MÉNDEZ-NAYA, BELÉN

Belén Méndez-Naya obtained an MA in English Language and Literature from the University of Santiago de Compostela in 1987 and a PhD in English Linguistics in 1995, with a dissertation, supervised by Teresa Fanego, on complementation in Old English. From January 1988 to October 1997 she worked as a researcher and lecturer in the English Department of Santiago de Compostela, and in November 1997 she obtained a position as tenured Senior Lecturer in English. She has also taught and/or carried out research at the Universities of Aachen, Glasgow, Manchester, Trier and Vigo.

Belén serves on the Editorial Board of SELIM (Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature) and between 2005 and 2008 she convened the Historical Linguistics section at the annual conferences of AEDEAN (Spanish Association for English and American Studies). She supervised the PhD dissertation of Cristina Suárez-Gómez (2004) and is supervising the PhDs of Fátima Faya, Montserrat Nolasco and Ana Navalpotro. Her main research interests are grammaticalization processes in the history of English, clausal complementation and mood selection in Old and Middle English, and the development of English intensifiers.

Belén teaches English Historical Lexis and Morphology (undergraduate, 3rd year), English Historical Linguistics (undergraduate, 3rd & 4th years), and a postgraduate course on Grammaticalization, co-taught with Laurel J. Brinton.

Contact information:

Department of English and German
Facultad de Filología
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
E-15782 Santiago de Compostela, SPAIN
E-mail: belen.mendez@usc.es
Phone: +34 981563100 ext. 11902
Office: 402, fourth floor

publications:

(Submitted). "On the use of as if, as though and like in Present-Day English complementation structures" [joint paper with María José López-Couso].

(Forthcoming). "Compiling British English legal texts: A contribution to ARCHER”. In Creation and use of historical English corpora in Spain, ed. by Nila Vázquez. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing [joint chapter with María José López-Couso].

(Forthcoming). “On the origin and development of comparative complementizers in English: Evidence from historical corpora”. In Creation and use of historical English corpora in Spain, ed. by Nila Vázquez. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing [joint chapter with María José López-Couso].

(Forthcoming). "El proyecto 'Variación, cambio lingüístico y gramaticalización': objetivos y líneas metodológicas". In Actas del XXXIX Simposio Internacional de la Sociedad Española de Lingüística, ed. by Milagros Fernández Pérez. Santiago de Compostela: Servizo de Publicacións da Universidade de Santiago de Compostela [joint paper with Teresa Fanego, María José López-Couso, Paloma Núñez-Pertejo, Elena Seoane & Carlos Prado-Alonso].

(2011). “Late Modern English syntax”. In Historical Linguistics of English: An international handbook, ed. by Alexander Bergs & Laurel J. Brinton. (Handbooks of Linguistics and Communication Science [HSK]). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter [joint chapter with Bas Aarts & María José López-Couso].

(2010). Review of Elizabeth Closs Traugott & Graeme Trousdale (eds.) Gradience, gradualness and grammaticalization (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2010). Folia Linguistica 44.2.

(2010). Review of Ursula Lenker & Anneli Meurman-Solin (eds.) Connectives in the history of English (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2007). Journal of Historical Pragmatics 11/1: 155-163.

(2008), ed. English intensifiers. Special issue, English Language and Linguistics 12.2: 213-394.

(2008). "Introduction". Special issue, English Language and Linguistics 12.2: 213-219.

(2008). “On the history of downright”. In Méndez-Naya, ed. English intensifiers. Special issue, English Language and Linguistics 12.2: 267-287.

(2008). "'The which is most and right harde to answere': Intensifying right and most in earlier English". In English Historical Linguistics 2006. Vol. II: Lexical and semantic change, ed. by Richard Dury, Maurizio Gotti & Marina Dossena. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: Benjamins, pp. 31-51.

(2007). "He nas nat right fat: On the origin and development of the intensifier right". In Studies in Middle English forms and meanings, ed. by Gabriella Mazzon. (Studies in English Medieval Language and Literature 19). Frankfurt am Main, etc.: Peter Lang, pp. 191-207.

(2006).  "Adjunct, modifier, discourse marker: On the various functions of right in the history of English." Folia Linguistica Historica 27: 141-169.

(2006).  "Complement selection in Early English dependent desires". Estudios Ingleses de la Universidad Complutense 14: 33-53 [with María José López-Couso].

(2004). "Los estudios de gramaticalización: pasado, presente y futuro" [Grammaticalization studies: past, present and future].In Proceedings of the 27th International AEDEAN Conference, ed. by Antonio R. Celada, Daniel Pastor García & Pedro Javier Pardo García. Salamanca: Universidad de Salamanca [with María José López-Couso, Paloma Núñez-Pertejo & Elena Seoane]. CD-ROM.

(2003). "On intensifiers and grammaticalization: The case of swithe". English Studies 84:372-391.

(2002), ed. Sounds, words, texts and change. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 224). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins [co-edited with Teresa Fanego & Elena Seoane]. Reviewed in English Language and Linguistics 8/2 (2004): 355-360; Language 80/1 (2004): 173-174; The Linguist List  January 27 2004 (Issue 15.300); The Year's Work in English Studies 83 (2002): 7ff.

(2001). "On the history of if- and though-links with declarative complement clauses". English Language and Linguistics 5: 93-107 [with María José López-Couso].

(1998). "On minor declarative complementisers in the history of English: The case of but". In Advances in English historical linguistics, ed. by Jacek Fisiak & Marcin Krygier. Berlin & New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 161-171 [with María José López-Couso].

(1997). "Subject clauses in Old English: Do they really exist?". Miscelánea. A Journal of English and American Studies 18: 213-230.

(1997). "Impersonal: Clarifying the terminological maze". In Studies in Middle English language and literature, ed. by José Luis Chamosa & Trinidad Guzmán. León: Universidad de León, pp. 145-152 [with María José López-Couso].

(1997). "What is really meant by impersonal? On impersonal and related terms". Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies 19: 185-192 [with María José López-Couso].

(1996). "On the use of the subjunctive and modals in Old and Middle English dependent commands and requests. Evidence from the Helsinki Corpus". Neuphilologische Mitteilungen XCVII: 411-421 [with María José López-Couso].

(1996). Finite complementation in Old English. A corpus-based study. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela. ISBN 8481212881.

(1996). "How to consider how: On how as a declarative complementiser in the history of English". In Proceedings of the 19th International AEDEAN Conference, Vigo, December 1995, ed. by Javier Pérez-Guerra. Vigo: Universidade de Vigo, pp. 347-352 [with María José López-Couso].

(1996).  “Los estudios y la enseñanza de la historia de la lengua inglesa en España” ['The history of the English language in Spanish universities: Teaching and research']. In Proceedings of the 19th International AEDEAN Conference, Vigo, December 1995, ed. by Javier Pérez-Guerra. Vigo: Universidade de Vigo, pp. 635-637 [with Luis Iglesias-Rábade, María José López-Couso & Elena Seoane].

(1995). "Cwethan, secgan and cythan: On mood selection in Old English dependent statements". Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies 17: 127-144.

(1995). "Hit and thaet anticipating subject clauses in OE: True syntactic equivalents?" Neuphilologische Mitteilungen XCVI: 23-37.

(1995). "Review of Bruce Mitchell 1995: An invitation to Old English and Anglo-Saxon England". SELIM. Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature 5:142-146.

(1993). "The study of English subject clauses from a diachronic point of view: A preliminary  approach". In Papers from the 4th International Conference of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature (SELIM), Santiago, 24-27 September 1991, ed. by Teresa Fanego. Santiago de Compostela: Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, pp. 193-201 [with María José López-Couso].

Conference presentations:

See the entry Presentations on this website.