Fae Hicks

Thesis title: How (not) to cause change: syntax, phonology, et cetera

  • Linguistics and English Language
  • School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences

Contact details

Address

Street

Dugald Stewart Building

City
3 Charles Street, Edinburgh
Post code
EH8 9AD

Biography

Background

I am a final year PhD student working on historical syntax and phonology, specifically their interaction at points of linguistic change.  I am investigating the nature and progression of linguistic change from an internalist perspective. My PhD research focuses on the emergence of high level typological patterns from properties and interactions of individual speakers. I consider how facts of the I-language and general cognition are reflected in patterns of change in the historical language.  I have particular focus on the status of cause in historical linguistic analyses, addressing questions of whether causative links between changes in syntax and changes in phonology can be drawn and indeed what it means for one change to cause another. 

I am particularly interested in the intersection between theoretical and historical linguistics and, along with another PhD student, founded a workshop to promote such discussion. The first Edinburgh Theoretical Historical Linguistics (ETHL) workshop ran in April 2025 and in June 2026 ETHL returns as a full-blown summer school - check out ethl.uk for details!

Alongside my PhD, I have been working on phonological theory modelling syllable structures in the framework of Logical Phonology.  Previously I was a research assistant at Università degli Studi di Modena e Reggio Emilia working on the ERC project "Parameter theory on historical corpora: measuring the power of parameter setting theory on historical corpora" where my focus was the development of syntax from Old to Late Latin. Outwith linguistics, I worked as researcher for the Scottish Graduate School for the Arts and Humanities investigating attitudes to interdisciplinary research (IDR) and consulting on strategies to improve IDR training with PhD studentships.

CV

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Qualifications

  • MA(by research) Linguistics, minor corrections, University of York (2023) 
  • BA(Hons) Linguistics, 1st Class, University of York (2022) 

Responsibilities & affiliations

Co-Founder and Chair, Edinburgh Theoretical Historical Linguistics Seminar, September 2024 - 

Secretary, Linguistics Association of Great Britain Postgraduate Student Committee, February 2025 - February 2026

Chair, Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference, October 2023 - September 2025

Assistant Editor, York Papers in Linguistics, 2022 - 23 

Undergraduate teaching

Guest Lecturing

Concordia University 

  • Introduction to Phonology (2026)

University of Edinburgh

  • Historical Phonology (2025-26)
  • Historical Linguistics (2024-25) 

Tutoring 

  • LEL1B: Linguistics and English Language 1B (2023)
  • LEL2A: Linguistic Theory and the Structure of English (2023, 2024)
  • LEL2C: English in Time and Space (2024)
  • PPLS Skills Centre: one-to-one academic writing support (2024) 

 

Research summary

Theoretical historical linguistics, historical phonology, historical syntax, and phonology. 

Current research interests

My PhD research explains how it can both be true that there are no deterministic pathways of change in individual grammars and that patterns of change recur at the typological level. My empirical focus here is grammaticalisation as such I work closely with formal models of both syntax and phonology. I am interested in the emergence of patterns of change at high levels of representation (i.e. in the history of language the socio-politically defined entity) as a result of supervenience on properties of individuals. At the level of the individual I am interested in the distinction between I-language and general cognitive processes - which features of language reflect properties of the grammar and which reflect more general properties of cognition? And how do we tell the difference? In future research I would be keen to delve further into such questions. More generally, I am interested in dynamical systems and how they pose a challenge to our theories of cause and explanation.

Past research interests

My MA by research focused on the development of Latin syntax between the Classic and Late periods using the novel Parametric Comparative Method. I have continued to work on this as part of the PARTHICO project at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia where I expanded my study to include Early Latin.

Invited speaker

2026

What historical patterns can(not) tell us about cognitive biases in grammar acquisition. Concordia University, Centre for Cognitive Science and Linguistics. 29th January.  

Exploring the utility of algebraic lattices in modelling syllable structure. Workshop on Logical Phonology, City University of New York. 23rd January.

2025

What is linguistic change? And do historical linguists study it? Concordia University, Department of Classics, Modern Languages, and Linguistics. 15th May.

Is ‘erosion’ causal. A case study in Romance determiners. York University, Department of Languages, Literature, and Linguistics, 1st May.

Organiser

 

Co-Founder and Chair 

Chair

Organising Committee

Papers delivered

2026

Phonologising ‘phonetic erosion’: the daughters of Latin ille. The Old World Conference in Phonology. Cambridge. 14th – 16th January. Poster presentation

2025

The fates of Latin ille: a tale of phonology and syntax. The Edinburgh Symposium in Historical Phonology. 1st – 2nd December. Poster presentation. 

It’s not historical: A Logical Phonological analysis of the Scottish Vowel Length Rule. The Edinburgh Symposium in Historical Phonology. 1st – 2nd December. Poster presentation. With Hardie-Lawrence, N. 

The Myth of Phonetic Erosion: Grammaticalisation, Causality, Phonology and Syntax. International Conference of Historical Linguistics. Santiago, 18th -23rd August. With Honeybone, P. 

The noun on the move: Rethinking N-raising from Latin to Modern Italian. Diachronic Generative Syntax. Oxford, 23rd – 26th June. Poster presentation. With Bertollo, S. Crisma, P., Gaurdiano, C., Madaro, R., Sanfelici, E., Silvestri, G.

Is ‘phonetic erosion’ a phonological concept? Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference. Edinburgh, 4th – 6th June.

Is ‘phonetic erosion’ a phonological concept? Manchester Phonology Meeting. Manchester, 29th – 31st May. Poster presentation.

‘Phonetic erosion: metalanguage and causality. North American Phonology Conference. Montreal, 9th – 10th May.

2024

All Data is Bad Data: The Role of Historical Data in Syntax and Phonology. Annual Meeting of the Linguistics Society of Great Britain. Newcastle, 28th -30th August

All Data is Bad Data: The Role of Historical Data in Syntax and Phonology. Naxos Summer School on Diachronic Linguistics, Naxos, 25th -31st July

 All Data is Bad Data: Modelling Grammar from Learner to Linguist. 79th Language Lunch, Edinburgh, 4thApril. Poster presentation.

2023

Using the Parametric Comparison Method: A Case Study in Latin. Lancaster Linguistics and English Language Postgraduate Conference. 30th June

2021

An Examination of Third Person Singular Pronoun Usage in Written English by Native Cantonese Speakers. International Conference of Undergraduate Research, online 28th – 29th September

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