Research Interests
Syntactic Theory
Comparative Syntax
Romance Linguistics
Inner Aspect
Education
2006 Ph.D. Stony Brook University
Additional Campus Affiliations
Associate Professor, Spanish and Portuguese
External Links
Highlighted Publications
Edited Books
2018. Contemporary Trends in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
2020. With Ionin, Tania. Formal approaches to Slavic Linguistics 26: The Urbana-Champaign Meeting 2017. Michigan Slavic Publications.
2021. With Grant Armstrong. Unravelling the Complexity of SE. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistics Theory. Springer.
Books
2008. The syntactic nature of inner aspect: A minimalist perspective. John Benjamins.
Journal Articles
2018. "Passive se in Romanian and Spanish: a linguistic cycle." Journal of Linguistics, vol. 54.
2017. "An implicit projected argument in Spanish impersonal and passive se constructions." Syntax, vol. 20, no. 4.
2017. "Spanish Aspectual se as an indirect object reflexive: evidence from (a)telicity, bare nouns and leísta PCC repairs." Probus, vol. 29, no. 1.
2011. With Barbara Ürögdi. "Against stativizing negation, expletive negation and NPI-until." Acta Lingüística Hungarica, vol. 58, no. 3.
2011. "The phrase structure of phase verbs: An initial contrastive analysis of English and Russian." Acta Lingüística Hungarica, vol. 58, no. 3.
2010. "Syntax and Aspect: The aspectual influence of the noun phrase: (a)telicity, (a)symmetry, incrementality and universality." Language and Linguistics Compass.
2008. "Domain of aspectual interpretation." Linguistic Inquiry.
Book Contributions
To appear. With Almike Vázquez-Lozares. On (un)grammatical sequences of ses in Spanish.
To appear. With Almike Vázquez-Lozares. Spanish impersonal se in control infinitivals and the ungrammaticality of se se sequences. In East and West of The Pentacrest: Linguistic Studies in Honor of Paula Kempchinsky.
To appear. With Matthew Maddox."Reflexive constructions in German, Spanish, and French as a product of cyclic interaction." OUP.
2021. With Grant Armstrong. A guide to understanding SE constructions: where they come from and how they are connected. In Grant Armstrong & Jonathan E. MacDonald (eds.) Unraveling the complexity of the SE clitic.
2021. With Jeriel Melgares. On (un)grammatical clitic sequences in impersonal se constructions. In Grant Armstrong & Jonathan E. MacDonald (eds.) Unraveling the complexity of the SE clitic.
2015. "Extended projections of V: aspect." Contemporary Linguistic Parameters.
2015. "A case of multiple Agree: Accusative, not Dative se." Romance Linguistics 2012. Selected papers from the 42nd Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages.
2012. With Carlos de Cuba "Referentiality in Spanish CPs." Agreement, Information Structure and the CP, edited by V. Camacho-Toboada, edited by A. Jiménez-Fernández. John Benjamins.
2012. With José María Brucart. "Empty Categories and Ellipsis." The Handbook of Hispanic Linguistics, edited by J.I. Hualde, compiled by A. Olarrea, compiled by E. O'Rourke. Wiley-Blackwell.
2010. "Minimalist variability in the verb phrase." Argument Structure and Syntactic Relations from a Cross-Linguistic Perspective, John Benjamins.
2010. With Angelina Markova. "Bulgarian and Variation in Inner Aspect." Current Issues in Formal Slavic Linguistics, Peter Lang.
2010. With Susana Huidobro. "The Lack of Spanish Non-Argumental Clitic Doubling." Selected Proceedings of the 12th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium, Cascadilla.
Recent Publications
Armstrong, G., & MacDonald, J. E. (2021). A Guide to Understanding SE Constructions: Where They Come from and How They Are Connected. In Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (pp. 1-30). (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory; Vol. 99). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57004-0_1
Armstrong, G., & Macdonald, J. E. (2021). Preface. Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, 99, vii-viii.
MacDonald, J. E., & Melgares, J. (2021). On (Un)Grammatical Clitic Sequences in Impersonal se Constructions. In Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory (pp. 87-109). (Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory; Vol. 99). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-57004-0_4
MacDonald, J. E., & Vázquez-Lozares, A. (2021). Spanish impersonal se in control infinitivals and the ungrammaticality of se se sequences. In T. Gupton, & E. Gielau (Eds.), East and West of The Pentacrest Linguistic studies in honor of Paula Kempchinsky (pp. 135-155). (Issues in Hispanic and Lusophone Linguistics; Vol. 33). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/ihll.33.7mac
Macdonald, J. E., & Maddox, M. L. (2018). Passive se in Romanian and Spanish: A subject cycle. Journal of Linguistics, 54(2), 389-427. https://doi.org/10.1017/S002222671700038X