Alexandru Nicolae

@lingv.ro

Department of Grammar
"Iorgu Iordan - Al. Rosetti" Institute of Linguistics, Romanian Academy

Alexandru Nicolae


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https://researchid.co/alexandrunicolae
Alexandru Nicolae is interested in the morphosyntactic structure and development of Romanian from a comparative and diachronic Romance perspective. He published a single-author monograph on word order and parameter change in Romanian, devoted to the verbal domain (Ordinea constituenților în limba română, Bucharest University Press, 2015) and an extended variant of this book for Oxford Studies in Diachronic and Historical Linguistics (Word order and Parameter Change in Romanian, Oxford University Press, 2019), contributed as a co-author to major reference works such as The Oxford Guide to the Romance Languages (OUP, 2016), The Syntax of Old Romanian (OUP, 2016), The Grammar of Romanian (OUP, 2013), and Gramatica de bază a limbii române (Univers Enciclopedic Gold, 2010, 2016) and co-edited several collective volumes with Romanian and international publishers. In 2012 Alexandru Nicolae was awarded the “Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu” Prize of the Romanian Academy.

EDUCATION

2020/2021 Habilitation (Theory and Method in Comparative Syntax)
2013: PhD, Linguistics (Faculty of Letters & University of Cambridge, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages; joint degree – cotutelle): Types of Ellipsis in Romanian. The interpretation of structures containing ellipsis sites and the syntactic licensing of ellipsis
2008-2010: MA, Advanced studies in linguistics, University of Bucharest
2005-2008: BA, Romanian language and literature - English language and literature, University of Bucharest
**
2012: Visiting PhD Student; Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics, Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages, University of Cambridge
2008: Erasmus Mobility; Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Maastricht (Hogeschool Zuyd, Maastricht), The Netherlands, Department: Language and Communication

RESEARCH, TEACHING, or OTHER INTERESTS

Language and Linguistics, Arts and Humanities, History
22

Scopus Publications

1355

Scholar Citations

15

Scholar h-index

25

Scholar i10-index

Scopus Publications

  • EDITORS’ INTRODUCTION
    Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae, and
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2023
  • TWO CONVERGENT EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE CONTACT IN ROMANIAN: THE RELATIVE PRONOUN CINE ‘WHO’
    Adnana Boioc Apintei, Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae, and
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2023
    This paper focuses on a construction attested in Old Romanian and Lipovan Romanian, but unavailable in standard Modern Romanian: the use of cine ‘who’ as a relative pronoun in headed relative clauses. We put forth the hypothesis that this structure is an effect of language contact. In particular, the interrogative cine ‘who’ acquired its relative value and the possibility to be used in headed relative clauses by grammatical replication of the Old Church Slavonic equivalent, respectively of the Russian equivalent. Although the two scenarios appear to be similar, the two varieties followed two distinct diachronic paths.
  • ADJECTIVES IN ISTRO-ROMANIAN. ON THE INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE CONTACT ON WORD ORDER
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2022
  • The loss of analyticity in the history of Romanian verbal morphology
    Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae, Rodica Zafiu
    Periphrasis and Inflexion in Diachrony A View from Romance, 2022
    This chapter investigates the relation between syntheticity and analyticity in the history of Romanian. Empirically, we note that, against the traditional hypothesis that in the passage from Latin to Romance older synthetic forms were extensively replaced by novel analytic formations, there is a set of old Romanian periphrastic constructions which disappeared in the passage to modern Romanian, and our goal is to provide an explanation for this less frequent linguistic change. By bringing to the fore data from old and modern Romanian, as well as dialectal Daco-Romanian material, we show that the facts are best explained by appealing to structural factors (the feature matrix of Romanian auxiliaries) rather than functional factors (competition between functionally equivalent forms, their learnèd nature, or rare occurrence in usage).
  • Romance and croatian in contact: Non-clitic auxiliaries in istro-romanian
    Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Languages, 2021
    This paper focuses on Istro-Romanian and argues that the TAM auxiliaries of this variety are not morphophonological clitics. This analysis is supported by the existence of several empirical phenomena (auxiliary-licensed VP-ellipsis, scrambling, and interpolation), some not found in modern Romance, others very rare in modern Romance. This property of Istro-Romanian auxiliary verbs accounts, in conjunction with other features of this variety (e.g., the availability of C-oriented and I-oriented pronominal clitics), for the massive variation in the word order of pronominal clitics, auxiliaries, and the lexical verb found in the Istro-Romanian sentential core. An endangered Romance variety spoken in Istria and in the diaspora, historically related to (Daco-)Romanian, Istro-Romanian has been in contact with Croatian since the settlement of Istro-Romanians in the Istrian peninsula. As some of the Istro-Romanian features and phenomena are found both in Croatian and in old Romanian, it appears that contact with Croatian acts as a catalyst of structural convergence engendering the retention of an archaic property of Istro-Romanian auxiliaries: a lower position on the grammaticalization cline, closer to the full word status of their etyma.
  • EDITORS' INTRODUCTION
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2021
  • Introduction
    Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 2021
  • On a Class of Figure Reflexives in Romanian: Ion se spală pe mâini ‘John washes his hands’
    Alexandra Cornilescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 2021
  • A debate on Universal Morphology
    Roberta D'Alessandro, Ángel Gallego, Alexandru Nicolae, María Carme Parafita Couto, Diego Pescarini, et al.
    Isogloss, 2021
    This debate stems from Michal Starke’s keynote lecture at NELS 51, entitled “UM. Universal Morphology”. The video can be found at this link: https://michal.starke.ch/talks/2020-11_nels/nels_starke.mp4. In his talk, Starke sketches a nanosyntactic analysis of French irregular verbs, with the aim of showing that irregularities in French verbal paradigms (and in general) are only apparent. We asked some prominent morphologists and morpho-syntacticians to comment on and provide replies to Starke’s proposal and arguments. Subsequently, the author wrote a reply to these comments. You can find them all here. We wish to thank the NELS 51 organizing committee for allowing us to use the talk as a starting point for the debate, Michal Starke for his availability, and the linguists who agreed to engage in this interesting and fruitful exchange. This keynote debate celebrates the first year of the new Isogloss, in the hope of having more occasions to host discussions like this one.
  • From Motion to Desire: The Grammaticalization of a Change of Location Unaccusative Construction in Romanian
    Adina Dragomirescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Probus, 2020
    This paper documents the steps and analyses the processes by which a concrete change of location unaccusative construction based on a venitive verb grammaticalizes in Romanian as a modal construction exhibiting a variety of desiderative meanings, the most prominent of which is the urge-type of desiderative meaning. This diachronic change is atypical: the venitive verb underwent desemanticization but does not show any detectable morphophonological erosion or decategorialization. Furthermore, the desiderative meaning arises only when the venitive verb is accompanied by a dative clitic (originally, a goal of motion) and a subjunctive CP.
  • Grammaticalization as pattern formation: Romanian auxiliaries from a diachronic romance perspective
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2020
  • Constraints on aspectual complement ellipsis. The view from Romanian
    Alexandru Nicolae
    Linguistic Review, 2016
  • Romanian adjectives at the syntax-semantics interface
    Alexandra Cornilescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Acta Linguistica Hungarica, 2016
  • The parameter of definiteness in romanian: Diachronic and synchronic evidence
    Alexandru Nicolae
    Formal Approaches to Dps in Old Romanian, 2015
  • Classified proper names in old Romanian: Person and definiteness
    Alexandra Cornilescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Formal Approaches to Dps in Old Romanian, 2015
  • The Parameter of Definiteness in Romanian: Diachronic and Synchronic Evidence
    Alexandru Nicolae
    Brill S Studies in Historical Linguistics, 2015
  • On the syntactic specialization of Romanian demonstratives and the grammaticalization of the article CEL
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2015
  • Classified Proper Names in Old Romanian: Person and Definiteness
    Alexandra Cornilescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Brill S Studies in Historical Linguistics, 2015
  • Pronominal clitics in old romanian: The tobler-mussafia law
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2015
  • Notes on the measure phrase in the nominal and adjectival phrase
    Studii Si Cercetari Lingvistice, 2014
  • Nominal ellipsis as definiteness and anaphoricity: The case of Romanian
    Alexandra Cornilescu, Alexandru Nicolae
    Lingua, 2012
  • Nominal peripheries and phase structure in the Romanian DP
    Revue Roumaine De Linguistique, 2011

RECENT SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • On Tense, Aspect and Genericity in English and Romanian: Insights from Language Acquisition
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Vocaţia gândirii: în onoarea academicianului Mircea Dumitru, 213-250 , 2025
    2025
  • Are cine analiza? Sintaxa relativei infinitivale
    A Nicolae
    Variație sintactică în româna actuală, 153-186 , 2025
    2025
  • Tipuri de comparații în sintaxa comparată
    A Nicolae
    Studii și cercetări lingvistice 76 (2), 175-192 , 2025
    2025
  • The values of Romanian se
    A Nicolae
    2024
  • From “unpleasant” words to intensifiers in present-day Romanian
    R Brăescu, A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae, I Paraschiv Nicula
    Romanian Studies Today 8 (1), 49–75 , 2024
    2024
  • Îndreptar ortografic, ortoepic, morfologic și de punctuație (ed.
    G Pană Dindelegan, C Aranghelovici, A Boioc Apintei, R Brăescu, ...
    2024
  • CONFERINȚELE CURSURILOR DE VARĂ DE LIMBA ROMÂNĂ, CULTURĂ ȘI CIVILIZAȚIE ROMÂNEASCĂ ALE UNIVERSITĂȚII DIN BUCUREȘTI
    I GEANĂ, A NICOLAE
    2023
  • TWO CONVERGENT EFFECTS OF LANGUAGE CONTACT IN ROMANIAN: THE RELATIVE PRONOUN CINE ‘WHO’
    AB Apintei, A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae
    REVUE ROUMAINE DE LINGUISTIQUE-ROMANIAN REVIEW OF LINGUISTICS 68 (1-2), 73-85 , 2023
    2023
  • Dicționar de termeni gramaticali și concepte lingvistice conexe
    G Pană Dindelegan, R Zafiu, A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae, A Boioc Apintei
    2023
    Citations: 17
  • The Cambridge handbook of Romance linguistics
    A Ledgeway, M Maiden
    Cambridge University Press , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 11
  • Adjectives in Istro-Romanian. On the influence of language contact on word order
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae
    Revue roumaine de linguistique 67 (2-3), 237-251 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 2
  • Complex predicates
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae, G Pană Dindelegan
    The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics, 571-603 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 23
  • A Life in Linguistics: A Festschrift for Alexandra Cornilescu on her 75th Birthday
    G Alboiu, D Isac, A Nicolae
    Editura Universității din București-Bucharest University Press , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 1
  • The loss of analyticity in the history of Romanian verbal morphology
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae, R Zafiu
    Ledgeway et al.(2022). https://doi. org/10.1093/oso/9780198870807.003 10 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 6
  • Romance languages and linguistic theory 2017: selected papers from'Going Romance'31, Bucharest
    A Nicolae, A Dragomirescu
    John Benjamins Publishing Company , 2021
    2021
  • A debate on Universal Morphology
    A Nicolae, MCP Couto, R D'Alessandro, AJG Bartolomé, M Sheehan, ...
    Isogloss 7, 1 , 2021
    2021
  • Romance and Croatian in Contact: Non-Clitic Auxiliaries in Istro-Romanian
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae
    Languages 6 (187) , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 6
  • On a Class of Figure Reflexives in Romanian: Ion se spală pe mâini ‘John washes his hands’
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Unraveling the complexity of SE, 187-218 , 2021
    2021
    Citations: 1
  • A debate on a Universal Morphology
    R D'Alessandro, Á Gallego, A Nicolae, MCP Couto, D Pescarini, A Pineda, ...
    Issogloss: A Journal on Variation of Romance and Iberian Languages 7, 1 , 2021
    2021
  • O gramatică a limbii române altfel
    R Brăescu, B Croitor, A Dinică, A Dragomirescu, M Gheorghe, ...
    2021

MOST CITED SCHOLAR PUBLICATIONS

  • The grammar of Romanian
    GP Dindelegan, M Maiden
    Oxford University Press , 2013
    2013
    Citations: 252
  • Gramatica de bază a limbii române
    A Dragomirescu, I Nedelcu, A Nicolae, G Pană Dindelegan, ...
    Univers Enciclopedic Gold , 2010
    2010
    Citations: 146
  • The syntax of old Romanian
    GP Dindelegan, M Maiden
    Oxford University Press , 2016
    2016
    Citations: 96
  • Word Order and Parameter Change in Romanian: A Comparative Romance Perspective
    A Nicolae
    2019
    Citations: 58
  • On the syntax of Romanian definite phrases
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    The noun phrase in Romance and Germanic, 34 , 2011
    2011
    Citations: 57
  • Ordinea constituenților în limba română: o perspectivă diacronică. Structura propoziției și deplasarea verbului [Engl. title: Word order in Romanian: a diachronic perspective …
    A Nicolae
    Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti , 2015
    2015
    Citations: 55
  • Nominal peripheries and phase structure in the Romanian DP
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Revue roumaine de linguistique 56 (1), 35-68 , 2011
    2011
    Citations: 54
  • The multiple grammaticalization of Romanian veni ‘come’. Focusing on the passive construction
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae
    Come and go off the beaten grammaticalization path, 69-100 , 2014
    2014
    Citations: 52
  • Nominal ellipsis as definiteness and anaphoricity: The case of Romanian
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Lingua 122 (10), 1070-1111 , 2012
    2012
    Citations: 48
  • 101 greşeli de lexic şi de semantică. Cuvinte şi sensuri în mişcare
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae
    2011
    Citations: 34
  • The Licensing of Nominal and Verbal Ellipsis in Romanian
    A Nicolae
    2019
    Citations: 33
  • Complex predicates
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae, G Pană Dindelegan
    The Cambridge Handbook of Romance Linguistics, 571-603 , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 23
  • Romanian adjectives at the syntax-semantics interface
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Acta Linguistica Hungarica 63 (2), 197-240 , 2016
    2016
    Citations: 21
  • The Grammaticalization of a Constraint on Passive Reflexive Constructions in Romanian
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Diachronic Variation in Romanian, 309-361 , 2015
    2015
    Citations: 21
  • Dicționar de termeni gramaticali și concepte lingvistice conexe
    G Pană Dindelegan, R Zafiu, A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae, A Boioc Apintei
    2023
    Citations: 17
  • Syntactic archaisms preserved in a contemporary Romance variety: Interpolation and scrambling in old Romanian and Istro-Romanian
    A Dragomirescu, A Nicolae
    Comparative and Diachronic Perspectives on Romance Syntax. Edited by … , 2018
    2018
    Citations: 14
  • Pronominal Clitics: Clitic Ordering, Clitic Clusters
    A Nicolae, D Niculescu
    The Syntax of Old Romanian, 52-70 , 2016
    2016
    Citations: 13
  • Evoluţia articolului hotărât şi genitivul în româna veche
    A Cornilescu, A Nicolae
    Limba română: teme actuale, 647-669 , 2009
    2009
    Citations: 12
  • The Cambridge handbook of Romance linguistics
    A Ledgeway, M Maiden
    Cambridge University Press , 2022
    2022
    Citations: 11
  • Notă de sintaxă comparată: parametrul [+ definit] în sintaxa grupului nominal românesc
    A Nicolae
    Limba română 62 (2), 186-209 , 2013
    2013
    Citations: 11