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Dr. Marc Olivier-Loiseau
Research Fellow, Linguistics
Email MARC.OLIVIER-LOISEAU@tcd.ie Phone https://m-olivierloiseau.com/Biography
Dr Marc Olivier-Loiseau holds an MSc and a PhD in Linguistics, and in 2023 was awarded a Seal of Excellence by the European Commission. Before joining Trinity College Dublin, he spent several years as a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Oxford, where he also served as Linguistics Organising Tutor at St John's College, St Catherine's College, and briefly Pembroke College. He has previously held teaching positions at St Hugh's College Oxford, Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University.
Publications and Further Research Outputs
- Marc Olivier, Agree in restructuring: evidence from auxiliary switch and clitic climbing in French and Italian, Natural Language & Linguistic Theory, 2026Journal Article, 2026, TARA - Full Text
Research Expertise
Dr Olivier-Loiseau is a theoretical syntactician and a historical linguist. Some of his theoretical work is also synchronic.
His work investigates the structural foundations of language change and variation, with particular attention to the interplay between diachrony, microvariation, and grammatical architecture. Three core questions drive his research agenda: (i) how languages structure sentences, (ii) why word order changes over time, and (iii) why closely related languages develop distinct properties.
His primary area of expertise is in formal Romance syntax, and he has worked on a range of varieties including French, Occitan, Italian, Catalan, and also some work on Sardinian and Romanian. For most of these languages, he also produced historical work with data collected from their medieval stage. Beyond Romance, he also works on Greek (the standard variety, and also some work on its dialects) and the Amazigh languages (spoken in North Africa).