Cutting-edge linguistics researcher Gillian Ramchand offers a window into subtle issues of human cognition through her exploration of syntactic form and meaning.

Ramchand, professor of linguistics at Norway's University of Tromsø, will present "Language and the Form-Meaning Connection," April 14 at 4:30 p.m. at Hollis E. Cornell Auditorium in Goldwin Smith Hall, as part of the College of Arts and Sciences Humanities Lecture series. A reception at A.D. White House will follow. Both events are free and open to the public.

Ramchand is the founder and core figure in a major new approach, known as first phase syntax, to the relationship between verb meaning and the structure of the sentence, as set out in a 2008 monograph from Cambridge University Press.

"Ramchand is an important presence in theoretical syntax and semantics in Europe and the United States," says Draga Zec, chair of linguistics.

With undergraduate degrees in mathematics and philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University, Ramchand conducts research that is regarded as a crucial link between work on verbal meaning and the structure of language.

In addition to her theoretical research, Ramchand is an active fieldworker on the languages, Scots Gaelic and Bengali, a major non-European language. Until her 2004 move to the University of Tromsø, Ramchand was a university lecturer in linguistics at Oxford University. "She was known as a legendary teacher at Oxford and generated great enthusiasm among students," says Zec.

The Arts and Sciences Humanities Lectures are presented with support from the Office of the President and the College of Arts and Sciences.