Yolanda Fernández-Pena’s monograph, Reconciling Synchrony, Diachrony and Usage in Verb Number Agreement with Complex Collective Subjects (Routledge, 2020), has been recently received three research awards: the Leocadio Martín Mingorance Book Award for English Language and Linguistics (44th AEDEAN International Conference, 26 November 2021, University of Cantabria), the AESLA Guadalupe Aguado Research Award for Young Researchers 2022 (39th AESLA International Conference, 28 April 2022, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria) and the 2022 ESSE Book Award for Young Researchers in the category English Language and Linguistics (16th ESSE International Conference, 29 August 2022, University of Mainz).
In her monograph, Yolanda used corpus-based methodologies and statistical modelling to unpack the different morphological, syntactic, semantic and lexical dimensions of the variables affecting verb number agreement with complex collective noun phrases in English. Her multidimensional analysis of the significance of of-dependents in the patterning and contemporary usage of collective nouns offers new insight into and understanding of both synchronic variation and diachronic change.
