Affiliations
Associate Professor of English Linguistics
2024 - present
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Research Support Officer
2018 - present
Ghent University
Teaching
I currently teach the following courses. A full list of the courses I have taught can be found here
Kwantitatieve onderzoekstechnieken in de Taalwetenschap
2014 - present
Ghent University
Variation and Change in English
2024 - present
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Historical English Linguistics
2016 - present
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Advanced English Linguistics
2017 - present
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Education
Doctor in de Germaanse taal- en letterkunde (PhD)
2003 - 2007
Ghent University
Dissertation: Limiting the iconic: from the metatheoretical foundations to the creative possibilities of iconicity in language. Committee: Prof. Dr. Luc De Grauwe (chair), Tom Zwaenepoel (secretary), Klaas Willems (promotor), Olga Fisher (Universiteit van Amsterdam), Johan Van der Auwera (UAntwerpen), Anne-Marie Vandenbergen (UGent)
Academische initiële lerarenopleiding (teacher’s accreditation)
2001 - 2003
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Licentiaat in de Germaanse talen (Master)
1999 - 2001
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Kandidaat in de Germaanse talen: Nederlands - Engels
1996 - 1999
Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Bio
Dr. Ludovic DE CUYPERE currently holds the positions of Associate Professor of English Linguistics at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and of Research Support Officer at the Linguistics Department of Ghent University. He completed his MA in Germanic Languages and Literature from UGent in 2001, followed by a PhD in Germanic Languages and Literature from the same university in 2007.
His doctoral dissertation, published in 2008 as Limiting the Iconic with John Benjamins, involved an epistemological investigation of iconicity in language. He served as a postdoctoral fellow with the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) from 2007 until 2013, working on a corpus-based investigation of the history of the English dative alternation.
His research has focused on alternating syntactic constructions, which he has studied from multiple perspectives and in various languages. He has contributed to theoretical and epistemological aspects of linguistic debate, such as the application of evolutionary theory concepts to language change (exaptation), the conceptual nature of (prepositional) semantics, iconicity as a functional explanation, and the grammatical status of alternating syntactic constructions. He has further contributed to the methodological design and statistical analysis of multiple studies.
Together with co-supervisors Esli Struys and Alex Housen (VUB), and PhD students Georgia Knell and Saioa Cipitria, he’s currently involved in two research projects studying the effect of saliency in language acquisition. Adding artificial markers to English test sentences, we track participants’ eye movements to examine how these markers draw attention and how this further affects awareness and ultimately acquisition. Several papers from this project are currently under review. A systematic review has already been published as Knell et al. (2025).