Ad Neeleman

Adriaan Dirk Neeleman (born 7 November 1964, Rotterdam) is a Dutch linguist based in the UK. He is Professor of Linguistics at University College London.

He completed his PhD at the University of Utrecht in 1994. His research focusses on syntax, semantics and phonology, and particularly on the interfaces between them. His work is part of the tradition of generative grammar.

Neeleman is co-author of the monographs Flexible Syntax: A Theory of Case and Arguments (1998; with Fred Weerman) and Beyond Morphology (2004; with Peter Ackema).

Neeleman has long argued against an Antisymmetry and Linear Correspondence Axiom centred account of syntactic linearisation. Instead, along with Klaus Abels, he has argued for an account that views asymmetries in the syntax as arising in the interface with the phonological form, and thus, orders that are not attested are such due to causing parsing difficulties.