Stéphane Robert

Stéphane Robert is a French linguist based at LLACAN (CNRS) who specializes in Information Structure and cognitive linguistic issues in African languages, especially Atlantic languages.

Education and research

Stéphane Robert received her PhD in 1989 from the Université de Paris VII (félicitations du jury), under the direction of Antoine Culioli, with a dissertation entitled, Système verbal et énonciation en wolof. In 1996 she received her Habilitation (félicitations du jury), at the Université de Paris VII UFR de Linguistique with a Habilitation thesis entitled, Réflexions sur la dynamique du sens et la structuration des énoncés.

Robert has been a researcher at LLACAN (CNRS) since 1992, and has been a Research Director there since 1998. She is best known for her work on the expression of focus in Wolof.

Honors and awards

2018 elected to the Academia Europea 2013 Chevalier de la Légion d’honneur

Selected publications Hickman, Maya & Stéphane Robert (eds.). 2006. Space in Languages. Benjamins. DOI:

Robert, Stéphane. 1991. Approche énonciative du système verbal: le cas du wolof. Editions du CNRS. ISBN 978-2-222-04479-6

Rialland, Annie & & Stéphane Robert. 2001. The intonational system of Wolof. Linguistics 39, 893–939. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling.2001.038

Robert, Stéphane. 1993. Structure et sémantique de la focalisation. Bulletin de la Société de Linguistique de Paris 88, 25–47.