Magister (Freiburg, 1993), MA (King's College London, 1994), PhD (philosophy, Bern, 1996). Swiss-government funded postdoctoral researcher in Stuttgart (1996-7) and New York (1997-9). Assistant Professor in Regensburg (1999), Lecturer (tenured) at the Universitat van Amsterdam (2003-2006), full professor at Durham University (2006-2014), ICREA Research Professor in Barcelona in April 2013. Guest professor at Hong Kong University (2010) and at Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona (2011).
Research interests
I am interested in language as a scientific domain, specifically in grammar as its major organizing principle. I believe that mental disorders are a particularly important domain from which insights into language function can be obtained. The theoretical basis of this research is laid down in a series of monographs (Mind Design, 2006), An Essay on Names and Truth, 2007), and The Philosophy of Universal Grammar, 2013), all from Oxford University Press. I have directed three international projects (NWO, 2006-2011; AHRC/DFG, 2009-2012; AHRC, 2014-2017), three Spanish ones, and currently three European ones (ERC Synergy, Horizon-2020). I have founded and direct the Grammar & Cognition lab (https://www.upf.edu/web/grac), which pursues the project of a typology of linguistic diversity across clinical populations, using a range of methods from behavioural linguistic analysis to MRI, MEG to EEG to machine learning.
Selected publications
- Zhang H, He R, Palominos C, Hsu N, Cheung H & Hinzen W 2025, 'The structure of meaning in schizophrenia: A study of spontaneous speech in Chinese', Psychiatry research, 344 - 116347.
- Palominos C, Kirdun M, Nikzad AH, Spilka MJ, Homan P, Sommer IE, Tang SX & Hinzen W 2025, 'A single composite index of semantic behavior tracks symptoms of psychosis over time', Schizophrenia research, 279 -116 - 127.
- Slusná D, Muchart-López J, Hinzen W & Canales-Rodríguez EJ 2025, 'White matter microstructure of language pathways in non-verbal autism: insights from diffusion tensor imaging and myelin water imaging', Frontiers in human neuroscience, 19 - 1551868.
- Çokal D, Aloraini A, Palominos CF, Demirlek C, Verim B, Yalinçetin B, Bora E & Hinzen W 2025, 'Three dimensions of speech coherence in people with early psychosis and their family members', Schizophrenia, 12 - 1 - 2.
- Palominos C, Stein F, Kircher T, Ayesa-Arriola R, Palaniyappan L, Homan P, Sommer IE & Hinzen W 2025, 'Lexical meaning is lower dimensional in psychosis', Scientific reports, 16 - 1 - 859.
Selected research activities
Horizon-2020: TRUSTING
ERC-Synergy: DELTA-LANG: The delta of language.
ERC-Proof-of-Concept: Making sense of reference.