The Research Group on Language and Linguistics (ROLLING) was established by Isabel Oltra-Massuet (PI) in 2016 at the Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona).
We are an interdisciplinary and diverse research group within the Department of English and German Studies and the Department of Catalan Philology. Our aim is to carry out research on language and linguistics from a formal and theoretical perspective, as well as from an applied and experimental approach. Our main lines of research include the contrastive study of argument structure and the morphology-syntax-lexicon-semantics interface; linguistic variation; and language acquisition in monolingual, bilingual, and bidialectal speakers, using acceptability judgments and other elicitation techniques. We also conduct research in sociolinguistics, phraseology, neology, and language teaching.
Much of our work is based on collaborative projects with other international research groups, with the goal of fostering intellectual discussion and providing academic training informed by cutting-edge research in linguistics for future generations. We are open to establishing new collaborations with the international linguistics community.
You can find more information about our specific research areas by visiting our projects page and the individual pages of our group members. Check out our activities page to learn about our regular seminars and other events - and follow us on Twitter/X!
News
Conference presentations
28/01/2026
ROLLING members present their research at LIV Simposio de la Sociedad Española de Lingüística (SEL):
- Isabel Oltra-Massuet i Carles Royo: "El verbo patir 'sufrir' con origen interno del sufrimiento"
- Ester Fonts i Anna Roigé: "Alternances de molestar i preocupar: un estudi a partir de les dades del CTILC"
New publications
19/01/2026
- Ginebra, Jordi; Pere Navarro (2025): «Dimensió lingüística: calçot i calçotada, mots singulars», dins Guillermo Soler (coord.), El gran llibre de la calçotada, Valls, Cossetània Edicions Barcelona, Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, pp. 198-203.
- Ginebra, Jordi; Ivan Solivellas; Miquel Àngel Pradilla (eds.) (2025): Normalització i codificació del català: història, balanç i perspectives, Barcelona, Institut d'Estudis Catalans.
Round table
24/11/2025
Lídia Gallego-Balsà moderated a round table at the IX Conference of the Master's in Learning Difficulties and Language Disorders at Universtat Oberta de Catalunya.
Conference presentation
24/11/2025
Bernat Vellvè-Blanch gave a talk at XIV Congresso triennale dell'Associazione Italiana di Studi Catalani, XIV Congresso triennale dell'Associazione Italiana di Studi Catalani entitled"Anir[ɛ] a c[ɔ]rrer una marat[ɔ] curt[ɛ]ta en m[ɔ]lt p[ɔ]c t[ɛ]mps s[ɔ]ta el c[ɛ]l de la Ri[ɛ]ra o la fonètica vocàlica dels Pallaresos i la Riera de Gaià (Tarragonès). ¿Un fenomen únic a la Romània?"
Plenary talk
21/11/2025
Jordi Ginebra will give the plenary talk "Sol que crema, rius que davallen i cors que bateguen: Àngel Guimerà i la llengua catalana" at l'Acte acadèmic de cloenda de les XXXI Jornades d'Estudis Penedesencs on Friday 21, November.
Conference presentations
14/11/2025
Anna Roigé and Ester Fonts gave two conference talks entitled "Trucar-li o trucar-la: l'alternança acusatiu/datiu en verbs de comunicació telefònica. Anàlisi d'una mostra de premsa escrita" (Ester Fonts) and "Canvis sintàctics i semàntics en els verbs molestar, preocupar i sorprendre. Un estudi de corpus (1833-2021)" (Anna Roigé) at the workshop "Canvis lingüístics en curs en llengua catalana" on November 14.
Conference presentation
13/11/2025
Elina Gatina and Isabel Oltra-Massuet, The Role of Metalinguistic Explanation in Grammar Acquisition: A Quasi-Experimental Study, 48th AEDEAN Conference, Universidad del País Vasco / EHU, Vitoria/Gasteiz, 12-14 de novembre.
Conference presentation
07/11/2025
Bernat Vellvè-Blanch gave a conference talk at LXX Anglo-Catalan Annual Conference. His talk was entitled "La recerca lingüística en variació sintàctica: ¿limitacions i metodologia o metodologia i limitacions? El cas de l'estudi geolingüístic dels parlars del Tarragonès"
Plenary talk
04/11/2025
Jordi Ginebra gave a plenary talk entitled “Heterodoxos, progressistes i innovadors: el Grup Modernista de Reus davant la llengua catalana” at Jornades Modernismes, una actitud heterodoxa.
Online seminar
06/11/2025
Lídia Gallego gave an online seminar talk during the International Teaching Week at Olomouc Palasky University. The title of the seminar talk was “Towards a More Inclusive Society: The Use of Learning Boxes as a Pedagogical Approach in a Multilingual Context”
New publication
31/10/2025
Jordi Ginebra has published «Els noms psicològics en les construccions estatives amb verb lleuger: assaig d'un estudi de corpus», in Estudis de Llengua i Literatura Catalanes, vol. lxxix [Miscel·lània Joaquim Rafel / 2], Barcelona, Publicacions de l'Abadia de Montserrat, 165-187.
Conference presentation
06/10/2025
Isabel Oltra-Massuet and Alícia Gual gave a talk entitled "Rethinking have/get causatives: Challenges and innovations for Catalan and Spanish learners" at the 7º Congreso Internacional de Lingüística y Literatura.
Conference presentation
06/10/2025
Jordi Ginebra and Ester Fonts gave a talk entitled "La preposició 'contra' en català antic segons les dades del CICA: preposició de règim o introductora d'adjunts?" at the Congrés Internacional de Corpus Diacrònics en Llengües Iberoromàniques (CODILI7)
New member
24/09/2025
Patrick Rohrer has joined the ROLLING group as an assistant professor (Serra Húnter fellow), Departament of English and German Studies. Welcome, Patrick!
New publication
09/09/2025
Jordi Ginebra just published the paper «Antoni Rovira i Virgili, humanista (literatura, cultura, llengua)», In Montserrat Palau (ed.), Antoni Rovira i Virgili i la Revista de Catalunya, Tarragona, Publicacions de la Universitat Rovira i Virgili, pp. 41-61.