I'm an assistant professor in the Department of English’s linguistics and applied linguistics and TESOL program. My interests include linguistic typology and constructional models of grammar, with a focus on the grammatical and lexical means deployed by language users to express various discourse functions. My research combines (or tries to combine) qualitative and quantitative methods. I'm very interested in constrution(al models of) grammar and how they can inform and improve our understanding of the grammar of un(der)described languages.
I mostly work with the languages of Western Oregon (especially the languages of the Oregon Coast: Alsea, Siuslaw and Quitch, Hanis, Miluk) and the Indo-Iranian branch of Indo-European. Most recently, I've been working on the diachronic and synchronic typology of negation in Indo-European and on the usage typology of discourse markers in Western Oregon and beyond.
PhD University of Oregon
- Linguistic typology, with a focus on the expression of various discourse function, nominal modification, negation, and voice.
- Construction(al models of) grammar: Especially the ways in which Constructional thinking can inform and improve our understanding of the grammar of individual, often un(der)described languages.
- Discourse and grammar: How speakers of different languages use different grammatical devices to construe their stories.
More specifically, my current projects include:
- Description, comparison, and analysis of the languages of the Oregon Coast (and Western Oregon more broadly), especially Siuslaw / Quitch, Alsea, and Hanis Coos, based on materials collected (and published) by Frachtenberg, Jacobs, and others.
- The diachrony and typology of negation in Indo-European.
- Construct-i-cons / Constructional-networks as a tool for grammar description.
Some of my publications:
Shirtz, Shahar & Rebecca Peterson. Accepted. A ConstructiCon-based approach to description: a nominal modification case study. Constructions.
Goldberg, Adele & Shahar Shirtz. Accepted. The English Phrase-as-Lemma construction: When a phrase masquerades as a word, people play along. Language. [expected publication: June 2025]
Shirtz, Shahar. 2024. Discourse markers as the locus of signaling the Main Event Line in Alsea narratives. Linguistics. 62(1): 229-260.
Shirtz, Shahar. 2023. Siuslaw Final Consonant Reduplication and the functional domain of anti-mirativity. STUF- Language typology and Universals (Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung). 76(4): 471-498.
Verkerk, Annemarie & Shirtz, Shahar. 2022. Negative existentials in Indo-European: A typological and diachronic overview. In: Arja Hamari and Ljuba Veselinova (eds.) The Negative Existential Cycle from a historical-comparative perspective. Berlin: Language Science Press.
Shirtz, Shahar. 2021. And now, co-occurrence and functionality of discourse markers on the Oregon Coast. Journal of Pragmatics 185: 164-175. (Pragmatic Marker Combinations, eds. Arne Lohmann and Chris Koops).
Shirtz, Shahar, Luigi Talamo, & Annemarie Verkerk. 2021. The Evolutionary Dynamics of Negative Existentials in Indo-European. Frontiers in Communication: Language Sciences.
Shirtz, Shahar. 2019. Isomorphic co-expression in the nominal predication domain: An Indo-Iranian case study. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 6(1): 59-89.
Shirtz, Shahar. 2016. Indirect Participants as core arguments in Middle Persian. In: Jila Ghomeishi, Carina Jahani, and Agnès Lenepvue-Hotz (eds.), Further topics in Iranian linguistics. Cahiers de Studia Iranica 51. 175-194. Leuven: Peeters.
Payne, Doris L & Shirtz, Shahar. 2015. Beyond Aspect: The Expression of Discourse Functions in African Languages. Typological Studies in Language 109. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. vii, 321 pp. (reviewed by Stéphane Robert, Language 93:1).
Shirtz, Shahar & Payne, Doris L. 2015. Discourse structuring and typology: How strong is the link with aspect?. In: Doris L Payne and Shahar Shirtz (eds.), Beyond Aspect: The Expression of Discourse Functions in African Languages. Typological Studies in Language 109: 1-22. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Shirtz, Shahar & Payne, Doris L. 2013. Nominal heads in Maa. In: Ọlanikẹ Ọla Orie and Karen W. Sanders (eds.), Selected Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Conference on African Linguistics: Linguistic Interfaces in African Languages: 207-221. Somerville MA: Cascadilla Press.
Some recent conference presentations:
Shahar Shirtz. 2025 (accepted). Relativization in the languages of the Oregon Coast. The 2025 annual meeting of the Society for the study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA). (held Remotely).
Damiana Porcellato, Shahar Shirtz, Olga Krasnoukhova, Annemarie Verkerk. 2024. Typology and diachrony of negation across three predication domains: The case of Indo-European. The 15th International Conference of the Association for Linguistics Typology (Singapore & remotely)
Jordan Douglas-Tavani, Shahar Shirtz. 2024. Jacobs’ Judgements on Stress: Insights from and for miluk tɬiis (miluk). The 2024 annual meeting of the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA). New York City, New York.
Olga Krasnoukhova, Shahar Shirtz, Annemarie Verkerk. 2023. Negated but similar – Negation in the domains of locative, existential, and possessive predication: The case of Indo-European. The 26th International Congress of Historical Linguistics. Heidelberg, Germany.
Shahar Shitz. 2023. Transitive argument structure and passive function in the languages of the Oregon-Coast. 2023 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Remote
Shahar Shirtz. 2022. The language specific nature and dynamics of mention-types. The 2022 Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea. Bucharest, Romania (Presented remotely because Covid)
Shahar Shirtz. 2021. Siuslaw [sis] final consonant reduplication: An anti-mirative function? 2021 Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Indigenous Languages of the Americas; Remote
Annamarie Verkerk, Luigi Talamo, Shahar Shirtz. 2020. How cyclic is the negative existential cycle in Indo-European? The 2020 Meeting of the Societas Linguitica Europaea; Remote
Courses
2025 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 314 | Modern Grammar |
| LIN 514 | Syntax |
2024 Fall
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 314 | Modern Grammar |
| ENG 318 | Life and Death of Lang |
2024 Spring
| Course Number | Course Title |
|---|---|
| ENG 314 | Modern Grammar |
| LIN 510 | Linguistics |