David Lightfoot

6.0k total citations · 1 hit paper
73 papers, 2.3k citations indexed

About

David Lightfoot is a scholar working on Language and Linguistics, Linguistics and Language and Cultural Studies. According to data from OpenAlex, David Lightfoot has authored 73 papers receiving a total of 2.3k indexed citations (citations by other indexed papers that have themselves been cited), including 39 papers in Language and Linguistics, 15 papers in Linguistics and Language and 12 papers in Cultural Studies. Recurrent topics in David Lightfoot's work include Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (33 papers), Language and cultural evolution (12 papers) and Linguistic Variation and Morphology (10 papers). David Lightfoot is often cited by papers focused on Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (33 papers), Language and cultural evolution (12 papers) and Linguistic Variation and Morphology (10 papers). David Lightfoot collaborates with scholars based in United States, Canada and Netherlands. David Lightfoot's co-authors include Norbert Hornstein, Stephen R. Anderson, Joseph Aoun, Amy Weinberg, Marit Westergaard, G. S. V. Raghavan, F.R. van de Voort, Hosahalli S. Ramaswamy, Sabine Iatridou and Höskuldur Þráinsson and has published in prestigious journals such as Annual Review of Physiology, Language and Behavioral and Brain Sciences.

In The Last Decade

David Lightfoot

61 papers receiving 1.8k citations

Hit Papers

Principles of diachronic syntax 1979 2026 1994 2010 1979 100 200 300 400
What are hit papers?

Hit papers significantly outperform the citation benchmark for their cohort. A paper qualifies if it has ≥500 total citations, achieves ≥1.5× the top-1% citation threshold for papers in the same subfield and year (this is the minimum needed to enter the top 1%, not the average within it), or reaches the top citation threshold in at least one of its specific research topics.

  1. Principles of diachronic syntax
    1979 451 citations David Lightfoot profile →

Peers — A (Enhanced Table)

Peers by citation overlap · career bar shows stage (early→late) cites · hero ref

Name h Career Trend Papers Cites
David Lightfoot United States 22 1.6k 825 676 499 475 73 2.3k
Peter W. Culicover United States 25 1.7k 1.1× 510 0.6× 933 1.4× 524 1.1× 628 1.3× 62 2.4k
Juan Uriagereka United States 20 2.3k 1.4× 662 0.8× 1.0k 1.5× 299 0.6× 690 1.5× 65 2.7k
Paul M. Postal United States 24 2.0k 1.2× 604 0.7× 983 1.5× 238 0.5× 764 1.6× 53 2.6k
Daniel L. Everett United States 17 1.1k 0.7× 398 0.5× 367 0.5× 362 0.7× 812 1.7× 57 2.0k
Frederick J. Newmeyer United States 27 2.1k 1.3× 781 0.9× 948 1.4× 757 1.5× 996 2.1× 100 3.3k
Hagit Borer United States 20 1.7k 1.0× 524 0.6× 700 1.0× 299 0.6× 583 1.2× 28 1.9k
Andrew Radford United Kingdom 20 1.5k 0.9× 564 0.7× 607 0.9× 651 1.3× 445 0.9× 76 2.2k
Robert Freidin United States 8 2.1k 1.3× 527 0.6× 1.1k 1.6× 354 0.7× 913 1.9× 26 2.7k
David Pesetsky United States 19 1.4k 0.9× 517 0.6× 735 1.1× 783 1.6× 727 1.5× 28 2.5k
James D. McCawley United States 22 1.4k 0.8× 589 0.7× 868 1.3× 241 0.5× 889 1.9× 74 2.3k

Countries citing papers authored by David Lightfoot

Since Specialization
Citations

This map shows the geographic impact of David Lightfoot's research. It shows the number of citations coming from papers published by authors working in each country. You can also color the map by specialization and compare the number of citations received by David Lightfoot with the expected number of citations based on a country's size and research output (numbers larger than one mean the country cites David Lightfoot more than expected).

Fields of papers citing papers by David Lightfoot

Since Specialization
Physical SciencesHealth SciencesLife SciencesSocial Sciences

This network shows the impact of papers produced by David Lightfoot. Nodes represent research fields, and links connect fields that are likely to share authors. Colored nodes show fields that tend to cite the papers produced by David Lightfoot. The network helps show where David Lightfoot may publish in the future.

Co-authorship network of co-authors of David Lightfoot

This figure shows the co-authorship network connecting the top 25 collaborators of David Lightfoot. A scholar is included among the top collaborators of David Lightfoot based on the total number of citations received by their joint publications. Widths of edges represent the number of papers authors have co-authored together. Node borders signify the number of papers an author published with David Lightfoot. David Lightfoot is excluded from the visualization to improve readability, since they are connected to all nodes in the network.

All Works

20 of 20 papers shown
1.
Lightfoot, David, et al.. (2019). Variable Properties in Language: Their Nature and Acquisition. 8 indexed citations
2.
Lightfoot, David. (2017). Discovering new variable properties without parameters. 41(3). 409–444. 7 indexed citations
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5.
Lightfoot, David. (2013). Types of explanation in history. Language. 89(4). e18–e38. 2 indexed citations
6.
Lightfoot, David. (2010). Language acquisition and language change. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews Cognitive Science. 1(5). 677–684. 21 indexed citations
7.
Lightfoot, David. (2002). Explaining Language Change (Book). Journal of Linguistics. 38(2). 410–414. 1 indexed citations
8.
Anderson, Stephen R. & David Lightfoot. (2002). The language organ linguistics as cognitive physiology. 71 indexed citations
9.
10.
Lightfoot, David, Jamal Ouhalla, Peter Coopmans, et al.. (1994). Verb Movement. Cambridge University Press eBooks. 22 indexed citations
11.
Lightfoot, David. (1994). Verbs and diachronic syntax: A comparative history of English and French ByIan G. Roberts (review). Language. 70(3). 571–578. 2 indexed citations
12.
Lightfoot, David & Amy Weinberg. (1988). Barriers . By Noam Chomsky. (Linguistic Inquiry monographs, 13.) Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1986. Pp. viii, 102.. Language. 64(2). 366–383. 4 indexed citations
13.
Hornstein, Norbert & David Lightfoot. (1987). Predication and Pro. Language. 63(1). 23–52. 88 indexed citations
14.
Lightfoot, David. (1986). A Brief Response. Linguistic Inquiry. 17(1). 111–112. 1 indexed citations
15.
Lightfoot, David. (1986). Peter W. Culicover and Wendy K. Wilkins, Locality in linguistic theory. New York and London: Academic Press, 1984. Pp. viii + 276.. Journal of Linguistics. 22(2). 480–485. 25 indexed citations
16.
Aoun, Joseph & David Lightfoot. (1984). Government and contraction. Linguistic Inquiry. 15(3). 465–473. 37 indexed citations
17.
Hornstein, Norbert & David Lightfoot. (1981). Explanation in linguistics : the logical problem of language acquisition. Tijdschrift voor Philosophie. 47(2). 220 indexed citations
18.
Lightfoot, David. (1979). Mechanisms of syntactic change . Edited by Charles N. Li. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1977. Pp. xix, 620.. Language. 55(2). 381–395. 101 indexed citations
19.
Lightfoot, David. (1977). Syntactic change and the autonomy thesis. Journal of Linguistics. 13(2). 191–216. 8 indexed citations
20.
Lightfoot, David. (1971). Natural Logic and the Moods of Classical Greek.. Deep Blue (University of Michigan). 2 indexed citations

Rankless uses publication and citation data sourced from OpenAlex, an open and comprehensive bibliographic database. While OpenAlex provides broad and valuable coverage of the global research landscape, it—like all bibliographic datasets—has inherent limitations. These include incomplete records, variations in author disambiguation, differences in journal indexing, and delays in data updates. As a result, some metrics and network relationships displayed in Rankless may not fully capture the entirety of a scholar's output or impact.

Explore authors with similar magnitude of impact

Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Peter W. Culicover Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Juan Uriagereka Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Paul M. Postal Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Daniel L. Everett Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Frederick J. Newmeyer Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Hagit Borer Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Andrew Radford Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by Robert Freidin Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by David Pesetsky Breakdown of academic impact, for papers by James D. McCawley
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