Publications - Brett Reynolds

Books

Huddleston, R., Pullum, G. K., & Reynolds, B. (2022). A Student's Introduction to English Grammar (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press. Publisher
Jespersen, O. (2025). Negation in English and Other Languages. New edition co-edited with Peter Evans. Berlin: Language Science Press. Publisher
Reynolds, B. (forthcoming). Language Landscapes: The ESL Teacher's Guide to How English Works. Language Science Press. Catalog
Reynolds, B. (in progress). Words that won't hold still: How linguistic categories work. Book project. Project

Journal Articles

Reynolds, B. (2026). The lexicon–syntax boundary in English numerals: Cardinals, ordinals, and fractionals. English Language and Linguistics, 1–19. DOI
Reynolds, B. (2025). Going + comp projects PP, not AdvP: A reply to Silvennoinen (2025). English Language and Linguistics. DOI
Reynolds, B. (2025). Prepositions in (English) dictionaries. Dictionaries: Journal of the Dictionary Society of North America, 46(1). Publisher
Reynolds, B. (2024). Why more and less are never adverbs. Journal of Linguistics. DOI Preprint
Reynolds, B. (2024). Language without lessons: The promise of large language models. Contact. PDF
Reynolds, B. (2022). Still against teaching collocations. The Reading Matrix, 22(1), 144–149. PDF
Reynolds, B. (2021). Quantifying the differences between lexical categories: The case of pronouns and determinatives in English. Cadernos de Linguística. Publisher
Reynolds, B. (2019). Against teaching collocations. ELT Journal, 73(2), 223–225. DOI
Reynolds, B. (2014). Determinatives again. TESL Canada Journal, 31(2), 89–91. PDF
Reynolds, B. (2013). Determiners, feline marsupials, and the category–function distinction: A critique of ELT grammars. TESL Canada Journal, 30(2), 1–17. PDF
Choi, J., Milburn, R., Marcoccia, P., Silva, P. J., Penag, S., & Reynolds, B. (2013). The intersection of mathematics and language in the post-secondary environment: Implications for English language learners. Collected Essays on Teaching and Learning, 6. Publisher
Reynolds, B. (2011). The myth of FANBOYS: Coordination, commas, and college composition classes. TESL Canada Journal, 29(1), 104–112. PDF
Reynolds, B. (2003). Problems in automating Brown's EFL Readability Index. JALT Journal. DOI
Reynolds, B. (1999). Phonetic coding in language aptitude: Different roles for different languages. Temple University Japan Working Papers in Applied Linguistics, 14.
Reynolds, B. (1998). Phonemic awareness: Is it really language specific? Literacy Across Cultures, 2(2), 9–13.

Preprints & Under Review

Reynolds, B. (2026). What do we mean by language? A pluralist map for the language sciences. LingBuzz PhilArchive
Reynolds, B. (2026). Determinatives as nouns in English. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). Grammaticality needs more than dependency locality. Under review at Trends in Cognitive Sciences (Letter). LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. & Miller, J. T. M. (2026). Grammaticality as kind: Ontology, epistemology, and empirical pay-off. Under review at Mind & Language. LingBuzz PhilArchive
Reynolds, B. (2026). Varieties as conditioning structure: A homeostatic account of register, dialect, and discourse community. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). English interjections as a homeostatic property cluster. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). What dogs know about trails: Metaphor, mechanisms, and the phylogeny of cross-domain extension. Under review at Metaphor and Symbol. PsyArXiv
Reynolds, B. (2026). Mean bounds, structural reductions, and exhaustive verification for tree independence polynomial unimodality. Zenodo Code
Reynolds, B. (2026). Why clause structure is judged like tense and agreement: A coordination account of grammaticality. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). Why English doesn't extract left branches (yet). LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). De-idealizing the asterisk: Grammaticality as conditioned stability. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). Noticing language: What echolocation tells us about language emergence. Under review at Evolutionary Linguistic Theory. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2026). LLMs as boundary phenomena: A comment on Nefdt (2026). PhilArchive
Reynolds, B. (2026). Reference as a cluster concept: A reply to Coelho Mollo and Millière. Under review at Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. PhilArchive
Pullum, G. & Reynolds, B. (2025). Misuse of linguistic evidence in a study of media bias. Under review at Journal of Language and Politics. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). Personhood and pro-forms: A hierarchical analysis of gender in Modern English. Under review at Folia Linguistica.
Reynolds, B. (2025). Focus modification and interrogative heads. Under review at Glossa.
Reynolds, B. (2025). "Exactly who" but not *"the person exactly who": Focus modifiers and the foregrounding constraint. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). English kinship terms: From taboo to syntax. Under review at Journal of English Linguistics. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). Naturalizing typological kinds: Comparanda, mechanisms, and measurement. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). The homeostatic maintenance of English countability: Bidirectional inference and the stability of grammatical clusters. Under review at Linguistics. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). Definiteness and deitality in English: A homeostatic property cluster account. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). Language as a stack of homeostatic property-cluster kinds: From phonemes to constructions. Zenodo LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2025). How to study boundary phenomena: English reciprocals and the limits of categorization. Under review at Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique. LingBuzz Code Slides
Reynolds, B. (2025). A hyperreal model of sorites tolerance. PhilPapers
Reynolds, B. (2025). From checklists to clusters: A homeostatic account of AGI evaluation. arXiv
Reynolds, B. (2024). Characterizing grammaticality: A draft framework. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2024). Not every whose down in Who-ville likes appearing a lot: Pragmatic constraints on independent relative whose. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2021). Full matrix of English determinative and pronoun features. LingBuzz
Reynolds, B. (2020). What echolocation does and doesn't mean for language. OSF

Conference Proceedings & Technical Reports

Arora, A., Schneider, N., & Reynolds, B. (2023). Unified syntactic annotation of English in the CGEL framework. Proceedings of the 17th Linguistic Annotation Workshop. ACL Anthology
Arora, A., Schneider, N., & Reynolds, B. (2023). CGELBank annotation manual v1.2. arXiv
Arora, A., Schneider, N., & Reynolds, B. (2022). CGELBank: CGEL as a framework for English syntax annotation. arXiv
Lemmer, R., Brierley, M., Reynolds, B., & Waring, R. (2012). Introduction to the Extensive Reading Foundation Online Self-Placement Test. Extensive Reading World Congress Proceedings, 1, 23–25. PDF
Reynolds, B. (1999). Phonological awareness in EFL reading acquisition. In A. Barfield et al. (Eds.), On JALT98: Focus on the Classroom: Interpretations, 152–159. Tokyo: JALT.

Selected Talks

Reynolds, B. (2026). Data-driven syntax: How English works around its left-branching constraint. Keynote, JWLLP 35, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, April 18. Slides
Kim, J.-B. & Reynolds, B. (2026). Transparent free relatives. WRAPP (Workshop on the Representation and Analysis of Prepositional Phrases), April 8–10, Germany. Slides
Reynolds, B. (2026). How to study boundary phenomena: English reciprocals and the limits of categorization. Pushing the Boundaries of Linguistic Categorisation, Sorbonne, Paris, April 10. Slides
Reynolds, B. (2026). Varieties as conditioning structure. Language Variation and Change study group, University of Toronto, March 27.

Book Chapters & Other Academic Writing

Reynolds, B., & Brown, J. (2019). Treating ESL students with respect: Critical praxis. In A. Jule (Ed.), The Compassionate Educator: Understanding Social Issues in Canadian Schools (pp. 153–173). Toronto: Canadian Scholars.
Reynolds, B. (2012). ウィキの神話を打ち破る：ウィキが、あなたが求めているラィティングの解決法になりそうもない理由 [Busting the wiki myth]. In M. Jamall (Ed.), Sound & Vision, 69–98. Tokyo: Kazama Press.
Reynolds, B. (2012). Oxford Modern English Grammar by Bas Aarts (Book review). Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching. PDF
Reynolds, B. (2010). Chunking: Another perspective. Visual Thesaurus. Archive
Reynolds, B. (2007). Teaching and Learning Vocabulary: Bringing Scientific Research to Practice (Review). TESL Canada Journal, 24(2), 137–138. PDF

Educational Materials

Reynolds, B. et al. (2022). ODELLO (Online free and open materials for CLB 1–4). eCampus Ontario. Website
Graham-Marr, A., Moran, D., McNeese, S., & Reynolds, B. (2009). Communication Spotlight: Speaking Strategies and Listening Skills: Starter. Tokyo: Abax.
Reynolds, B. (2008). Foundations Reading Library, Level 7: Activity Book. R. Waring & M. Jamall (Eds.). Boston: Heinle.
Reynolds, B. (2008). Foundations Reading Library, Level 5: Lesson Planner. R. Waring & M. Jamall (Eds.). Boston: Heinle.

Popular Writing

Reynolds, B. (2023–present). Multiple articles for Mental Floss. Author page
Reynolds, B. (2006–2014). English, Jack (blog, ~800 posts). Blog