I am primarily a syntactician with a keen interest in the phenomena that lie at the interface between syntax and morphology—areas that have traditionally been treated as separate modules but are increasingly understood as aspects of a unified syntactic system. My research delves into the intricacies of the verbal domain, with a particular focus on deverbal derivations such as nominalizations. In parallel, I examine issues related to clausal complementation, aiming to uncover how these structures interact within the broader architecture of language.
Working with the Bosnian/Croatian/Montenegrin/Serbian linguistic data, I explore a rich tapestry of microvariation. This empirical lens not only allows me to investigate subtle differences within these languages but also to draw broader comparisons across other Slavic languages. Such comparative work has naturally led me to a deep interest in language variation, prompting me to incorporate quantitative, data-driven techniques—such as corpus analysis and controlled experimental tasks—into my research toolkit.
While I align with formal linguistics in its effort to bracket the social aspects of language, treating language as a biological phenomenon, I remain deeply fascinated by the interplay between language and society, culture, identity, and politics. Consequently, a significant portion of my research is dedicated to exploring these interactions. By employing experimental methods within the tradition of variationist sociolinguistics, I strive to detect and quantify the social meanings that underpin linguistic variation.
Publications
Journal Articles
Bojić, Lj., Kovačević, P., & Čabarkapa, M. (2025). GPT-4 Surpassing Human Performance in Linguistic Pragmatics?. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. [Text]
Simonović, M., & Kovačević, P. (2025). Aspect of nje/će nominalizations in Pannonian Rusyn and its related and neighboring languages (in Pannonian Rusyn). Ruthenian Studies 8(8), 56-69. [Text]
Arsenijević, B., Kovačević, P., & Milićev, T. (2025). A concreteness effect in morphosyntactic variation: Evidence from the variation in the choice of clausal complements in Serbo‑Croatian. Psihologija (Online First). [Text]
Jakovljević, B., & Kovačević, P. (2024). The prosodic correlates of the grammaticalization scale: A case study of the Serbian lexical, modal, and auxiliary uses of hteti (‘want’). Teme: A Journal for Social Sciences, 48(2), 327–341. [Text]
Kovačević, P., Antonyuk, S., & Quaglia, S. (2024). The status of verbal theme vowels in contemporary linguistic theorizing: Some recent developments. An introduction. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 9(1), 1–40. [Text]
Kovačević, P., Milosavljević, S., & Simonović, M. (2024). Theme vowel minimal pairs show argument structure alternations. Journal of Linguistics 60(4), 859-888. [Text]
Ivanović, S., Kovačević, P., & Milićević, N. (2023). Clitic climbing with different kinds of da‑complements in Serbian and the status of probabilistic rules in grammar. Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad, 48(3), 135–155. [Text]
Simonović, M., & Kovačević, P. (2022). Possessive, kind, and not so kind: The different uses of the adjectival –ov in Serbo‑Croatian. Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad, 47(3), 87–109. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2021). On the internal structure of Serbian –(n)je nominalizations. Acta Linguistica Academica, 68(4), 426–453. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2021). Gaps in the aspectual paradigms of experiencer verbs in Serbian. Nasleđe, 49, 2–28. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2020). A corpus‑based contrastive study of experiencer verbs in English and Serbian: Some implications for the structure of VP. Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad, 45(5), 57–73. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2020). Not all object experiencers are the same: The role of SE and the argument structure of Serbian psych verb anticausatives. Bucharest Working Papers in Linguistics, 22(2), 77–96. [Text]
Kovacević, P. (2018). Between the first and the second Serbia: On the political and class dimensions of hip‑hop subculture in Serbia. Sociološki pregled, 52(3), 699–720. [Text]
Kovačević, P., Milićev, T., & Đurić Paunović, I. (2018). The variation in non‑finite complements in Serbian: Empirical evidence at an intra‑speaker level. Annual Review of the Faculty of Philosophy, Novi Sad, 43–1, 437–451. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2017). Language, art, and the (social) body in modern and postmodern aestheticism: A comparison of Wilde and Nabokov. Collection of Papers of the Faculty of Philosophy of Prština, 47(3), 19–37. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2016). The lies of liberalism in Ian McEwan's novels. Kultura, 150, 91–114. [Text]
Kovačević, P., & Pupezin, M. (2015). Funkcijske projekcija u srpskom nominalnom kompleksu. Zbornik za jezike i književnosti Filozofskog fakulteta u Novom Sadu, 5, 21–31. [Text]
Chapters
Kovačević, P. (in press). What governs the choice between infinitives and finite complements in Serbo‑Croatian? Quantitative data from Northern Serbian. In D. Serés, S. Milosavljević, J. Simić, M. Simonović, J. Stojković, & J. Živojinović (Eds.), Advances in Formal Slavic Linguistics 2023. Berlin: Language Science Press. [Text]
Simonović, M., Kovacević, P., & Milićev, T. (in press). When -nie met -nje: Slavonic‑Serbian loan deverbal nominals. In D. Serés, S. Milosavljević, J. Simić, M. Simonović, J. Stojković, & J. Živojinović (Eds.), Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2023. Berlin: Language Science Press. [Text]
Kovačević, P., Rešetar, S. H., Varga, M., & Erdeljić‑Gradaček, T. (2022). The use of it‑extraposition in MA theses written in English by British, American, Croatian, and Serbian students. In S. Gudurić, J. Dražić, & M. Stefanović (Eds.), Languages and cultures in space and time 10 (pp. 277–289). Novi Sad: Faculty of Philosophy. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2022). Gradients of reflexivity: Psych verbs in causative alternations. In M. Janebová, J. Emonds, & L. Veselovská (Eds.), Proceedings of the Olomouc Linguistics Colloquium 2021: Language use and linguistic structure (pp. 141–161). Olomouc: Palacký University. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2020). Layers of verbal structure in psych verb nominalizations in Serbian. In S. Gudurić, B. Radić Bojanić, & P. Mutavdžić (Eds.), Languages and cultures in space and time 9 (Vol. 1, pp. 431–442). Novi Sad: Faculty of Philosophy. [Text]
Varga, M., Kovačević, P., & Molnar, D. (2020). Establishing the criteria for building comparable corpora in research on academic writing in L1 and L2 English. In S. Gudurić, B. Radić Bojanić, & P. Mutavdžić (Eds.), Languages and cultures in space and time 9 (Vol. 1, pp. 145–155). Novi Sad: Faculty of Philosophy. [Text]
Marković, M., & Kovačević, P. (2019). Acoustic manifestations of information and contrastive focus in Serbian. In S. Gudurić & B. Radić Bojanić (Eds.), Languages and cultures in space and time 8 (Vol. 1, pp. 499–509). Novi Sad: Faculty of Philosophy. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2019). Patterns of case and aspect with Serbian experiencer verbs: Some implications for the theory of causation. In V. Lopičić & B. Mišić Ilić (Eds.), Language, literature, theory (pp. 169–183). Niš: Faculty of Philosophy. [Text]
Kovačević, P., & Milićev, T. (2018). The nature(s) of syntactic variation: Evidence from the Serbian/Croatian dialect continuum. In D. Lenertová, R. Meyer, R. Šimík, & L. Szucsich (Eds.), Advances in formal Slavic linguistics 2016 (Chapter 7, pp. 147–167). Berlin: Language Science Press. [Text]
Kovačević, P. (2016). Case suffixes as theta role signals. In B. Vujin & M. Radin‑Sabadoš (Eds.), English studies today: Words and visions (pp. 317–332). Novi Sad: Faculty of Philosophy. [Text]
Theses and Dissertations
Kovačević, P. (2022). Syntax and Semantics of Psych Verbs in English and Serbian (Doctoral Dissertation). University of Novi Sad. [Link]
Kovačević, P. (2014). A (Very) Minimal Syntax: On the Relationship of DP, Scrambling, and Case (MA Thesis). University of Novi Sad. [Link]
Conference Presentations
Kovačević, P., Gehrke, B., & Simonović, M. (2025). The importance of having a degree: Missing short and long form adjectives in BCMS. Generative Linguistics in the Old World (GLOW) 47, March 24-28, 2025. [Slides/Handouts]
Gehrke, B., Kovačević, P., & Simonović, M. (2025). The importance of having a degree: A semantic approach to short and long form adjectives in BCMS. 25th Szklarska Poreba Workshop, February 21-23, 2025. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2025). Implicit social meanings associated with the use of infinitival and finite clausal complements in Serbian and Croatian. Workshop on Language and Identity, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia. Presented January 30, 2025. [Slides/Handouts]
Simonović, M., & Kovačević, P. (2024). Severing affixes from categories and borrowed derivations [Paper presentation]. BCGL 17: Categories & Categorization. Presented December 12–13. [Slides/Handouts]
Stanković, B., & Kovačević, P. (2024). Dialectal discrimination at work: The case of infinitive and finite complements in Serbian [Paper presentation]. Language, Literature, Intersectionality, University of Niš, Niš. Presented April 21–22. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2023). What governs the choice between infinitives and finite complements in Serbo‑Croatian? Quantitative data from Northwestern Serbian [Paper presentation]. Formal Description of Slavic Languages (FDSL) 16, University of Graz, Austria. Presented November 29–December 1. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2023). When -nie met -nje: Slavonic‑Serbian loan deverbal nominals [Paper presentation]. Formal Description of Slavic Languages (FDSL) 16, University of Graz, Austria. Presented November 29–December 1. [Slides/Handouts]
Jakovljević, B., & Kovačević, P. (2023). Prosodic correlates of the grammaticalization scale: A case study of the Serbian lexical, modal and auxiliary uses of hteti (‘want’) [Paper presentation]. Language, Literature, Process (Workshop: The Process of Grammaticalization in Languages), University of Niš, Niš. Presented April 21–22. [Slides/Handouts]
Ivanović, S., Kovačević, P., & Milićević, N. (2022). Clitic climbing with different kinds of DA‑complements in Serbian [Paper presentation]. ELALT 6 (Workshop: Formal Approaches to Clausal Embedding), University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad. Presented October 29–30. [Slides/Handouts]
Simonović, M., & Kovačević, P. (2021). Possessive, kind, and not so kind: The different uses of the adjectival –ov in Serbo‑Croatian [Paper presentation]. SinFonIJA 14, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad. Presented September 22–24. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2021). Gradients of reflexivity: Psych verbs in causative alternations [Paper presentation]. Olinco 5, Palacký University Olomouc, Olomouc. Presented June 10–12. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P., Milosavljević, S. & Simonović, M. (2021). The vowel minimal pairs show argument structure alternations [Paper presentation]. Theme vowels in V(P) Structure and Beyond, University of Graz. Presented April 22–23. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P., Gradaček, T., Erdeljić, Rešetar, S. H., & Varga, M. (2020). The use of it‑extraposition in MA theses written in English by British, American, Croatian and Serbian students [Paper presentation]. Languages and Cultures in Time and Space 10 (JIKUVIP 10), University of Novi Sad. Presented November 14–15. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2020). On the internal structure of Serbian –nje nominalizations [Paper presentation]. SinFonIJA 13, Research Institute for Linguistics (Nyelvtudományi Intézet), Budapest. Presented September 24–26. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2019). Psych‑verb participles in Serbian [Paper presentation]. NSLingColl 9, University of Novi Sad. Presented December 27. [Slides/Handouts]
Varga, M., Kovačević, P., & Molnar, D. (2019). Establishing the criteria for building comparable corpora in cross‑cultural research on graduates’ academic writing [Paper presentation]. Languages and Cultures in Time and Space (JIKUVIP 9), University of Novi Sad. Presented November 16. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2019). NP‑internal PP licensing with psych verb nominalizations in Serbian [Paper presentation]. Languages and Cultures in Time and Space (JIKUVIP 9), University of Novi Sad. Presented November 16. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2019). Not all object experiencers are the same: Evidence from SE anti‑causatives with Serbian psych verbs [Paper presentation]. Syntax and Semantics of Internal Arguments, University of Bucharest and University of Cologne. Presented October 24–25. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2019). Serbo‑Croatian long and short‑form adjectives: Definiteness inside AP [Paper presentation]. RTANJ Linguistics 3, Humboldt University (Rtanj, Serbia). Presented July 4–7. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2019). A corpus‑based contrastive study of experiencer verbs in English and Serbian: Some implications for the structure of VP [Paper presentation]. English Language and Anglophone Literatures Today (ELALT 5), University of Novi Sad. Presented March 9. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2018). Case, aspect and the role of SE with Serbian experiencer verbs [Paper presentation]. RTANJ Linguistics 2, Humboldt University (Rtanj, Serbia). Presented September 20–23. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2018). Gaps in the aspectual paradigms of experiencer verbs in Serbian [Paper presentation]. NSLingColl 8, University of Novi Sad. Presented December 27. [Slides/Handouts]
Marković, M., & Kovačević, P. (2018). Acoustic manifestations of information and contrastive focus in Serbian [Paper presentation]. Languages and Cultures in Time and Space (JIKUVIP 8), University of Novi Sad. Presented November 17. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2018). Case patterns with Serbian experiencer verbs [Paper presentation]. Language, Literature, Theory, University of Niš. Presented April 27–28. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P., Milićev, T., & Đurić Paunović, I. (2017). Non‑finite complements in Serbian: Empirical evidence from translation [Paper presentation]. English Language and Anglophone Literatures Today (ELALT 4), University of Novi Sad. Presented March 25. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2016). Case, aspect, and theta roles with psych verbs in Serbian [Paper presentation]. NS LingColl 7, University of Novi Sad. Presented December 27. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2017). On DP, scrambling, case and the clausal structure of Serbo‑Croatian [Paper presentation]. RTANJ Linguistics 1, University of Niš and Humboldt University (Rtanj, Serbia). Presented July 6–9. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P., & Milićev, T. (2016). The nature(s) of syntactic variation: Evidence from the Serbian/Croatian dialect continuum [Paper presentation]. FDSL 2016, Humboldt University. Presented December 8–10. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2016). Serbo‑Croatian complementizer DA as an accusative case marker [Paper presentation]. NS LingColl 6, University of Novi Sad. Presented December 27. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2015). Case inflections as theta role signals [Paper presentation]. The Third International Conference on English Studies English Language and Anglophone Literatures Today (ELALT 3), University of Novi Sad. Presented March 21. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2014). Uticaj određenosti na distribuciju imenica u srpskom jeziku [The impact of definiteness on the distribution of nouns in Serbian] [Paper presentation]. STULIKON 3, University of Sarajevo. Presented April 25–27. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2013). Ekstrakcija argumenata u nominativu iz zavisnih rečenica u srpskom jeziku [The extraction of nominative case‑marked arguments from embedded clauses in Serbian] [Paper presentation]. STULIKON 2, University of Zagreb. Presented May 3–4. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P., & Pupezin, M. (2011). Determinatorska fraza u srpskom jeziku? [Determiner phrase in Serbian?] [Paper presentation]. STULIKON 1, University of Belgrade. Presented May 6–8. [Slides/Handouts]
Invited Talks
Kovačević, P. (2025). Social Meanings in Syntactic Variation: Evidence from Serbo-Croatian Clausal Complements [Invited talk]. Meertens Institute, Amsterdam, March 17, 2025. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2024). What predicts the choice of clausal complement with modal verbs in Serbian [Invited talk]. SinFonIJA 17, University of Nova Gorica, Nova Gorica. Presented September 27–29. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P., & Stanković, B. (2023). Clausal complements between language structure and identity: Documenting, visualizing and theorizing variation in Shtokavian (non‑finite embedded clauses) [Invited talk]. Vuk’s Foundation/Institute for Balkan Studies of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Belgrade, Serbia. Presented October 16. [Slides/Handouts]
Kovačević, P. (2023). The status of verbal theme vowels in contemporary linguistic theorizing: Some recent developments [Invited talk]. University of Graz, Graz, Austria. Presented January 10. [Slides/Handouts]
Research Projects
2023 - 2025 - Clausal Complements between Language Structure and Identity: Documenting, Visualizing, and Theorizing Variation in Shtokavian (Non-)Finite Embedded Clauses (ClaCoLaSi), The Science Fund of the Government of Serbia (Grant #1589). PI: Branimir Stanković. [Link ]
2019 - 2022 - Expressions of hedging, stance, and interaction with the reader in the academic writing of novice researchers in English as a foreign language. Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. PI: Biljana Radić Bojanić.
2015 - 2022 - Languages and Cultures in Time and Space. Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia. PI: Snežana Gudurić.
2014 - 2016 - Producing and contesting the national order of things: tracing how language standardisation processes and state effects configure (non)users near Serbian/Croatian border. Marie Curie/NEWFELPRO. PI: Andrew Hodges.
