Phonological development in child speakers of mixed language. In Northern Territory Aboriginal communities where traditional languages are mostly spoken fluently by older people, the home language for many children is a kind of mixed language combining elements of traditional languages, Kriol and English. This project will document for the first time the sound system of this language, and investigate how children's background knowledge of this sound system prepares them to learn words in English ....Phonological development in child speakers of mixed language. In Northern Territory Aboriginal communities where traditional languages are mostly spoken fluently by older people, the home language for many children is a kind of mixed language combining elements of traditional languages, Kriol and English. This project will document for the first time the sound system of this language, and investigate how children's background knowledge of this sound system prepares them to learn words in English and traditional languages. This information is important because it can help parents, teachers and speech pathologists assess and teach Aboriginal children from mixed language backgrounds.Read moreRead less
Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM): formalisation, computation, referential semantics. Meaning is what links language with culture, communication and cognition but strangely enough, most linguists do not regard semantics (the systematic study of meaning) as a central part of their discipline. This project pursues basic research in the leading meaning-based theory of language: the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) theory, which has been originated and developed primarily in Australia. It aims ....Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM): formalisation, computation, referential semantics. Meaning is what links language with culture, communication and cognition but strangely enough, most linguists do not regard semantics (the systematic study of meaning) as a central part of their discipline. This project pursues basic research in the leading meaning-based theory of language: the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM) theory, which has been originated and developed primarily in Australia. It aims to make this theory more precise, to work out how it can be used by computers, and to connect it with other, more mathematically inspired approaches to meaning.Read moreRead less
The Grammar of Biblical Hebrew: Functional and Corpus Analyses. The project promotes original, innovative research in Australia into Biblical Hebrew linguistics. Advancement in the knowledge of linguistics increases our understanding of language and its central role in cognition, social interaction, and culture. Biblical Hebrew is the language of the Hebrew Bible, a text sacred to Judaism and Christianity, and of interest to the wider Australian public. The Hebrew Bible is inextricably bound to ....The Grammar of Biblical Hebrew: Functional and Corpus Analyses. The project promotes original, innovative research in Australia into Biblical Hebrew linguistics. Advancement in the knowledge of linguistics increases our understanding of language and its central role in cognition, social interaction, and culture. Biblical Hebrew is the language of the Hebrew Bible, a text sacred to Judaism and Christianity, and of interest to the wider Australian public. The Hebrew Bible is inextricably bound to these two religious traditions that continue to influence substantially Australian society and societies across the world. This project furthers Australia's capacity to contribute to the vital task of interpreting the Hebrew Bible in contemporary, responsible ways and translating it into the world's languages.Read moreRead less
The linguistic use of space in Auslan (Australian Sign Language): semantic roles and grammatical relations in three dimensions. Research into the structure of Auslan provides information for the production of assessment and teaching tools for practitioners to use in adult education settings (for second language learners of Auslan and Auslan interpreters) and in special education for signing deaf children. It will also serve as a basis for further research into the acquisition of grammatical use ....The linguistic use of space in Auslan (Australian Sign Language): semantic roles and grammatical relations in three dimensions. Research into the structure of Auslan provides information for the production of assessment and teaching tools for practitioners to use in adult education settings (for second language learners of Auslan and Auslan interpreters) and in special education for signing deaf children. It will also serve as a basis for further research into the acquisition of grammatical use of space by native signing deaf children. These outcomes will further benefit the deaf community, improving deaf people's access to education, health, government services and the employment sector.Read moreRead less
Papuan Descriptive Linguistics of the West Sepik Region. The New Guinea area has an exceptional, but very poorly understood linguistic diversity, over 1000 languages belonging to many unrelated families. This project will fill in gaps through on site fieldwork in Sandaun (West Sepik) Province, linguistically the most genetically diverse and least known province in all of Papua New Guinea. The grammatical descriptions resulting will enrich our understanding of linguistic variation, not only in ....Papuan Descriptive Linguistics of the West Sepik Region. The New Guinea area has an exceptional, but very poorly understood linguistic diversity, over 1000 languages belonging to many unrelated families. This project will fill in gaps through on site fieldwork in Sandaun (West Sepik) Province, linguistically the most genetically diverse and least known province in all of Papua New Guinea. The grammatical descriptions resulting will enrich our understanding of linguistic variation, not only in New Guinea, but in the world as a whole.Read moreRead less
Thinking and talking about atolls: the role of environment in shaping language and our understanding of physical space. This project investigates the role of environment in shaping how we think about physical space. By comparing how people in the highly specialised environment of the atoll talk about space in different parts of the world we will gather new data to test ideas on the roles of language and environment in shaping how we understand the physical world.
Understanding Indonesian: developing a machine-usable grammar, dictionary and corpus. Australia's relationship with Indonesia is of great significance. The need for good relationships founded on appreciation of the range of societies and views in modern Indonesia is widely acknowledged. A better knowledge of the languages is essential for this, and so are fast, efficient information gathering systems for processing multilingual sources (including Indonesian text), that can analyse large volumes ....Understanding Indonesian: developing a machine-usable grammar, dictionary and corpus. Australia's relationship with Indonesia is of great significance. The need for good relationships founded on appreciation of the range of societies and views in modern Indonesia is widely acknowledged. A better knowledge of the languages is essential for this, and so are fast, efficient information gathering systems for processing multilingual sources (including Indonesian text), that can analyse large volumes of text. The skills to build such systems exist internationally. Through collaboration with established international teams, we plan to transfer cutting-edge skills in the development of machine-useable grammars to Australian researchers, and to create the language resources essential for understanding Indonesian.Read moreRead less
Verbs and coverbs: a cross-linguistic re-analysis of part-of-speech categories. This project will make a significant contribution to the maintenance of Australia's Aboriginal cultural heritage. Aboriginal people consistently identify the maintenance of traditional languages as one of their primary concerns. The project will result in detailed documentation of three endangered Australian languages. The material produced by the project will be an invaluable resource both to linguists international ....Verbs and coverbs: a cross-linguistic re-analysis of part-of-speech categories. This project will make a significant contribution to the maintenance of Australia's Aboriginal cultural heritage. Aboriginal people consistently identify the maintenance of traditional languages as one of their primary concerns. The project will result in detailed documentation of three endangered Australian languages. The material produced by the project will be an invaluable resource both to linguists internationally and to Aboriginal communities, to whom materials will be returned in accessible formats to support language maintenance activities. The project will maintain Australia's momentum at the forefront of digital archiving technology for language documentation. Read moreRead less
The Indigenous grammar of Aboriginal English: implications for contact linguistics. This project will investigate how Australian Indigenous languages have shaped Aboriginal English, a major variety of Australian English. The project will significantly advance the knowledge base of linguistics and make a key contribution to improving the social opportunities of Indigenous Australians.
Are super-complex words represented like sentences in speakers' minds? This project aims to examine speakers' knowledge of super-complex words in the remote Australian language Wubuy. The project will provide a crucial test of current theories of language processing and linguistic typology via experimental work on the Indigenous language Wubuy, a language that defies the perceived fundamental distinction between words and phrases. This will have significant benefit to Indigenous language mainten ....Are super-complex words represented like sentences in speakers' minds? This project aims to examine speakers' knowledge of super-complex words in the remote Australian language Wubuy. The project will provide a crucial test of current theories of language processing and linguistic typology via experimental work on the Indigenous language Wubuy, a language that defies the perceived fundamental distinction between words and phrases. This will have significant benefit to Indigenous language maintenance and revitalisation efforts and thus help improve Indigenous education outcomes and reinforce cultural pride.Read moreRead less