Dorothy Ahn

a semanticist at Rutgers

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I am an Assistant Professor in the Department of Linguistics at Rutgers University and the P.I. of the Meaning Across Languages lab 😈.

As a semanticist interested in cross-linguistic patterns, I investigate how the underlying building blocks of meaning compose to derive the patterns that we see within and across languages. To do so, I make use of both formal theoretic and experimental approaches to natural language semantics and pragmatics.

I received my Ph.D in Linguistics from Harvard University in May 2019 with a dissertation looking at definite expressions under the guidance of Gennaro Chierchia, Uli Sauerland, Kate Davidson, and Jesse Snedeker. I am generally interested in elements that are associated (at least structurally) with the nominal domain such as demonstratives, anaphora, number marking, and quantifiers.

Recent News

🎉Dorothy Ahn and Ziling Zhu’s article on Mandarin bridging is now published in Natural Language Semantics [pdf]

📑The proceedings paper from my SuB 28 invited talk on A four-way distinction in English definite expressions is now published [pdf]

📑The proceedings paper from my WCCFL 41 invited talk on Definite Expressions with and without Deixis is now published [pdf]

🎤Maria Kouneli and Dorothy Ahn presented on The semantics of demonstrative spreading in Kipsigis at NELS56 [poster]

🎤Vincent Czarnecki and Dorothy Ahn to presented on Recycling Spatial Representations for Temporal Interpretations at SuB 2025 [abstract]

🎤Ying Zhang and Dorothy Ahn presented on kind-referring demonstratives at LingDem, a special session of SuB 2025 [abstract]

🎙️Dorothy Ahn to give invited talk at LENLS 21 in November, 2025

🎤Ariela Ye and Dorothy Ahn presented on Korean honorifics at SALT 2025 at Harvard. [osf]

Publications

peer-reviewed journals

  • Ahn, Dorothy & Ziling Zhu. 2025. A bridge to definiteness: Identifying unique and relational definites through bridging. Natural Language Semantics. pdf
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2022. Indirectly direct: An account of demonstratives and pointing. In Linguistics and Philosophy. 45. 1345–1393. pdf 🎓google scholar
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Heejeong Ko. 2022. On non-conservativity of Korean floating quantifiers​. In Glossa. pdf 🎓google scholar
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Jesse Snedeker. 2021. Early acquisition of plural morphology in a classifier language: Data from Korean 2-4 year olds. Language Learning and Development. pdf 🎓google scholar
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Jenneke van der Wal. 2019. What does that Lugwere demonstratives refer to? A semantic analysis of proximity and exteriority. Studies in African Linguistics. 48(1):1-24. University of Florida: LibraryPress. pdf 🎓google scholar
  • Ahn, Dorothy. & Uli Sauerland. 2017. Measure constructions with relative measures: Towards a syntax of non-conservative construals. The Linguistic Review. doi:10.1515/tlr-2017-0001 pdf 🎓google scholar

​ peer-reviewed proceedings

  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2024. A four-way distinction in English definite descriptions. Proceedings of SuB28, University of Bochum, Germany 2023. pdf 🎓google scholar bib 
    @incollection{ahn2024definite,
  author={Ahn, Dorothy},
title={A four-way distinction in {E}nglish definite expressions},
year={2024},
  booktitle = {Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 28},
publisher={Bochum: Ruhr-University Bochum},
volume={28},
editor={Baumann, Geraldine and Gutzmann, Daniel  and Koopman, Jonas  and Liefke, Kristina  and Renans, Agata  and Scheffler, Tatjana },
pages={1--17}
}
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2025. Definite expressions with and without deixis. Proceedings of WCCFL41, UC Santa Cruz. pdf 🎓google scholar bib 
    @incollection{ahn2023deixis,
author={Ahn, Dorothy},
title={Definite expressions with and without deixis},
year={2025},
booktitle={Proceedings of the 41st West Coast Conference on Formal Linguistics},
editor={Webster, Nikolas  and Kiper, Yağmur  and Wang, Richard and Lyu, Sichen Larry},
publisher={Cascadilla Proceedings Project},
city={Somerville, MA, USA},
pages={1--17}
}
  • Zhu, Ziling & Dorothy Ahn. 2022. Mandarin bridging: Experimental data and theoretical implications. GLOW in Asia XIII.
  • Zhu, Ziling & Dorothy Ahn. 2022. Effects of instruction on semantic and pragmatic judgment tasks. Experiments in Linguistic Meaning 2 (ELM2).
  • Ahn, Dorothy, Ankana Saha & Uli Sauerland. 2020. Positively Polar Plurals. SALT 30.
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2020. ASL IX to locus as a modifier. NELS 50, University of Massachusetts.
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Sudha Arunachalam. 2020. Anaphoric that: Difference between adults and children. BUCLD 44.
  • Ahn, Dorothy, Annemarie Kocab & Kathryn Davidson. 2019. Closer look at ASL IX: Locus ascontrasttriggering modifier. GLOW in Asia. Dongguk University, Korea.
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Kathryn Davidson. 2018. Where pointing matters: English and Korean demonstratives. NELS 48, University of Massachusetts.
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2018. Korean classifier-less number constructions. SuB 25, Berlin: Leibniz-Centre GeneralLinguistics.
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2017. Semantics of definite descriptions: A micro-typology. GLOW in Asia 2017, Singapore. February 20-22. pdf 🎓google scholar bib 
    @inproceedings{ahn2017typology,
title={Definite and demonstrative descriptions: a micro-typology},
author={Ahn, Dorothy},
booktitle={Proceedings of {Generative Linguistics in the Old World in Asia 11}},
volume = 1,
publisher = {MIT Working Papers in Linguistics},
editor={Erlewine, Michael Yoshitaka},
year = {2017},
pages={33--48}
}
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Isabelle Charnavel. 2017. Perspective on Korean Anaphors: Comparing Inanimate cachey vs. Animate caki-casin. WCCFL 34.
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2016. NPI intervention of too. SuB 20.
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Uli Sauerland. 2015. The grammar of relative measurements. SALT 25, Stanford University.
  • Ahn, Dorothy & Uli Sauerland. 2015. Non-conservative quantification with proportional quantifiers: Crosslinguistic data. NELS 45, University of Massachusetts.
  • Ahn, Dorothy. 2015. The semantics of additive either. SuB 19. Göttingen, Germany.