CV
Education
- Ph.D. in Linguistics, Ohio State University, 2025
- Dissertation: The (Social) Meaning of English Additive Expressions
- Advisors: Ashwini Deo (primary) and Kathryn Campbell-Kibler
- M.A. in Linguistics, Ohio State University, 2022
- B.S. in Mathematics, University of Chicago, 2017
- Minors: Linguistics, Germanic Studies
Academic Employment
- Spring 2025-present: Postdoctoral researcher
- Department of English Linguistics
- University of Stuttgart
- Supervisor: Judith Tonhauser
- Autumn 2018-Spring 2025: Graduate Associate
- Department of Linguistics
- Ohio State University
Publications
Addressing the widest answerable question: English just as a domain widening strategy
Deo, Ashwini and William C. Thomas. 2025. Addressing the widest answerable question: English just as a domain-widening strategy. Journal of Semantics 42(1–2), 1–37.
‘Just’ as a scale widener with maximum-standard adjectives: emphatic/precisifying effects
Thomas, William C. and Ashwini Deo. 2024. 'Just' as a scale widener with maximum-standard adjectives: emphatic/precisifying effects. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 28, 895–911.
English does too have a [REVERSE,+] polarity particle!
Thomas, William C. 2023. English does too have a [REVERSE,+] polarity particle! Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 27, 641–654.
Toward a unified semantics for English either
Thomas, William C. 2021. Toward a unified semantics for English either. Proceedings of SALT 31, 446–465.
Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle
Thomas, William C. 2021. Social inferences from the use of just as an exclusive particle. Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America 6, 746–760.
The interaction of just with modified scalar predicates
Thomas, William C. and Ashwini Deo. 2020. The interaction of just with modified scalar predicates. Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 24(2), 354–372.