David Pesetsky

This website is still being built. I hope to finish the task of building it over the coming weeks. [05/2026]

I am a linguist specializing in syntax — the study of the laws that govern how sentences are composed from their constituent parts in the languages of the world.

Over the years, I have also made some contributions to the study of morphology (word structure), phonology (sound structure), language acquisition, and the interaction of syntax with semantics (how meanings are computed) – as well as unpublished (entirely my fault) but frequently cited joint work with Jonah Katz on the relation between linguistic syntax and the syntax of tonal music.

Current projects include the development of a maximally sparse theory of argument alternations including passive, and joint work with Ido Benbaji-Elhadad analyzing phrasal ellipsis as a consequence of extending the silence of a null head to include its complement as well (E-extension).

A major project of the last decade that I hope to complete this year suggests that the factor behind the seemingly minor that-trace effect is actually a matter of huge importance — because it also explains the very existence of multiple clause sizes in the languages of the world in the first place, a thread that connects to just about everything else in syntax. This result, if it stands up, reaffirms a central motivating conviction of modern linguistics, so obvious to linguists that we tend to forget how surprising it is to others: the conviction that language (despite all its apparent diversity) is orderly, that its complexities present us with puzzles that have solutions in the form of simple laws interacting in complex ways. In short: that a science of language exists that not only poses but also frequently answers why questions about the facts of individual languages and the patterns of language as a whole.

When not doing linguistics, I am often playing music, as a dedicated amateur musician on both violin and viola. See the music tab for more.