I am currently a post-doctoral Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter (Lecturer without tenure) at the chair for German and Historical Linguistics (Prof. Eric Fuß) (Germanistische Linguistik, insb. Sprachgeschichte/historische Linguistik) at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum. I defended my PhD at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in October 2021, where I was affiliated with the Leibniz Prize Research Unit for (Experimental) Syntax and Heritage Languages (RUESHeL) led by Prof. Artemis Alexiadou.
Email: benjamin.lowellsluckin AT rub DOT de
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Sluckin has a /u/ vowel – like “fluke” and not /ʌ/ as in “but”.
I pronounce the name Sluckin with an intervocalic /k/, hence [slu:kɪn]. This is because English and German speakers are generally unaware that ‘c’ is really the transliterated way of writing Slavic /ts/ in Latin-derived writing systems. My grandfather decided that a spelling change, or informing everyone that it’s /ts/, would be more trouble than it’s worth.
So really the name should be ‘Slutzkin’ [slu:tskɪn], and any reader of Polish could tell you that! Indeed, in Cyrillic script the name is written „слуцкин“. Alas, it is still more trouble than it’s worth to make people say it “correctly”, so just get the vowel right and I’ll be happy.
06/2026: New paper under review: "(Everyone) Everywhere All at Once: A relational account of quantified impersonal -where in English" – available on LingBuzz, currently under peer review.
04/2026: New paper under review (with Eric Fuß): "(Not) Anything Goes: The syntax and diachrony of the German gehen-middle" – available on LingBuzz, currently under peer review.
2026: Resubmitted after revisions (with Itamar Kastner): "‘Everywhere here can say this’: The English locative impersonal" – available on LingBuzz, back under peer review.
03/2025: Published in Journal of Germanic Linguistics 37(1) in 2025 "Revisiting the syntax and development of Kiezdeutsch V3: a new perspective" Open Access
12/2024: Published in Evolutionary Linguistic Theory 6(1-2) "The covert perceiver in English Locative Inversion: an alternative to expletive pro", Open Access
12/2024: Published with Eric Fuß in Evolutionary Linguistic Theory 6(1-2) "The evolution of expletives", Open Access
