Biography
Simin Karimi had her elementary education in Iran and a portion of her secondary education in Germany. She received her BA in German Language and Literature (1973) and her MA in General Linguistics (1976) from Tehran University, and her Ph.D in theoretical linguistics (1989) from the University of Washington in Seattle. She was a lecturer at the California States University at Dominguez Hill in the Fall of 1989 and Spring of 1990. She joined the University of Arizona in August 1990, and has been a professor in the Department of Linguistics since 2008, and the Head of the same department from Fall 2011 till Summer 2016. Her research focuses on generative syntax, and the interaction of syntax, semantics and morphology. She has published articles on various topics in linguistics journals, including Linguistic Inquiry, Lingua, Linguistic Analysis, Language, Canadian Journal of Linguistics, Linguistic Compass and Linguistic Review, Glossa and is the author of one monograph (A Minimalist Approach to Scrambling, 2005), the guest editor of a special volume on Complex Predicates for the journal Lingua (2013), and the (co)-editor of six books covering various topics in linguistics. One of her current research programs concentrates on a theoretical analysis of the syntax, semantics and morphology of complex predicates in seventeen Iranian languages. These languages, some of them quite endangered, are scattered in Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Georgia. This major work also includes a data-base to be freely used by linguists and language teachers, as well as Wikipedia pages for seven Iranian languages. She has taught linguistics courses and seminars on various topics, and has supervised the research of many advisees working on distinct topics in different languages. She is on the editorial board of three journals in the States and in Iran.
Degrees
- Ph.D. Linguistics
- University of Washington, Washington
- Aspects of Persian Syntax, Specificity, and the Theory of Grammar.
Work Experience
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (2008 - Ongoing)
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (1998 - 2008)
- University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona (1990 - 1998)
- CSU at Dominguez Hills (1989 - 1990)
Awards
- None
- Spring 2012
Interests
Research
Syntax, syntax-semantics-morphology interface, Iranian linguistics
Teaching
Undergraduate/Graduate syntax, Graduate seminars in syntax and semantics, Undergrad courses.
Courses
No activities entered.
Scholarly Contributions
Chapters
- Karimi, S. (2020). Another look at Persian râ: A single formal analysis of a multi-functional morpheme.. In Advances in Iranian Linguistics(pp 155-173). John Benjamins Publishing Company.
- Karimi, S. (2018). Persian Syntax. In The Oxford Handbook of Iranian Linguistics. The Oxford University Press.
- Karimi, S. (2020). Generative approaches to syntax. In The Oxford Handbook of Persian Linguistics(pp 161-205). Oxford University Press.
Journals/Publications
- Piattelli-Palmarini, M., & Karimi, S. (2017). Parameters: What are they, where are they. Linguistic Analysis.More infoSimin Karimi and I have edited a special issue of Linguistic Analysis on parameters. Contributors are: Cedric Boeckx, Luigi Rizzi, Guglielmo Cinque, Robert Berwick, Charles Yang, Mark Baker, Giuseppe Longobardi, Hagit Borer, David Lightfoot, Noam Chomsky, Samuel Epstein, Matilde Marcolli, Tarald Taraldsen. Deadline January 2017
- Sato, Y., Sato, Y., Karimi, S., & Karimi, S. (2016). Subject-Object Asymmetries in Persian Argument Ellipsis and the Anti-Agreement Theory. Glossa, A Journal of General Linguistics, 1(1).
- Karimi, S., & Brame, M. (2012). A Generalization Concerning the EZAFE Construction in Persian. Linguistic Analysis, 38, 11-143.More infoCo-authored with Mike Brame.
Proceedings Publications
- Harley, H. B., Karimi, S., Mahdavi Mazdeh, M., Nabors, R. N., & Smith, R. W. (2017, February). Parallelism and specificity in Persian Non-Verbal Element ellipsis. In GLOW in Asia XI, Proceedings of GLOW in Asia XI, 195-204.
- Karimi, S., Harley, H., Smith, R. W., Nabors, R., & Kabiri, R. (2017, Fall 2017). Parallelism and Specificity in Persian Non-Verbal Element Ellipsis’. In Asian GLOW.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., Nabors, R. N., Mahdavi, M., & Harley, H. (2017, August). Parallelism and Specificity in Persian Non-Verbal Element Ellipsis. In Asian Glow.
Presentations
- Karimi, S., Harley, H., Nabors, R., & Kabiri, R. (2019, April). Sorani prepositional object clitics: A case of post-syntactic cliticization,. Second North American Conference in Iranian Linguistics (NACIL2). Tucson, Arizona: Department of Linguistics, Roshan Cultural Heritage.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., Harley, H., Kabiri, R., & Nabors, R. (2018, April). (un)availability of idiomatic interpretations in Persian light verb-stranding ellipses,’. Chicago Linguistic Society (CLS). Chicago.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., Nabors, R. N., Kabiri, R., & Harley, H. (2018, December). Asymmetries in Persian light verb-stranding ellipses. WCCFL.
- Karimi, S. (2017, December). Distinct languages, similar patterns: what do they tell us. Invited talk. Japan: Osaca University.
- Karimi, S., & Smith, R. W. (2017, Spring). A Single Formal Analysis of a Multi-Functional Morpheme. Invited talk. Japan: Osaca University.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., Nabors, R. N., Mahdavi, M., & Harley, H. (2017, April). Persian Non-Verbal Element Ellipsis. North American Conference on Iranian Linguistics. Stony Brooks: Stoney Brooks University.
- Karimi, S. (2016, December). Parallelism and Specificity in Persian Non-Verbal Element Ellipsis’. Invited talk. Belfast/Irland: Belfast University.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., Nabors, R. N., Mahdavi, M., & Harley, H. (2016, September). Parallelism and specificity in Persian Non-Verbal Element Ellipsis’. Keynote, Conference on Complex Predicates. Tehran, Iran: Tehran University.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., & Mahdavi, M. (2015, November). A descriptive and theoretical analysis of Complex predicates in Iranian languages,. Workshop on complex predicates. Sorbone, Paris.
- Karimi, S. (2014, May). Complex Predicates in Focuse. 1st Central Asian Linguistics Conference. Indiana University.More infoInvited Keynote Speaker
Poster Presentations
- Harley, H. B., Karimi, S., Kabiri, R., & Nabors, R. N. (2019, January). Sorani prepositional object clitics: A case of post-syntactic cliticization.. Linguistic Society of America annual meeting. Sheraton TImes Square, New York, NY: LSA.
- Karimi, S., Harley, H., Nabors, R., & Kabiri, R. (2019, January 2019). Sorani prepositional object clitics: A case of post-syntactic cliticization. Linguistic Society of America (LSA). New York: LSA.
- Karimi, S., Harley, H., Nabors, R., & Kabiri, R. (2019, January). Sorani prepositional object clitics: A case of post-syntactic cliticization. LSA. New York: Linguistic Society of America.
- Karimi, S., Smith, R. W., Harley, H., Kabiri, R., & Nabors, R. (2018, April). ‘Pseudogaping is sensitive to idiomacity’. West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics (WCCFL). Los Angeles.
