Jérémy Pasquereau

About

I am a linguist working on semantics and morphosyntax, mainly in understudied languages with rich morphology, such as Seri (Mexico) and languages of the Caucasus.

I am particularly interested in what morphology reveals about how meanings are composed, both where form and meaning line up and where they seem to come apart. I am also interested in refining and developing methods for eliciting and interpreting speakers' judgments.

I am a CNRS research scientist at the Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes and a visiting researcher in the Surrey Morphology Group. I did my PhD at UMass Amherst.

Publications

Papers on HALOpen-access versions of many of these papers.

• In pressPluractionality and frequentativity (with Robert Henderson). In S. Cable, T. Ogihara & K. Zagona (eds.), Handbook of Temporality in Language. Cambridge University Press. Chapter
• To appearKarata. In Y. Koryakov & T. Maisak (eds.), Languages of the Caucasus, vol. 2. Mouton de Gruyter. Chapter
• SubmittedInflection class proliferation as a consequence of feature expansion (with Matthew Baerman and Helen Sims-Williams). Journal
• SubmittedAdaptive analogy in Word-and-Paradigm morphology (with Matthew Baerman and Helen Sims-Williams). Journal
• SubmittedThe inner syntax of nominalizations in Svan and Georgian (with Martha McGinnis, Tamar Makharoblidze, Ketevan Margiani and Léa Nash). Glossa, special issue. Journal
• In prep.Verbal pluractionality in Seri (with Patricia Cabredo Hofherr). Journal
• 2025TripleA 11: Proceedings of the eleventh conference on the semantics of under-represented languages of Africa, Asia and Australia (edited with Aurore Gonzalez). Edited volume
• 2024Quantification at a distance and grammatical illusions (with Brian Dillon and Lyn Frazier). Syntax. Journal
• 2022Dependent pluractionality in Piipaash (Yuman) (with Robert Henderson and John Powell). Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 26, 396–412. Proceedings
• 2022Distributivity in Seri verbs and nouns as cross-categorial pluractionality (with Matthew Baerman and Carolyn O'Meara). Proceedings of NELS 52. Proceedings
• 2022Two types of pluractionality in Seri (with Patricia Cabredo Hofherr). Proceedings of SULA 11. Proceedings
• 2022Semantic elicitation in the field: On managing data and conducting sessions. Semantic Fieldwork Methods 4(1). Journal
• 2022Collecting semantic data: A sample of individual practices. Special issue of Semantic Fieldwork Methods (edited with Lisa Matthewson). Edited volume
• 2021A unique operator for verbal pluractionality and numeral distributivity. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 25. Proceedings
• 2020Polar response particles as remnants of ellipsis. Glossa. Journal
• 2020French polar response particles and neg-movement. Natural Language Semantics. Journal
• 2020Using semantics to probe paradigm structure: The case of multiple event marking in Seri (with Patricia Cabredo Hofherr). Lingue e Linguaggio 19(1), 35–60. Journal
• 2020Adverbial responses to quantified utterances. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 24. Proceedings
• 2018Phonological degrees of labiality. Language 94(4), e216–e265. Journal
• 2018Event plurality in Seri (with Patricia Cabredo Hofherr and Carolyn O'Meara). Proceedings of SULA 10, 1–15. Proceedings
• 2018For an overt movement analysis of comparison at a distance in French. In J. Berns, H. Jacobs & D. Nouveau (eds.), Romance Languages and Linguistic Theory 13: Selected papers from Going Romance 29. Chapter
• 2017A preliminary investigation of the formation of constituent questions in Karata (Nakh-Daghestanian) (with Rashidat Khalidova). Proceedings of the 2017 LSA Annual Meeting. Proceedings
• 2016Two scope ambiguities in support of overt quantifier movement in European French. Proceedings of NELS 46. Proceedings
• 2015SULA 8: Proceedings of the eighth conference on the semantics of under-represented languages of the Americas. GLSA Publications. Edited volume
• 2011Непространственные употребления показателей пространственных падежей в каратинском языке [Non-spatial uses of spatial case markers in Karata]. Proceedings of the Conference on Andic Languages, Makhachkala. Proceedings

Projects

Current

• 2025–2030
  Caucasian Languages in Georgia International Research NetworkCo-PI with Léa Nash. CNRS.

  • 2025–
    ZAFieR field station, Zemo AlvaniCo-founder and board member.
  • 2024–
    CauLaGe summer programCo-founder and co-director. A yearly two-week summer school and research program in Georgia.
• 2025–2026
  CrossPlur: Cross-categorial morphosemantics of pluralityPrincipal investigator. Étoiles montantes scheme (ERC preparation), Pays de la Loire region.

Past

• 2023–2025
  MorSemTyPPrincipal investigator. PULSAR scheme, Pays de la Loire region.
• 2020–2024
  Comparative morphosemantics of plurality in Hiaki and SeriCo-author of the proposal, with Robert Henderson and Heidi Harley. National Science Foundation (#1945641).
• 2018–2023
  IMMOCAL: Imperfective modalities in Caucasian languagesCollaborator for Karata. ANR project directed by Gilles Authier and Timur Maisak.
• 2017–2021
  Seri verbs: multiple complexitiesPostdoctoral researcher. University of Surrey, directed by Matthew Baerman.

Presentations

Selected talks since 2023. The CV has the full list.

Languages

Seri (Cmiique Iitom)

Language isolate · Sonora, Mexico Data collected in El Desemboque since 2017, in person and remotely

On verbal and nominal number, pluractionality, distributive numerals and paradigm structure.

Language vitality: Evaluación preliminar de la vitalidad de la lengua cmiique iitom (seri) (Verbum et Lingua, 2022, with Carolyn O'Meara and Debora Perales†).

Text: El juego del círculo, un juego seri tradicional [The circle game, a traditional Seri game] (Tlalocan, 2021, with Debora Perales†).

For the community: Ihamoquixp Quizjoj, an ABC book in Seri illustrated by Seri children, with the tale “The Milky Way Bearers” (2019, with Debora Perales† and Gabriel Hofherr).

Karata

Andic · East Caucasian · Daghestan, Russia Data collected in Daghestan (2011–2012) and remotely

On valency, spatial cases, questions, reduplication and tense–aspect.

Corpus: Karata annotated texts (20 glossed narratives, IMMOCAL, 2023).

• 2026Abkhaz (Northwest Caucasian): nominal number suffixes (Peria, Georgia)
• 2024–Tsova-Tush (Nakh, East Caucasian): number and agreement in the verb and noun phrase (data collected in Zemo Alvani, Georgia, since 2024, in person and remotely)
• 2023Souletin Basque (isolate): the clitic -etz (Pays de Soule)
• 2012–2013Avar (Avar-Andic, East Caucasian): multiple exponence (Sogratl’, Daghestan) and egophoricity (Belakan and Zaqatala, Azerbaijan)

Teaching

Service

• 2026–Editorial board, Caucasus Survey
• 2025–2029Appointed member of the Comité national de la recherche scientifique, Section 36 (Language sciences), CNRS
• 2023–2026Co-organizer of Sinn und Bedeutung 2026, TripleA 11 and JeNom 10 (Nantes), CaucLing 2025 (Lyon), South Caucasian Chalk Circle 4 (Paris), CauLaGeNet 2026 meeting (Istanbul)
• 2023–Steering board, RALFe conference
• SeminarsSynSem seminar and C'est quoi ton problème ? at LLING; CauLaGe talk series (Paris 8 & Nantes); CrossPlur project seminar
• OutreachNuit des chercheurs, Nantes (2024–2026); Labo des Savoirs podcast (2025); Kesako on Sun radio (2025)

Contact

Laboratoire de Linguistique de Nantes (LLING), Nantes Université, France.