Tara Struik’s research focuses on syntactic variation and change in the West Germanic languages, combining quantitative approaches with formal syntactic theory. She is particularly interested in variation and change in word order at the syntax-pragmatics interface, as well as the role of language contact on the syntax of a language.

Tara currently works as a post-doc within the DFG-funded Research Unit Structuring the Input in Language Processing, Acquisition and Change (SILPAC) where she studies the impact of verbs copied from Old French on the argument structure and prefix/particle system in Middle English.

Tara Struik studied at Radboud University in the Netherlands. She obtained her Bachelor’s degree in English Language and Culture with minors in linguistics and the history of English in 2013 (bene meritum) and her Research Master’s degree in Language and Communication with a specialization in historical syntax in 2015 (cum laude). During her studies she worked as a student research assistant on the lemmatization of the York-Toronto-Helsinki Parsed Corpus of Old English Prose (YCOE), as well as on several research projects relating to the influence of information structure on syntactic structures in both historical and experimental contexts.

After teaching for one year, Tara started her PhD at Radboud University, funded by the Centre for Language Studies, investigating the role of information structure on OV/VO variation and change in the history of English, Dutch, High German and Low German from a comparative perspective. Her dissertation appeared through LOT publications in March 2022. After completing her PhD, she worked as a lecturer at Radboud University for one more year before accepting a post-doc position within the DFG-funded Research Unit Structuring the Input in Language Processing, Acquisition and Change (SILPAC) at Mannheim University.

Tara Struik teaches introductory courses on (English) linguistics, as well as advanced courses in syntactic theory and diachronic linguistics. She also has experience teaching general academic skills and English language proficiency at university level. She has supervised several projects and theses in the field of (diachronic) syntax using corpus and/or experimental methodologies.