--270.
2009. Algonquian Languages Have A-Movement and A-Agreement. Linguistic Inquiry 40: 427--445.
2009. Selectional Asymmetries between CP and DP Suggest that the DP Hypothesis is Wrong. In L. MacKenzie (ed.), U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 15.1: Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Penn Linguistics Colloquium, 26--35. Available at http://repository.upenn.edu/pwpl/vol15/iss1/
2008. Affected Arguments Cross-Linguistically. With Solveig Bosse, MaryEllen Cathcart, Anne E. Peng, and Masahiro Yamada (University of Delaware). In M. Tadi\'{c}, M. Dimitrova-Vulchanova, and S. Koeva (eds.), Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Formal Approaches to South Slavic and Balkan Languages. Zagreb: Croatian Language Technologies Society, 41--47.
2008. Quantification in Passamaquoddy. In Lisa Matthewson (Ed.), Quantification: A Cross-Linguistic Perspective. Emerald: 67--103. [Download PDF]
2007. Wh-in-Situ Does Not Correlate with Wh-Indefinites or Question Particles. Linguistic Inquiry 38: 139--166. (Correction to page 159: Kashmiri is incorrectly described as a wh-in-situ language; it is actually a wh-movement language.)
2006. Wh-conditionals in Vietnamese and Chinese: Against Unselective Binding. With Thuan Tran (University of Delaware and University of California, San Diego). In Proceedings of BLS 32, 49--60. [Download PDF]
2006. Differences Between the Wh-Scope-Marking and Wh-Copy Constructions in Passamaquoddy. Linguistic Inquiry 37(1):25--49.
2006. Wh-Questions in Vietnamese. With Thuan Tran (University of Delaware). Journal of East Asian Linguistics 15(4): 319--341.
2004. Verbal Reciprocals. In T. Solstad, B. Lyngfelt, and M. F. Krave (eds.), Demoting the Agent: Proceedings of the Oslo Workshop on Passive and Other Voice-Related Phenomena. Oslo: University of Oslo, 3--12. [Download PDF] (The unpublished 2006 ms. on the downloads page is a much longer version of this paper.)
2004. Two Types of Wh-Scope Marking in Passamaquoddy. Natural Language and Linguistic Theory 22: 229-305.
2001. Syntax at the Edge: Cross-Clausal Phenomena and the Syntax of Passamaquoddy. Ph.D. dissertation, MIT. Distributed by MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.
2001. QR Obeys Superiority: ACD and Frozen Scope. Linguistic Inquiry 32(2):233-273. Important corrections:
- The observation that scope freezing is not absolute but relative should have been credited to Larson (1990, Linguistic Inquiry 21: 589--632, footnote 10).
- Frozen scope in ditransitives was first observed by David Lebeaux, according to Larson 1990. Schneider-Zioga (1988) observed that it also holds in the spray-load class of verbs. The article incorrectly attributes the latter observation to Lebeaux (page 234).
- The position that frozen scope results from an inability of the second object to move should not have been attributed to Larson (1988, 1990) on page 234. Larson 1990 (footnote 10 again) explicitly says that he has no account of the phenomenon.
2001. Configurationality and Object Shift in Algonquian. With Andrea Rackowski. In Proceedings of the Workshop on Structure and Constituency in the Languages of the Americas. Vancouver: UBCWPL, 71-83.
2001. Constraints on Dependencies in Passamaquoddy. In Papers of the 32nd Algonquian Conference. Winnipeg: The University of Manitoba.
2001. Discontinuous QPs and LF Interference Effects. With Vivian Lin (MIT). In Proceedings of SULA: The Semantics of Under-represented Languages of the Americas. UMOP 25. Amherst, Mass.: GLSA.
2001. An MEG Study of Tone Processing Asymmetries in English versus Mandarin Speakers. With Vivian Lin and Elissa Flagg (MIT). In Proceedings of NELS 31. Amherst, Mass.: GLSA, 42--56.
1999. Review of the Phonology 2000 Symposium. GLOT International 6(2).
1999. Karlos Arregi, Benjamin Bruening, Cornelia Krause, and Vivian Lin, eds., MIT Working Papers in Linguistics vol. 33, Papers on Morphology and Syntax, Cycle One. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [TOC]
1999. Vivian Lin, Cornelia Krause, Benjamin Bruening, and Karlos Arregi, eds., MIT Working Papers in Linguistics vol. 34, Papers on Morphology and Syntax, Cycle Two. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.[ TOC]
1997. Editor, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics vol. 31, Proceedings of the Eighth Student Conference in Linguistics. (SCIL 8 held May 1996 at NYU.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [ TOC]
1997. Editor, with Martha McGinnis and Yoonjung Kang, MIT Working Papers in Linguistics vol. 30, PF: Papers at the Interface. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics. [ TOC]
1997. What are Secondary Predicates? Evaluating the Syntax of Adjunction. In Proceedings of the North West Linguistics Conference. University of British Columbia Linguistics Department.
1997. Abkhaz-Mabkhaz: M-Reduplication in Abkhaz, Weightless Syllables, and Base-Reduplicant Correspondence. In B. Bruening, M. McGinnis, and Y. Kang (Eds.), PF: Papers at the Interface. MIT Working Papers in Linguistics vol. 30. Cambridge, MA: MIT Working Papers in Linguistics.