Near Ibirapuera park, in São Paulo
I am a postdoctoral researcher at Georg-August Universtät Göttingen, where I work on Hedde Zeijlstra's advanced ERC grant Unpacking Paradigmatic Gaps (UNPAG). I also act as the project coordinator for UNPAG.
I did my PhD at the Department of Linguistics of the University of Maryland, in College Park. My advising committee was formed by Valentine Hacquard, Paolo Santorio, Fabrizio Cariani and Aron Hirsch. My dissertation looks into future-oriented uses of the present ('If John gets a new job, he'll be very happy'). At Maryland, I was a founding member and organizer of Meaning at Maryland, a research group with members from the departments of philosophy and linguistics.
Before that, I completed a Master's in Linguistics and a Bachelor's in Linguistics and Portuguese Language/Literature at the University of São Paulo, in Brazil, with Marcelo Ferreira as my advisor.
You can reach me at jessica.vianamendes@uni-goettingen.de
News
In late May, I'll be presenting some of my dissertation work at SALT 35, in Boston.
From July 28 to August 1st, I'll be in Bochum, co-teaching a course at ESSLLI 2025 with Paolo Santorio. Check our course description here.
Earlier in July, I'll be co-teaching Introduction to Formal Semantics with Zahra Mirrazi at Virtual NYI #10. Check our course description here.
Recent papers & manuscripts
TL;DR: Future-oriented uses of the present include a layer of modality, which I argue comes from a (covert) subjunctive morpheme. This modal element displays the exceptional scope properties of an indefinite.
TL;DR: Would is morphologically, but not semantically, the past of will.
TL;DR: Some polarity sensitive items are banned under negation. The most prominent approach to this problem relies on competition with negative concord items. I argue that this approach under-generates.
TL;DR: Conditionals headed by in case can only receive biscuit interpretations.
Teaching
As instructor of record
Meaning & Grammar (Fall 2022, University of Maryland)
Undergraduate introduction to semantics and pragmatics
LaTeX, R & Markdown (Winter 2024, University of Maryland)
Winter course [handout: LaTeX for semanticists]
As teaching assistant
Language & Mind (Spring 2023, University of Maryland, instructor: Dr. Peggy Antonisse)
Introduction to linguistics for non-majors
Guest lecture: Large Language Models and the Universal Grammar
Philosophy of Language (Spring 2022, University of Maryland, instructor: Dr. Alexander Williams)
Introduction to philosophy of language for linguistics and philosophy students
Meaning & Grammar (Fall 2022, University of Maryland, instructor: Dr. Valentine Hacquard)
Undergraduate introduction to semantics and pragmatics
Guest lecture: Introduction to modality
African Linguistics II (Fall 2018, Universidade de São Paulo, instructor: Dr. Alexander Yao Cobbinah)
Detailed description and analysis of an African language (Baïnounk Gubëeher)
Introduction to Linguistics I (Spring 2018, Universidade de São Paulo, Dr. Ana Paula Scher)
Introduction to linguistics for non-majors
Guest lecture: Introduction to phonetics
