The faculty specializing in syntax and semantics share an interest in developing explanatory, restrictive theories of human syntactic and semantic knowledge. Acrisio Pires is a generative/minimalist syntactician who does research and advises PhD students in syntactic theory and comparative syntax, also considering the connection between syntactic theory, minimalism and crosslinguistic variation. Marlyse Baptista uses the generative/Minimalist linguistics framework to study various issues in creole languages, including the syntax and semantics of bare nouns and DPs, complementizers and pro-drop phenomena. Ezra Keshet conducts research in semantics, his work interfaces with syntax, pragmatics, discourse and he is also interested in computational semantics. Natasha Abner focuses on the theoretical framework of generative linguistics across modalities, studying the morphosyntax and semantics of both established and emerging sign languages, her research also examines issues at the syntax-semantics interface for both signed and spoken languages as well as the representation of linguistic analysis in formal language theory. Jon Brennan conducts experimental research in neurolinguistics with a focus on syntax, semantics and their interface. Jon Brennan, Rick Lewis and Julie Boland develop and test psycholinguistic and computational theories of syntactic, semantic and lexical information flow during sentence processing. Each one of the faculty members in the syntax-semantics research group has strong interdisciplinary outlook. Daniel Seely (Eastern Michigan University), Hisatsugu Kitahara (Keio University, Japan) both carry out research in Minimalism syntax, and have also held a long-term connection to the department, interacting with faculty and students interested in minimalist syntax.