Fred Weerman is professor of Dutch Linguistics at the University of Amsterdam. He studied Dutch Language and Literature and General Linguistics at Utrecht University, where he received his doctor’s degree in 1989. In 1988 he was appointed assistant professor at this university and in 1989 associate professor. In 1998 he became also affiliated to Utrecht’s University College. He was appointed full professor at the University of Amsterdam in 2001. He was a visiting professor at several universities, among which Madison, Wisconsin and the Australian National University, Canberra. He was a fellow of the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study in 2011.

Research: change and acquisition as a window on functional elements

Weerman’s research centers around the role of so-called functional elements, like verbal inflection, grammatical gender, articles and complementizers. Why do languages have these elements? Different types of language acquisition (namely by children, by adults, by speakers with a language disorder, ...), language variation and different types of language change help in finding an answer.

Keywords: change and variation, early and late acquisition, Germanic languages, Dutch, inflection.

Fred Weerman supervised several projects funded by NWO, among which Variation in Inflection, Disentangling Bilingualism and Specific Language Impairment and the CLARIN project Functional Elements in SLI. He is currently involved in the NWO Horizon Project Knowledge and Culture and the ACLC project group Grammar and Cognition. He is a member of the Amsterdam Brain and Cognition Center (ABC).

Administrative duties

Fred Weerman was, amongst others, chair of the Landelijke Verenging van Neerlandici (LVVN) and several NWO Veni committees. He is a member of a couple of committees of the Taalunie and advisor of the board of the Internationale Vereniging voor Neerlandistiek (IVN). He is editor of Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, member of the editorial board of Nederlandse taalkunde and Taal en Tongval. He is at present chair of the Dutch department and a member of the board of the Fryske Akademy.

Teaching

Currently Fred Weerman is involved in the programme of Dutch linguistics (both bachelor and master) and the research master Linguistics.

In progress 

Hernan Labbé Grünberg, Automatic, Unconscious Processing of Dutch Morphosyntax by L2 Speakers of Dutch 

Tiffany Boersma, Factors Influencing the Acquisition of Morphophonology

Jelke Bloem, Learner Modelling and Language Contact in Syntax

Seid Tvica, Agreement, Verb Placement and Unlearnable Languages

Anne Pytlowany, Ketelaar Rediscovered; Dutch Colonial Linguistics through the Prism of the First Grammar of Hindustani (1698)

Caitlin Meyer, The Acquisition of Numerals and Ordinals in Dutch

Margot Kraaikamp, Semantic versus Lexical Gender Agreement in Germanic.

Iris Duinmeijer, Persistent Problems in SLI.

Margreet van Koert, Child L2 Acquisition of the Binding Principles in Dutch.

Jing Lin, Acquiring Negative Polarity Items.

Completed 

Daniela Polišenká (2010), Dutch Children's Acquisition of Verbal and Adjectival Inflection.

Antje Orgassa (2009), Specific Language Impairment in a Bilingual Context; The Acquisition of Dutch Inflection by Turkish-Dutch Learners.

Marianne Erkelens (2009), Learning to Categorize Verbs ands Nouns; Studies on Dutch, University of Amsterdam.

Suzanne Aalberse (2009), Inflectional Economy and Politeness; Morphology-Internal and Morphology-External Factors in the Loss of Second Person Marking in Dutch, University of Amsterdam.

Robert Cirillo (2009), The Syntax of Floating Quantifiers; Stranding Revisited, University of Amsterdam.

Robert Cloutier (2009), West Germanic OV and VO: The Status of Exceptions, University of Amsterdam. 

Irene Jacobi (2009): On Variation and Changein Diphtongs and Long Vowels of Spoken Dutch, University of Amsterdam.

Maren Pannemann (2007), DP Acquisition as Structure Unravelling, Universityof Amsterdam.

Mario van de Visser (2006), The Marked Status of Ergativity, Utrecht University.

Jacqueline Evers-Vermeul (2005), TheDevelopment of Dutch Connectives; Changeand Acquisition as Windows on Form-Function Relations, Utrecht University.

Olaf Koeneman, (2000), The Flexible Nature of Verb Movement, Utrecht University.

Petra de Wit (1998), Genitive Case and Genitive Constructions, Utrecht University.

Jacqueline van Kampen (1997), First Steps in Wh-movement, Utrecht University.

Peter Ackema (1995), Syntax below Zero, Utrecht University.

Ad Neeleman (1994), Complex Predicates, Utrecht University.

• In gesprek met Lia van Gemert op Nederblog

• Interview with Fred Weerman by Gisela Govaart, June 2013

• Over de bachelorscriptie in De Volkskrant van 30 juni 2014

• 10^Taal met… Fred Weerman door Milfje Meulskens, februari 2014

• Onze Taal, over het eindexamen Nederlands, interview door Jan Erik Grezel, voorjaar 2014

• Over 'het' op Radio 1, 2011

• Over taalverandering in De Ondernemer, 2011

• KNAW/Fryske Akademy
  lid van raad van toezicht