Ricardo Etxepare

Ricardo Etxepare is a senior CNRS researcher at the UMR 5478 IKER (Centre de Recherche sur la langue et les textes basques-Euskara eta euskal testuen ikerketa zentroa) in Bayonne. He is a linguist specialized in the syntax-semantics interface, language contact, and the evolution of grammar in time. His more recent interests expand into other areas: some of his recent publications are oriented towards issues in cognitive archeology, in particular the study of prehistoric traces of language and bimodalism (bilingualism involving oral and signed languages). He has been the Deputy Scientific Director of the Language Sciences section at the Institute of Social and Human Sciences of the CNRS between 2022 and 2025, as well as chargé de mission for all issues related to education for the same Institute during that period.

Some recent publications:

2025 Aritz Irurtzun, Ricardo Etxepare, Giorgia Miotti & Carlo Geraci “Lenguas de signos alternativas. Una posible interpretación de las manos negativas paleolíticas” In P. Utrilla & M. Bea (eds) Las pinturas paleolíticas de la cueva de Fuente del Trucho (Asque-Colungo, Huesca). Zaragoza: Universidad de Zaragoza.

2025 Etxepare, Ricardo and Myriam Uribe-Etxebarria « Two strategies for constituent negation » In Maria Jesus Arche and Hamida Demirdache (eds) Footprints of Phrase Structure. Studies in Syntax for Tim Stowell. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/la.288.12etx

2025 Haddican, Bill, Irantzu Epelde, Urtzi Etxeberria and Ricardo Etxepare « Change in Root Conditions in Basque Allocutivity » Journal of Historical Syntax 9-4: 1–35. DOI: 10.18148/hs/2025.v9i2-10.216

2024 Etxepare, Ricardo “Wh-distributives in Basque” In Angel Gallego and Dennis Ott (eds) Cartography and Explanatory Adequacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 101-137.

2022 Etxepare, Ricardo and Angel Gallego « A note on parameter setting in language contact » Languages 7(1) 34. Special issue Syntactic Variation in Language Contact Situations. The view from an I-Language Perspective. https://doi.org/10.3390/languages7010034

2021 Etxepare, Ricardo and Aritz Irurtzun “Gravettian hand stencils as sign language formatives” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 20200205. DOI : 10.1098/rstb.2020.0205

Featured in New Scientist. March 18, 2023, Vol. 257 Issue 3430, p38, 5 p.

2021 Estarrona, Ainara, Izaskun Etxeberria, Ricardo Etxepare, Manuel Padilla and Ander Soraluze « The first annotated corpus of historical Basque » Digital Scholarship in the Humanities. https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqab066