About

Maria Kouneli is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Rutgers University. Her research interests include syntax, morphology, number, complementation, agreement, and Greek and Kipsigis languages. She is involved in academic activities within the department, including office hours on Mondays from 12pm to 1pm. Her work focuses on understanding the structural aspects of language, contributing to the fields of theoretical syntax and morphology, with particular attention to Greek and Kipsigis linguistic structures.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Natural Language Processing
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Artificial Intelligence
• History
• Evolutionary biology
• Biology
• Psychology
• Mathematics

Selected publications

• Words and Features

  Cambridge University Press eBooks · 2025-09-04

  book-chapterSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• Dominant domains in vowel harmony: A structural approach to a linear asymmetry

  Natural Language & Linguistic Theory · 2025-05-29 · 2 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  Abstract In this paper, we make two main claims: (i) we claim that a proposed prefix-suffix asymmetry (the absence of dominant prefixes in bi-directional dominant-recessive vowel harmony systems) is in fact a special case of a broader generalization that should be stated in hierarchical terms (domains), not linear order (prefixes), (ii) we contend moreover that the relevant domains are best defined in morphosyntactic terms (the juncture between Aspect and Tense, cf. “phases”) rather than in morphophonological terms (the “stem” of Stratal OT and other work). We offer an account under a slight modification of an existing constraint-based cyclic approach to Vowel Harmony (Kiparsky 2024) and compare this to a rule-based (feature-filling) implementation of the Cyclic Spell-Out of morphosyntactic structure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• C-Agree is local subject-verb agreement in Kipsigis

  Natural Language & Linguistic Theory · 2024-10-21 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Upwards-oriented complementizer agreement raises questions about the directionality and locality of agreement. Based on novel data from original fieldwork, we argue that what has been described as an agreeing ‘say’-based complementizer in Kipsigis (Diercks and Rao 2019; Diercks et al. 2020) is the lexical verb ‘say,’ and what looks like C-Agree is in fact agreement between this verb and its locally introduced (often covert) subject. Our analysis highlights that ‘say’-based complementizers might be of category V, not C, in more languages than previously thought (Koopman 1984; Major 2021), which means that some instances of what has been described as C-Agree may instantiate standard verbal agreement. Furthermore, we provide a semantic analysis of ‘say’-based complementation in Kipsigis along the lines of contentful eventualities (Hacquard 2006; Kratzer 2013a).

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Determiner spreading in Rukiga

  Linguistics · 2023 · 2 citations

  • Computer Science
  • Linguistics
  • Computer Science

  Determiner spreading, the phenomenon whereby adnominal modifiers carry an 'additional' determiner, has been studied extensively for a variety of languages, most notably Greek, Semitic, and Scandinavian languages. Interestingly, the same phenomenon occurs in the Bantu language Rukiga. We show how the Rukiga augment is parallel to the Greek determiner in the context of modification, and how it triggers a restrictive reading when present on a larger class of modifiers than familiar so far: relative clauses, adjectives, possessives, and certain quantifiers. Considering its morphosyntactic and interpretational properties, we propose that the variation in the presence versus absence of the augment on modifiers is due to different underlying structures, applying an analysis of determiner spreading in terms of a reduced relative clause structure.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Inflectional classes in Kipsigis

  Glossa a journal of general linguistics · 2022-09-16 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  In this paper, I provide a description and analysis of conjugation classes in Kipsigis (Nilotic; Kenya). While traditional descriptions discuss two conjugation classes, I show that the morphophonological properties of Class II can be reduced to the presence of a moraic affix spelling out a verbalizing head (little v in theories like DM). On the semantic side, I show that Class II is primarily used for causative verbs, and I identify the verbalizing head as vCAUSE. The analysis highlights three properties of inflectional classes that are relevant for their analysis cross-linguistically: i) there is a close (historical or synchronic) connection between conjugation classes and transitivity, ii) what looks like a conjugation class can be reduced to the spellout of a verbalizing head, iii) there is an asymmetry between nouns and verbs for a number of languages: verbs tend to have fewer inflectional classes than nouns. Finally, the analysis of the Kipsigis facts contributes to a growing body of literature on mora affixation in Nilotic and beyond (e.g., Trommer & Zimmermann 2014), and it shows that such abstract representations in combination with regular phonology are sufficient to derive apparently complex morphophonological alternations. 

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Across-the-board tonal polarity in Kipsigis:Implications for the morphology-phonology interface: Supplementary material

  Language · 2021-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Across-The-Board Tonal Polarity in Kipsigis: Implications for the Morphology-Phonology Interface

  Language · 2021 · 8 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Natural Language Processing
  • Linguistics

  Using novel data from Kipsigis (Southern Nilotic; Kenya), we present the first attested case of across-the-board paradigmatic tonal polarity. The nominative case forms of nominal modifiers (adjectives, possessives, and demonstratives) are segmentally identical to their oblique case counterparts but have the opposite tonal pattern across the board: nominative and oblique modifiers differ in not just one but EVERY tonal specification. Kipsigis polarity thus results in maximal tonal contrast between two morphologically related words. We show how the Kipsigis pattern may be captured in an item-and-process theory of morphology with dedicated exchange mechanisms and in an item-and-arrangement theory that allows for morpheme-specific phonology; we suggest that an item-and-process approach may provide a more straightforward account.

  PublisherDOI

• Number-based noun classification

  Natural Language & Linguistic Theory · 2020 · 15 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Computer Science
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Natural Language Processing

  Abstract Nilo-Saharan languages are well-known for their complicated system of nominal number marking, which features a variety of singulative and plural affixes (Dimmendaal 2000). Even though these systems have received some attention in the typological literature, there has been limited theoretical work on their implications for the morphosyntax of number cross-linguistically. The goal of this paper is to fill this gap, by providing an analysis of nominal number morphology in Kipsigis (Nilotic, Kenya), based on data from original fieldwork. First, I show that singulatives in Kipsigis are true allomorphs of singular number, unlike singulatives with a classifier function in languages like Ojibwe (Mathieu 2012). The descriptive term ‘singulative’ is therefore misleading, as it corresponds to two very different types of morphemes. Second, I claim that the tripartite system of number marking of Kipsigis and other Nilo-Saharan languages is due to the classification of nouns into morphosyntactic classes defined by the presence of inherent number features on little n ; the interaction of these features with interpretable number features on the functional projection Num (Ritter 1991 a.o.) in the post-syntactic component gives rise to the exponence pattern that we observe. Finally, my analysis corroborates the existence of noun classification based on number, which has only been argued for Kiowa-Tanoan before (Harbour 2007). The existence of three number classes in Kipsigis can only be explained by reference to bivalent number features; number-based noun classification systems thus strongly support the view that number features are bivalent and not privative, which is also argued by Harbour (2007, 2011) for Kiowa.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Plural marking on mass nouns

  Oxford University Press eBooks · 2018-11-15 · 21 citations

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Mass nouns are generally incompatible with plural morphology in number-marking languages. Greek mass nouns, though, can freely pluralize. Chapter 11 shows that the meaning of plural mass nouns in Greek is that of ‘spread over a surface in a disorderly way’. The author argues that plural morphology on mass nouns in the language is the spell-out of number features on the nominalizing head <italic>n</italic>, unlike plural morphology on count nouns, which spells out the head of the functional projection NumP. She extends this analysis to other languages with plural marking on mass nouns, and argues that plural morphology on mass nouns is never the spellout of features on Num, which can only have the meaning associated with regular plural morphology on count nouns cross-linguistically.

  PublisherDOI

• Acoustics of epenthetic vowels in Brazilian Portuguese

  The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America · 2016-10-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  In this production study involving a task of real words and a task of nonce words, epenthesis in obstruent-obstruent clusters in Brazilian Portuguese was investigated and the acoustic properties of epenthetic and lexical [i] were compared. A number of linguistic factors were found to be significant predictors of the epenthesis rate: voicing of the consonants of the cluster, manner of articulation of the second consonant, place of articulation of both consonants, and position of the cluster with respect to the stressed syllable. Moreover, there was a higher epenthesis rate for nonce words than for real words. As for the quality of the epenthetic vowel, it was found to have the same F1 as the lexical [i] in the language, but it was significantly shorter in duration, and it had a significantly lower F2 in the nonce words, but not in the real words. Finally, we found a relatively high rate of deletion of lexical [i], conditioned by the same factors that conditioned epenthesis rate, but in the opposite direction. It is concluded that epenthesis is a phonological phenomenon in Brazilian Portuguese, but that there is also acoustic reduction in the language that affects both lexical and epenthetic vowels.

  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Yining Nie

  San Jose State University

  2 shared

• Andrew Nevins

  University College London

  1 shared

• Jenneke van der Wal

  Leiden University

  1 shared

• Imke Driemel

  University of York

  1 shared

• Allen Asiimwe

  1 shared

• Julien Meyer

  Toronto Metropolitan University

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D. in Linguistics, Linguistics

  New York University

  2019

• BA in Linguistics with honors and Economics

  Yale University

  2014