School of Languages and Linguistics - Research Publications
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ItemExplaining the Linguistic Diversity of Sahul Using Population Models(PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE, 2009-11)The region of the ancient Sahul continent (present day Australia and New Guinea, and surrounding islands) is home to extreme linguistic diversity. Even apart from the huge Austronesian language family, which spread into the area after the breakup of the Sahul continent in the Holocene, there are hundreds of languages from many apparently unrelated families. On each of the subcontinents, the generally accepted classification recognizes one large, widespread family and a number of unrelatable smaller families. If these language families are related to each other, it is at a depth which is inaccessible to standard linguistic methods. We have inferred the history of structural characteristics of these languages under an admixture model, using a Bayesian algorithm originally developed to discover populations on the basis of recombining genetic markers. This analysis identifies 10 ancestral language populations, some of which can be identified with clearly defined phylogenetic groups. The results also show traces of early dispersals, including hints at ancient connections between Australian languages and some Papuan groups (long hypothesized, never before demonstrated). Systematic language contact effects between members of big phylogenetic groups are also detected, which can in some cases be identified with a diffusional or substrate signal. Most interestingly, however, there remains striking evidence of a phylogenetic signal, with many languages showing negligible amounts of admixture.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableCHIELD: the causal hypotheses in evolutionary linguistics database(Oxford University Press (OUP), 2020)There are many hypotheses about how it originated, what factors shaped its diversity, and what ongoing processes drive how it changes. We present the Causal Hypotheses in Evolutionary Linguistics Database (CHIELD, https://chield. excd. org/), a tool for expressing, exploring, and evaluating hypotheses. It allows researchers to integrate multiple theories into a coherent narrative, helping to design future research. We present design goals, a formal specification, and...
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ItemWhy Don't Linguists Talk about Politics? Moving Forward on Language Endangerment-Together(WILEY, 2020-03-01)Davis and Roche highlight the issues that arise when we try to discuss endangered languages without paying due attention totheir historical, social, and political context. Davis gives an example of how linguists’ overly narrow focus on language can lead to errors in counting the number of speakers of endangered languages. ...
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ItemThe wrong t-shirt: configurations of language and identity at Warruwi Community(WILEY, 2018-04)On June 22nd 1916, Reverend James Watson was brought to Warruwi in a canoe by a group of Maningpurru people. A re‐enactment of this event was staged at the beach called Angpungijpa or Watson's Landing on the 22nd of June 2016. The performers wore either a yellow or blue t‐shirt and the two colours were interpreted by many participants as representing the languages Mawng and Kunwinjku. In interpreting the t‐shirts, people made a direct connection between language and identity, invoking the ‘language tribe’ (Rumsey 1993). In other contexts, however, language ownership is claimed by connecting language to identity indirectly, via patrilineal clan (Merlan 1981). The multiple configurations of language and identity available at Warruwi reflect the way that clan groupings, significant within the current regime of recognition in the region (Povinelli ) co‐exist with the ‘language tribes’ of earlier eras and other groupings both long‐standing and emergent.
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ItemIndigenous multilingualisms past and present(Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, 2018-09-01)
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ItemBeyond the classifier/gender dichotomy: The role of flexibility in a more integrated typology of nominal classification(Oxford University Press, 2018-01-01)The entrenched nature of the gender/classifier dichotomy stands in the way of better typologies of nominal classification. How can we move beyond it to a more integrated view of nominal classification? Looking at a range of kinds of data from the Australian language Mawng, it is clear that our understanding of many less well-known nominal classification systems reflects a lack of data on how the system is used. Mawng has what seems like a well-behaved system of five genders, including gender agreement in the verb. However, the genders, like classifiers, play a crucial role in constructing meaning in discourse, often in the absence of nouns. Nominal classification systems must be contextualized in terms of their roles in constructing meaning in discourse, in order to do them justice in typologies. Greater emphasis on the flexibility of nominal classification systems and less on the role of nouns will also move efforts forward.
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ItemA small speech community with many small languages: The role of receptive multilingualism in supporting linguistic diversity at Warruwi Community (Australia)(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2018-09)
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ItemThe impact of national standardized literacy and numeracy testing on children and teaching staff in remote Australian Indigenous communities(Sage Publications, 2019)All educational testing is intended to have consequences, which are assumed to be beneficial, but tests may also have unintended, negative consequences (Messick, 1989). The issue is particularly important in the case of large-scale standardized tests, such as Australia’s National Assessment Program - Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), the intended benefits of which are increased accountability and improved educational outcomes. The NAPLAN purpose is comparable to that of other state and national ‘core skills’ testing programs, which evaluate cross-sections of populations in order to compare results between population sub-groupings. Such comparisons underpin ‘accountability’ in the era of population-level testing. This study investigates the impact of NAPLAN testing on one population grouping that is prominent in the NAPLAN results’ comparisons and public reporting: children in remote Indigenous communities. A series of interviews with principals and teachers documents informants’ first-hand experiences of the use and effects of NAPLAN in schools. In the views of most participants, the language and content of the test instruments, the nature of the test engagement, and the test washback have negative impacts on students and staff, with little benefit in terms of the usefulness of the test data. The primary issue is the fact that meaningful participation in the tests depends critically on proficiency in Standard Australian English (SAE) as a first language. This study contributes to the broader discussion of how reform-targeted standardized testing for national populations affects sub-groups who are not treated equitably by the test instrument or reporting for accountability purposes. It highlights a conflict between consequential validity and the notion of accountability that drives reform-targeted testing.
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ItemThe Dynamics of Nominal Classification: Productive and Lexicalised Uses of Gender Agreement in Mawng(Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2016)The starting point for this book is a relatively unusual phenomenon – the lexicalisation of verbal agreement. Recognition of the centrality of expressions with lexicalised agreement in Mawng prompts a re-evaluation of more commonplace phenomena such as selectional restrictions and nominal classification. This takes us straight into the very heart of language: the role arguments play in the characterisation of events. The role arguments play means that, for example, ‘squashing a pillow’ is not quite the same as ‘squashing a tomato’. In addition, each language provides us with a quite different set of resources for referring to arguments, and these enable different kinds of semantic interactions between verbs and their arguments. In English, a noun phrase is the typical way to contribute information about participants. In Australian languages, however, you are more likely to find a free classifier or bound argument index in this role. Whether a language has classifiers or verbal indexing of arguments gives us different options for expressing a participant. There have been many studies on how languages differ in their grammatical resources for referring to participants. But what are the consequences of these differences for how meaning is constructed in discourse?
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ItemIntonational correlates of subject and object realisation in Mawng (Australian)(ISCA, 2016)A range of intonational devices can be used in the grammar of information and corrective focus marking in languages with relatively free word order. In this paper we explore whether nouns in the Australian Indigenous language Mawng are realised differently depending on syntactic function and focus. Results show that the pitch level associated with Subjects is higher in conditions of corrective focus compared to other utterance contexts and there is a strong correlation between focus and utterance position. Placing a word in a corrective focus context does not appear to have an effect on word duration in this corpus confirming that pitch register variation and intonational phrasing are the major prosodic cues associated with corrective focus in Mawng.