Carlos Acuña

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Acuña-Fariña, C.

telefono +34 981 563100, ext. 11900

I work as a Full Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Santiago de Compostela. I studied English Philology in Santiago (1988-1993) and specialized in English Linguistics at the same university on a grant by the Spanish MInistry of Education and Science.

In 1993 I completed my doctorate. The title of my thesis was 'On so-called appositive structures in English'. In 1996 I was appointed Associate Professor of English in Santiago de Compostela and since December 2007 I hold the chair in English Language and Linguistics.

My published work started with follow-ups to my thesis (so it involved work on the notion of apposition) but soon morphed into psycholinguistic issues, such as the processing of empty infinitival subjects, relative clauses and agreement. In essence, I am equally interested in grammar and processing. Right now, both the grammar and the processing of agreememt occupy most of my time.

Papers

Sá-Leite, A. R., Comesaña, M., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Fraga, I. (2023). A cautionary note on the studies using the picture-word interference paradigm: The unwelcome consequences of the random use of “in/animates". Frontiers in Psychology, 14:1145884. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1145884
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2022). Parsers and grammars: A tutorial overview from the linguistics building. Brain Sciences, 12, 1659. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12121659
Lago, S., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Meseguer, E. (2021). The reading signatures of agreement attraction. Open Mind, 5, 132-153. doi:10.1162/opmi_a_00047
Padrón, I., Fraga, I. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2020). Processing gender agreement errors in pleasant and unpleasant words: an ERP study at the sentence level. Neuroscience Letters, 174, 134538. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2019.134538
Soares, A.P., Oliveira, H., Ferreira, M., Comesaña, M., Macedo, A.F., Ferré, P., Acuña-Fariña, C., Hernández-Cabrera, J., & Fraga, I. (2019). Lexico-syntactic interactions during the processing of temporally ambiguous L2 relative clauses: An eye-tracking study with intermediate and advanced Portuguese-English bilinguals. PLoS ONE, 14, 1-27. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0216779
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2018). Aspects of the constructional nature of agreement. Constructions, 11, 1-24. doi:10.24338/cons-461
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2018). Aspects of a psychologically informed theory of agreement. Folia Linguistica 52(2), 449-482. doi:10.1515/flin-2018-0012
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2018). The role of morphology in setting production biases in agreement: a cross- linguistic completion study. Language Sciences, 66, 28-41. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2017.12.008
Fraga, I., Padrón, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Díaz-Lago, M. (2017). Processing gender agreement and word emotionality: New electrophysiological and behavioural evidence. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 44, 203-222. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2017.06.002
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2016). Opportunistic processing of language. Language Sciences, 34-48. doi:10.1016/j.langsci.2016.05.003
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2016). (A few) psycholinguistic properties of the NP. Functions of Language, 23, 120-141. doi:10.1075/fol.23.1.01acu
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2016). The Grammars of Close Apposition. Journal of English Linguistics, 61-83. doi:10.1177/0075424216628262
Padrón, I., Pardo-Vázquez, JL., Fernández-Rey, J. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2016). Representing the consequences of our actions trial by trial: complex and flexible encoding of feedback valence and magnitude. Neuroscience, 333, 264-276. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2016.07.025
Díaz-Lago, M., Fraga, I., & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2015). Time course of gender agreement violations containing emotional words. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 36, 79-93. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2015.07.001
Acuña-Farina, C., Carreiras, M. & Meseguer, E. (2014). Gender and number agreement comprehension in Spanish. Lingua, 143, 108-128. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2014.01.013
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2012). Agreement, attraction and architectural opportunism. Journal of Linguistics 48.2, 1-39. doi:10.1017/S0022226712000084
Fraga, I., Piñeiro, A., Acuña-Fariña, C., Redondo, J., & García-Orza, J. (2012). Emotional nouns affect attachment decisions in sentence completion tasks. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 65, 1740-1759. doi:10.1080/17470218.2012.662989
Riveiro-Outeiral, S. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2012). Agreement processes in English and Spanish: a completion study. Functions of Language 19.1, 53-83. doi:10.1075/fol.19.1.03riv
Pardo-Vázquez, J.L., Padrón, I., Fernández-Rey, J., & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2011). Decision-making in the ventral premotor cortex harbinger of action. Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, 5, 54. doi:10.3389/fnint.2011.00054
Prado Alonso, C. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2010). A comprehensive account of full-verb inversion in English. Folia Linguistica, 44, 509-554. doi:10.1515/flin.2010.018
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2009). NP doesn’t say it all: The true diversity of nominal constituency types, de E. Keizer, 2007. Functions of Language, 17, 265-281. doi:10.1075/fol.16.2.04acu
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2009). The linguistics and psycholinguistics of agreement: a tutorial overview. Lingua, 119, 389-424. doi:10.1016/j.lingua.2008.09.005
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2009). Aspects of the grammar of close apposition and the structure of the noun phrase. English Language and Linguistics, 13, 453-481. doi:10.1017/S1360674309990190
Acuña-Fariña, C., Fraga, I., García-Orza, J., Piñeiro, A. (2009). Animacy in the adjunction of Spanish RCs to Complex NPs. The European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 21, 1137-1165. doi:10.1080/09541440802622824
Meseguer, E., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Carreiras, M. (2008). Processing ambiguous Spanish se in a minimal chain. The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 62, 766-788. doi:10.1080/17470210802215228
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2006). A constructional network in appositive space. Cognitive Lingusitics, 17, 17-37. doi:10.1515/COG.2006.001
Betancort, M., Carreiras, M., & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2006). Processing controlled PROs in Spanish. Cognition, 100/2, 217-282. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2005.04.001
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2005). Aspects of the relationship between theories of grammar and theories of processing. Atlantis, 27(1), 11-27. (link)
Fraga, I., García-Orza, J., Acuña-Fariña, C. (2005). La desambiguación de oraciones de relativo en lengua gallega: Nueva evidencia de adjunción alta en lenguas romance. Psicológica, 26, 243-260. (link)
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2004). The role of experience in syntactic processing: a view from the linguistics building. Estudios ingleses de la Universidad Complutense, 5-23.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2003). Language processing, linguistics, and constraints. A Journal of English and American Studies, 1/2, 11-34.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2000). Reduced relatives and apposition. Australian Journal of Linguistics, ½, 5-22.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1999). On apposition. English Language and Linguistics 3.1, 1/2, 1-20.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1996). Aspectos de las cláusulas finitas en las FNs del inglés y del castellano. Atlantis XVIII, 1/2, 7-18.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1996). Right dislocation, 'dislocation-to-the-right' and other related issues. Revista Canaria de Estudios Ingleses 32/33 , 1/2, 19-33.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1995). That-clauses in NP. A Journal of English and American Studies 16, 1/2, 1-12.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1995). Left-dislocation revisited. Revista Alicantina de Estudios Ingleses, 8, 1/2, 7-23.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1993). On the grammatical status of 'Colon Structures'. Atlantis XV, 1/2, 5-20.

Books and book chapters

Acuña-Fariña, C. (2024), Homo Loquens. Cómo habita el lenguaje en la mente. Comares. (link)
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2023), Syntactic Processing: An overview. Routledge.
Seoane, E., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Palacios, I. (eds.) (2018), Subordination in English. Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Acuña-Fariña, C., Palacios, I. & Seoane, E. (2018). Subordination or the permanent allure of the "adjacent possible". In Seoane, E., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Palacios, I. (eds.), Subordination in English. Synchronic and diachronic perspectives. (1-24). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter Mouton.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2006), Polycentric Apposition. Copenhagen Studies in Language. Vol. 33 (pp. 27-52). Copenhagen: Copenhagen Business School.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2004), De los clásicos al laboratorio: el estudio de la lengua en el siglo XXI. Lucundi Acti Labores. Estudios en Homenaje a Dulce Estefanía Alvarez (pp. 25- 32). Santiago de Compostela: Servizo de publicacións da Universidade de Santiago.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (1996), The Puzzle of Apposition: On So-Called Appositive Structures in English. Santiago de Compostela: Servizo de Publicacións da Universidade de Santiago.

Conferences

Vieitez, L., Padrón, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Fraga, I. (2023, May). When unpleasantness meets feminines: a behavioral study on gender agreement and emotionality. Poster presented at the XVI International Symposium of Psycholinuistics. Vitoria, Spain.
de Dios-Flores, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., Mancini, S., Carreiras, M. (2021, March-March). Interference in the processing of complement control: an eye-tracking study on lexically determined long-distance dependencies. Short talk at the 34th CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing. University of Pennsylvania (online).
de Dios-Flores, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., Mancini, S., Carreiras, M. (2020, September). Processing lexically-based dependencies: an eye-tracking study on verbal control. Poster presented at AMLaP-Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing. Potsdam, Germany.
Vieitez, L., Padrón, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Fraga, I. (2020, December). Emotionality: meddling in the debate on the encapsulation vs interactivity of grammatical processing. Comunicación oral presentada en el International Online Conference of Psycholinguistic and Neurolinguistic Research: Methods, Materials, and Approaches (PSYNEUROLING).
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2019, October). On constraints, architectural opportunism and directionality: a psycholinguistic narrative. Plennary talk in the Workshop on Language and the Brain (WoLB), Vigo, Spain.
de Dios-Flores, I., Mancini, S., Acuña-Fariña, C., Carreiras, M. (2019, April). Eye-tracking the use of control information in null subject-antecedent dependencies. Poster presented at the XIV International Symposium of Psycholinguistics. Tarragona, Spain.
Soares, A.P., Oliveira, H., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Fraga, I. (2018, April). Can second language (L2) affect reading comprehension in the first-language (L1)? An eye-tracking study with Portuguese-English bilinguals. Poster presented at the 13º Encontro Nacional Associação Portuguesa de Psicologia Experimental. Braga, Portugal.
Soares, A.P., Oliveira, H., Acuña-Fariña, C., Fraga, I. (2018, July). Lexico-syntatic interactions in reading temporally ambiguous relative clauses (RC) in the second (L2) and in the first (L1) language: Evidence from eye-movements. Poster presented at the First Joint Congress of the SEPEX, SEPNECA and AIP experimental. Madrid, Spain.
Acuña-Fariña, C., Fraga, I., de Dios-Flores, I. & Márquez-Caamaño, P. (2017, September). Thematic Workshop on Grammatical processing in second language speakers: agreement, polarity, anaphora and other grammatical illusions. Organized within the conference GALA13 (Generative Approaches to Language Acquisition). Mallorca, Spain.
de Dios-Flores, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Carreiras, M. (2017, July). Processing long distance dependencies: exploring null subject-antecedent relations. Talk at the Workshop on Syntax Processing (University of Trento - Department of Psychology and Cognitive Science).
Padrón, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., & Fraga, I. (2017, April). Crossing grammar and emotionality: When roads do not cross. Paper presented at XIII International Symposium of Psycholinguistics. Braga, Portutgal.
de Dios-Flores, I. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2016, September). Cue-based interference in the processing of polarity. Poster presented at AMLaP-Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing. Bilbao, Spain.
Fraga, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Padrón, I. (2016, October). Do emotional words affect "encapsulated" agreement computations?. Paper presented at the 10th International Conference of the Spanish Cognitive Linguistics Association (SCOLA), Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2015, July). The Agreement Construction. Paper presented at the 13th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Newcastle, Reino Unido.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2015, April). Agreement from the psycholinguistic perspective. Lecture given at the programa de Postgrado en Lingüística. Laboratorio de Lingüística Cognitiva de la Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2015, April). What´s special about English processing biases from the Romance-as-first-language perspective. Paper presented at the International Conference on Teaching and Learning English as an additional Language GlobELT, Antalaya, Turkey.
Acuña-Farina, C. (2015, February). Opportunistic processing. Plenary lecture at the Fourth International Postgraduate Conference on Language and Cognition (ELC4). Vigo, España.
Fraga, I., Padrón, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Gamallo-Mesías, N. (2015, September). Neural correlates of gender agreement violations containing emotional words: An event-related potential study. Poster presentado en el 9th ESCOP Conference. Cyprus, Spain.
Tamaredo, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Fanego, T. (2015, May). The complexity of pronoun omission: An analysis based on ICE Singapore and ICE India. Paper presented at ICAME 36.Trier, Alemania.
Acuña-Farina, C. (2014, November). So exactly how different are English and Spanish in the mind?. Plenary lecture at the 38th International AEDEAN Conference. Alcalá de Henares, Spain.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2014, May). The psycholinguistics of words. Or: how words are in the mind. Lecture. Alicante, Spain.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2012, August). Attracting agreement: a psycholinguistic account. Plenary conference. SLE (Societas Linguistica Europaea).
Díaz-Lago, M., Fraga, I., & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2012, October). Processing gender agreement violations containing emotional words in Spanish: an ERP study. Paper presented at the Fourth Annual Neurobiology of Language Conference (NLC 2012). San Sebastián, Spain.
Fraga, I., Díaz-Lago, M., & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2012, November-December). Crossing morphological violations of agreement and word emotionality using the ERP technique. Paper presented at the Language and Neuroscience Conference. Florianópolis, Brasil.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2011, June). Psycholinguistics. LOT Summer School, Lovaina, Switzerland.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2011, June). Agreement, attraction, and architectural opportunism. LOT Summer School, Lovaina, Switzerland.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2011, April). The processing of agreement. Postgraduate course. University of Vigo, Spain.
Acuña-Fariña, C. (2010). Language processing. Verbum Summer School of Linguistics. Universidade de Vigo, España.
Piñeiro, A., Galdo, S., Fraga, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., Comesaña, M. (2010, April). Relative clause attachment to emotion nouns: an ERP study. Comunicación presentada en el VIII Congreso de la SEPEX/1st Joint Conference of the EPS and SEPEX. Granada, España.
Piñeiro, A., Ledo, A., Fraga, I., Acuña-Fariña, C. (2010, April). The role of the experimental list in ambiguous relative clauses attachment: two completion studies. Póster presentado en el VIII Congreso de la SEPEX/1st Joint Conference of the EPS and SEPEX. Granada, España.
Acuña-Fariña, C. & Riveiro, S. (2009, July). The psycholinguistic dynamics of agreement in English and Spanish. Comunicación presentada en el 42th. Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Lisboa, Portugal.
Piñeiro, A., Galdo, S., Fraga, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., Barber, H. (2009, April). Adjunción de cláusulas de relativo ambiguas a nombres emocionales: un estudio de potenciales evocados. Comunicación presentada en el IX Simposio de Psicolingüística. Santiago de Compostela, España.
Fraga, I., Piñeiro, A., Redondo, J. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2008, April). La activación… ¿fortalece las relaciones? El papel de la activación en la desambiguación de oraciones de relativo con doble antecedente. Comunicación presentada en el VII Congreso de la SEPEX, San Sebastián, España.
Fraga, I., Piñeiro, A., Acuña-Fariña, C. & Redondo, J. (2007, August-September). Emotion nouns pulverize Spanish relative clause high-attachment preferences. Póster presentado en la XV ESCoP Conference, Marsella, Francia.
Piñeiro, A., Fraga, I., García-Orza, J. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2007, April). La animacidad en el completamiento de oraciones ambiguas en gallego y castellano. Póster presentado en el VIII Simposium de Psicolingüística, Palma de Mallorca, España.
Piñeiro, A., Fraga, I. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2006, July). El papel de la animacidad y la concreción en la desambiguación de oraciones de relativo en castellano. Póster presentado en el VI Congreso de la SEPEX, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Fraga, I., Acuña-Fariña, C., García-Orza, J., Teijido, M.C., Franco-Grela, A.I. (2001, April). Evaluando la hipótesis del ajuste lingüístico en lengua gallega. Póster presentado en el V Simposium de Psicolingüística, Granada, España.
García-Orza, J., Fraga, I., Teijido, M.C. & Acuña-Fariña, C. (2000, September). High attachment preferences in Galician relative clauses: preliminary data. Póster presentado en el VI Architecture mechanisms for language processing (AMLaP), Leiden, Holanda.

Supervised PhDs

de Dios-Flores, I. (2021). Processing long-distance dependencies: an experimental investigation of grammatical illusions in English and Spanish. Directores: Acuña-Farina, C. & Carreiras, M. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Tamaredo, I. (2018). The processing of grammatical structures: morphosyntactic complexity and efficiency in varieties of English in the world. Directores: Acuña-Fariña, C. & Fanego, T. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Riveiro Outeiral, S. (2014). The syntax-semantics interface in the production of number agreement: A crosslinguistic perspective. Directores: Acuña-Fariña, C. & Fraga, I. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Gil Vilacoba, V. (2013). Quirky NPs with special reference to close apposition. Directores: Acuña-Fariña, C. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Piñeiro Barreiro, A. (2011). El papel de las variables léxico-semánticas en la desambiguación de cláusulas de relativo con doble antecedente: animacidad, valencia afectiva y activación emocional. Directores: Fraga, I. & Acuña-Fariña, C. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Pastor Gómez, I. (2009). A corpus-based study of N + N structures in present day English. Directores: Acuña-Fariña, C. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Prado Alonso, C. (2008). Inversion in English. Directores: Acuña-Fariña, C. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.

Master's theses

de Dios-Flores, I. 2014. Constructional networks and relations among constructions: Relative clauses as a case in point. Santiago de Compostela, Facultad de Filología.
Márquez-Caamaño, P. 2014. Interactivity and Opportunism in Agreement Operations. Santiago de Compostela/ Facultad de Filología.
Riveiro, S. 2009. Agreement processes: a crosslinguistic study. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.
Riveiro, S. 2009. Aspects of the grammar and the processing of agreement in English and Spanish. USC, Santiago de Compostela, España.