Editing Robert Van Valin Jr. (section)

==Work==

Van Valin's research areas are syntactic theory, (neuro) cognitive aspects of language, including acquisition and sentence processing, and language typology.  He has done research on two American Indian languages, Lakhota (Siouan) and Yateé Zapotec (Oto-Manguean), and has supervised research on a number of endangered languages.  These themes are woven together in his work in Role and Reference Grammar. He had an NSF-funded research project with Daniel Everett on information structure in Amazonian languages from 2003 to 2006.<ref>{{cite web|title=Information Structure in Amazonian Languages|url=http://wings.buffalo.edu/linguistics//people/faculty/vanvalin/infostructure/Site/Intro.html}}</ref> Currently, he is project director and co-project director on two projects (B01, D04) in Cooperative Research Center 991 [http://www.sfb991.uni-duesseldorf.de/ The structure of representations in language, cognition and science] funded by the German Science Foundation (2015–2019).

He has published eight books: 
Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Foley|first1=William A.|last2=Van Valin Jr.|first2=Robert D.|title=Functional Syntax and Universal Grammar|date=1984|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> 
Advances in Role and Reference Grammar,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Van Valin Jr.|first1=Robert D.|title=Advances in Role and Reference Grammar (Ed) |date=1993|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company}}</ref> 
Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Van Valin Jr.|first1=Robert D.|last2=LaPolla|first2=Randy J.|title=Syntax: Structure, Meaning and Function|date=1997|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> 
An Introduction to Syntax,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Van Valin Jr.|first1=Robert D.|title=An Introduction to Syntax|date=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> 
Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Van Valin Jr.|first1=Robert D.|title=Exploring the Syntax-Semantics Interface|date=2005|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781139445375|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=C_VpmIRdtZgC}}</ref> 
Investigations of the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Van Valin Jr.|first1=Robert D.|title=Investigations of the Syntax-Semantics-Pragmatics Interface (Ed)|date=2008|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company|isbn=9789027290335|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TaI5AAAAQBAJ}}</ref>
Information Structuring of Spoken Language from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fernandez-Vest|first1=M.M.Jocelyne|last2=Van Valin Jr.|first2=Robert D.|title=Information Structuring of Spoken Language from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective (Eds)|date=2016|publisher=Mouton de Gruyter|isbn=9783110368758|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vPg-CwAAQBAJ}}</ref> Nominal anchoring: Specificity, definiteness and article systems across languages,<ref>{{cite book|last1=Balogh|first1=Kata|last2=Latrouite|first2=Anja|last3=Van Valin|first3=Robert D.|title=Nominal anchoring: Specificity, definiteness and article systems across languages. (Eds)|date=2020|publisher=Language Science Press|url=https://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/283|doi=10.5281/zenodo.4049471|isbn=978-3-96110-284-6 }}</ref>
and, The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar,<ref>{{cite book|last4=Van Valin Jr.|first4=Robert D.|last1=Bentley|first1=Delia|last2=Mairal Usón|first2=Ricardo|last3=Nakamura|first3=Wataru|title=The Cambridge Handbook of Role and Reference Grammar|date=2023|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

He has more than 100 publications.  He is the general editor of the Oxford Surveys in Syntax and Morphology series (Oxford UP) and serves on numerous editorial and advisory boards.