Research

Below you can find a list of my recent and forthcoming publications and talks. For other projects, current research, and outreach activities, please visit the Projects and Public Engagement pages.

Monographs & collected volumes

Meyer, Robin; Tinti, Irene (Ed.): Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies 1 (Special issue on linguistics and philology). Ca' Foscari, Venice, 2022, ISSN: 9372-8174. (Type: Book | Links | BibTeX)
Alpi, Federico; Meyer, Robin; Tinti, Irene; Zakarian, David (Ed.): Armenia through the Lens of Time. Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint. Brill, Leiden, 2022. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin; van Lint, Theo Maarten: Armenia: Masterpieces from an Enduring Culture. Bodleian Library, Oxford, 2015. (Type: Book | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Iranian Syntax in Classical Armenian: The Armenian Perfect and Other Cases of Pattern Replication. Oxford University Press, Oxford, Forthcoming, ISBN: 9780198851097. (Type: Book | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
front cover of "Armenia: Masterpieces from an Enduring Culture"
front cover of "Armenia through the Lens of Time"

Peer-reviewed articles

Meyer, Robin: The Armenian Version of the Τέχνη γραμματική: A Linguistically Uncomfortable Compromise. In: Bonfiglio, E.; Rapp, Claudia (Ed.): Armenia & Byzantium without Borders, pp. 39–61, Brill, Leiden, 2023. (Type: Book Section | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin; Tinti, Irene: Armenia(n) through the Ages. In: Armeniaca. International Journal of Armenian Studies, vol. 1, pp. 7–13, 2022, ISSN: 9372-8174. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Armenian Morphosyntactic Alignment in Diachrony. In: Dahl, Eystein (Ed.): Alignment and Alignment Change in the Indo-European family, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2022. (Type: Book Section | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Alignment change and changing alignments: Armenian syntax and the first ‘death’ of Parthian. In: Bianconi, Michele; Capano, Marta; Romagno, Domenica; Rovai, Francesco (Ed.): Ancient Indo-European Languages between Linguistics and Philology: Contact, Variation, and Reconstruction, pp. 211–233, Brill, Leiden, 2022. (Type: Book Section | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Alpi, Federico; Meyer, Robin; Tinti, Irene; Zakarian, David: Armenia through the Lens of Time: A 360° View. In: Alpi, Federico; Meyer, Robin; Tinti, Irene; Zakarian, David (Ed.): Armenia through the Lens of Time. Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint, Brill, Leiden, 2022. (Type: Book Section | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Multilingualism in Poetry: How to Translate Sayat`-Nova. In: Alpi, Federico; Meyer, Robin; Tinti, Irene; Zakarian, David (Ed.): Armenia through the Lens of Time. Multidisciplinary Studies in Honour of Theo Maarten van Lint, Brill, Leiden, 2022. (Type: Book Section | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: The Relevance of Typology for Pattern Replication. In: Journal of Language Contact, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 569–608, 2019. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Syntactical Peculiarities of Relative Clauses in the Armenian New Testament. In: Revue des Études Arméniennes, vol. 38, pp. 35–83, 2018. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Morphosyntactic Alignment and the Classical Armenian Periphrastic Perfect. In: Jamison, Stephanie W.; Melchert, Craig H.; Vine, Brent (Ed.): Proceedings of the 26th Annual UCLA Indo-European Conference : Los Angeles, October 24th and 25th, 2014, pp. 117–133, Hempen, Bremen, 2016. (Type: Book Section | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Remodelling the Historical Morphology of the Classical Armenian -eal participle. In: Banber Matenadarani, vol. 21, pp. 385–398, 2014. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Armeno-Iranian Structural Interaction: The Case of Parthian wxd, Armenian ink‘n. In: Iran and the Caucasus, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 401-425, 2013. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Language-based dating in Classical Armenian: the case of Vrt‘anēs K‘ert‘oł. In: van Lint, Theo Maarten; Elsner, Jaś; Mathews, Thomas F.; Maranci, Christina (Ed.): Vrtʽanēs Kʽertoł's Treatise 'Concerning Iconoclasm', Brill, Leiden, Forthcoming. (Type: Book Section | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Languages in Contact: Armenian and Iranian. In: Orengo, Alessandro; Tinti, Irene (Ed.): Armenian Linguistics, vol. 23/2, Brill, Leiden, Forthcoming. (Type: Book Section | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Translation and transmission in the Armenian New Testament: a note on Luke 3:23. In: Indogermanische Forschungen, Forthcoming. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | BibTeX)

Reviews

Meyer, Robin: Review of Honeybone, Patrick & Joseph Salmons (eds.) (2015) The Oxford Handbook of Historical Phonology. Oxford University Press.. In: Journal of Linguistics, vol. 54, no. 4, pp. 893–900, 2018. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Review of Polinsky, Maria (2016) Deconstructing Ergativity. Two Types of Ergative Languages and Their Features. Oxford University Press. In: LinguistList, 2016. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Review of Holst, Jan Henrik (2008) Armenische Studien. Harrassowitz. In: Bibliotheca Orientalis, vol. 70, no. 3/4, pp. 547-551, 2013. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Review of Petrosyan, Armen Y. (2018) The Problem of Armenian Origins. Myth, History, Hypothesis. Institute for the Study of Man.. In: Journal of Indo-European Studies, Forthcoming. (Type: Journal Article | BibTeX)

Theses

Meyer, Robin: Iranian-Armenian language contact in and before the 5th century CE. An investigation into pattern replication and societal multilingualism. University of Oxford, 2017. (Type: PhD Thesis | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: The Question of ‘Classical’ Armenian: Relative Attraction, Wackernagel Clitics and the Rôle of Greek. University of Oxford, 2013. (Type: Masters Thesis | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: The Sociolinguistic and Functional Value of γε in Menander. University of Oxford, 2011. (Type: Masters Thesis | Links | BibTeX)

Other Publications

Meyer, Robin: A poetic othering. In: The Linguist, vol. 61, no. 3, pp. 22–23, 2022. (Type: Journal Article | Abstract | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Socially awkward data: studying ancient sociolinguistics. 2022, visited: 22.03.2022. (Type: Online | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: What's in a Word?. In: The Linguist, vol. 60, no. 2, pp. 22–23, 2021. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: New beginnings in COVID-19 times. 2020, visited: 23.09.2020. (Type: Online | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: Curtain Call for Latin. In: The Linguist, vol. 59, no. 1, pp. 22–23, 2020. (Type: Journal Article | Links | BibTeX)
Meyer, Robin: One Language, Two Grammars: the ‘Plight’ of Classical Armenian. 2017. (Type: Online | Links | BibTeX)

Submitted & Work in Progress

  • Conditional Clauses in Classical Armenian: Descriptive and Aspectual Problems
  • Dating Movsēs Xorenac‘i: a Linguistic Approach
  • Advantages and Limitations of the Statistic Exploration of Classical Armenian:
  • Different Languages, Different Impacts: Methodological Approaches to Greek and Iranian Influences on Classical Armenian
  • Postverbal constituents in Classical Armenian
  • Semantic Differences between Copulative and Non-Copulative Perfects in Classical Armenian
  • The Origins of ezāfe in Old Iranian: a Re-evaluation
  • Early Latin Relative Clauses

Conferences & Workshops organised

Conferences & Invited Talks

  • ‘Modal uses of the imperfect in Classical Armenian’, Workshop on Imperfective Modalities in the Caucasus and Beyond, Paris, 11 September 2023.
  • ‘Quasi-Suffixaufnahme in Classical Armenian’, 26th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Heidelberg, 5 September 2023. (Download)
  • ‘Cas double en arménien classique’, Rencontres de linguistique et des sciences du langage, Lausanne, 6 March 2023. (Download)
  • ‘Messing with your Morphosyntax: Evidence from Greek–Coptic & Iranian–Armenian contact’ (with Victoria B. Fendel), Multilingualism and structural change: insights from past histories and present realities, Lausanne, 27 March 2023. (Download)
  • ‘Hypoanalysis and aspectual diversification: the Armenian future in diachrony’, Futures of the Past: The Diachrony of Future Constructions across Languages, Düsseldorf, 7 March 2023. (Download)
  • ‘Iranian, Armenian, and contact-induced syntactic change: a status quaestionis‘, First Swiss Workshop on Sociolinguistics, Language Contacts and Historical Linguistics in the Ancient World, Zurich, 10 February 2023. (Download)
  • ‘Die Langlebigkeit von Mückentötolin: DDR­-Humor in sprachdiachronischer Perspektive’, 12e Journée de Linguistique Suisse, Lausanne, 7 November 2022. (Website)
  • ‘Origin and aspect of the converb in Classical Armenian’, DiaCon 2022: Towards a diachronic typology of converbs, Verona, 7 October 2022. (Download)
  • ‘Contextualising Ancient Language Teaching: the Case of Classical Armenian’, 34. Deutscher Orientalistentag (WS Language Pedagogy of Modern and Ancient Languages of Asia), Berlin, 16 September 2022. (Download)
  • ‘Typology, Language Contact, and Corpus Languages: a Unifying Approach’, 25th International Conference on Historical Linguistics (WS The Typology of Contact-Induced Changes in Morphosyntax), Oxford, 2 August 2022. (Download)
  • ‘Relatively Late – Relative Clause Syntax in Gregory of Tours’ Historia Francorum, Quid est «qui»? Relative clauses from Proto-Italic to Proto-Romance, Lausanne, 1 July 2022. (Download)
  • ‘ի սկզբանէ էր բանն – Antoine Meillet et la linguistique arménienne’, Journée d’études consacrée à Antoine Meillet, Lausanne, 9 June 2022. (Download)
  • ‘Be, become or remain: The grammaticalisation of the copulative perfect in Classical Armenian’, The Lexicon-Grammar Interface in the Synchrony and Diachrony of Armenian, Würzburg, 4 April 2022. (Download)
  • ‘The Bodleian’s Armenian Manuscripts: Preserving the Past for the Future’, 33rd Bodleian Founder’s Day, Oxford, 18 March 2022.
  • ‘Rhotics in Armenian and Parthian: evidence from loanwords’, R-atics 7, Lausanne, 19 November 2021. (Download)
  • ‘The Past and Present of the Armenian Future’, 15th General Conference of the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes, Halle an der Saale (online), 3 September 2021.
  • ‘The Rise and Fall of Converbs in Classical Armenian’, Converbs from a cross-linguistic perspective workshop, Prague (online), 15 July 2021. (Download)
  • ‘Contact in the Past: How Contact has Shaped Language in Society’, The Philological Society, online, 7 May 2021. (Download, References, Video)
  • ‘Armenian Manuscripts and the Digital Age’Teaching the Codex III: Decentring the Codex, Oxford, 24 October 2019. (Download, Audio)
  • Dating Armenian sources: the linguistic evidence in Movsēs Xorenac‘iNew Research in Ancient Armenia, Geneva, 1 June 2019. (Download)
  • ‘An Uncomfortable Compromise: Armenian and the τέχνη γραμματική’, Armenia & Byzantium: Perspectives on Cultural and Political Relations, Oxford, 23 March 2019 (Download)
  • ‘The first ‘death’ of Parthian’, 8th International Conference on Iranian Linguistics, Yerevan, 13–15 October 2018. (Download)
  • ‘Syntactical Parallels between Classical Armenian and West Middle Iranian’, New Research in Ancient Armenia, Geneva, 8 June 2018. (Download)
  • ‘Alignment change and changing alignments: the Armenian perfect and its Iranian model’, Variation and Contact in the Ancient Indo-European Languages, Oxford, 18 May 2018. (Download)
  • սաթեմարգարէոքէր, ապագիտէր …: The Modal Use of the Armenian Imperfect and its Indo-European Parallels’, 14th General Conference of the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes, Oxford, 10 August 2017.
  • ‘Imperfective Modalities in Classical Armenian: the Case of the irrealis, Historical Linguistics of the Caucasus, Workshop on Imperfective Modalities in Caucasian Languages (IMMOCAL), Paris, 13 April 2017. (Download)
  • ‘The (Ir-)relevance of Typological Constraints in Language Contact’, 49th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Naples, 1 September 2016. (Download)
  • ‘Determining Types of Historical Language Contact: a 5th-Century Case Study’, HiSoN 2016 Historical Sociolinguistics and Socio-Cultural Change, University of Helsinki, 10 March 2016.
  • ‘Metatypy in Iranian – two cases against a typological constraint in language contact’, TypoUlm, École Normale Supérieure, Paris, 20 November 2015. (Download)
  • ‘What’s in a word? Dating Vrt‘anēs’ K‘ert‘oł’s Յաղագս Պատկերամարտից’, Workshop on the ‘Treatise Concerning the Iconoclasts’ by Vrt‘anēs K‘ert‘oł (7th c.), Oxford, 31 September 2015. (Download)
  • ‘Translating Attraction: Free Relative Clauses in Armenian’ and ‘Relative Attraction and the ezāfe-Construction in Old Iranian‽’, “Insufficient strength to defend its case”: Case attraction and related phenomena, Wrocław, 18–19 September 2015. (Download)
  • ‘Language Shift and Emblematicity in 5th-Century Armenia’, 48th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Leiden, 2 September 2015.
  • ‘Case Attraction and NP-linking in Old Iranian’, 6th International Conference on Iranian Linguistics, Tbilisi, 23 June 2015. (Download)
  • ‘Verbal Adjectives in PIE *-lo-: Issues in Armenian Historical Morphology and Syntax’, 26th UCLA Indo-European Conference, Los Angeles, 24 October 2014.
  • ‘The Classical Armenian past participle: historical morphology and language contact’, 13th General Conference of the Association Internationale des Études Arméniennes, Matenadaran, Yerevan, 9–11 October 2014.
  • ‘Borrowed Time: Iranian Superstratum Influence on the Armenian Transitive Perfect?!’, 2014 Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain, The Queen’s College, Oxford, 1–5 September 2014.
  • ‘How Greek is the Armenian Bible? – A case study in relative clause syntax’, Armenian Studies Seminar, Oxford, 7 November 2013.

Internal Seminar Papers

  • ‘La phrase relative en diachronie: trois études’ (2021)
  • ‘La pertinence de la typologie concernant le contact des langues’ (2020)
  • ‘The Linguistics of Humour: a general introduction’ (2019)
  • ‘Introduction to Classical Armenian Historical Linguistics’ (2019, 7 part series)
  • ‘The art of (incomprehensible) grammar: Dionysius Thrax and the Armenian translation of the τέχνη γραμματική’ (2018)
  • ‘It’s all relative: reconstructing relativisation strategies in PIE and its daughter languages’ (2017)
  • ‘Irano-Armenian language contact: what we can(not) know, how, and why’ (2017)
  • ‘Puθrəm yat̰ pourušaspahe – relative attraction and the origins of the ezāfe construction in Old Iranian’ (2015)
  • ‘The question of “Classical” Armenian – relative attraction and the role of Greek syntax’ (2013)
  • ‘Proto-Indo-European Syntax’ (2012, together with Tam Blaxter)
  • ‘Metre and poetic form in Classical Armenian’ (2011)