Rate My Professor Tom Wasow

Wasow's scholarly work centers on syntax, psycholinguistics, and the relationship between linguistic competence and performance in language use. He has made significant contributions to Head-driven Phrase Structure Grammar (HPSG) and empirical studies of syntactic variation, including word order, heavy NP shift, verb-particle constructions, and ambiguity resolution. Among his major publications are the influential textbook Syntactic Theory: A Formal Introduction, second edition (with Ivan A. Sag and Emily Bender, CSLI Publications, 2003); Postverbal Behavior (CSLI Publications, 2002); "Processing" and "The Evolution of HPSG" (in HPSG – A Handbook, Language Science Press, 2021, with co-authors); "Lessons from the (English) Auxiliary System" (Journal of Linguistics, 2018, with Sag et al.); "Flexible Processing and the Design of Grammar" (Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 2015, with Sag); "Ambiguity Avoidance is Overrated" (in Ambiguity: Language and Communication, 2015); "Lexical Variation in Relativizer Frequency" (2011); and "Intensive and Quotative ALL: Something Old, Something New" (American Speech, 2007, with Rickford et al.). In recognition of his impact, a festschrift titled Language from a Cognitive Perspective: Grammar, Usage and Processing was published in his honor (CSLI Publications). Wasow's research integrates theoretical modeling with corpus-based and experimental data, influencing contemporary debates in generative grammar and usage-based linguistics.