Western Austronesian (Western Malayo-Polynesian) languages are categorised as either Philippine-type or Indonesian-type. While distinguishing between them is not always straightforward, there are a number of structural features which have been previously used to categorise each type. One generalisation used to differentiate these two types relates to the placement and category of bound personal pronominals. This lecture examines the features of pronominal clitics in Tondano (a...

Western Austronesian (Western Malayo-Polynesian) languages are categorised as either Philippine-type or Indonesian-type. While distinguishing between them is not always straightforward, there are a number of structural features which have been previously used to categorise each type. One generalisation used to differentiate these two types relates to the placement and category of bound personal pronominals. This lecture examines the features of pronominal clitics in Tondano (a...

Professor Geoffrey Haig (University of Bamberg (Germany)) on objects in discourse: cross-linguistic investigation of object indexing in spoken narratives. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Ken Manson (CRLD, La Trobe University) on documenting historical linguistics. With the rapid decline in the number of languages and language families, linguists have increased their documentation efforts to gather as much language data as possible before a language’s demise. However, collecting enough textual material and commenting/annotating/glossing to be useful for semanticists and historical linguists is a prohibitive undertaking for an individual, and even more so when there are...

Dr Ken Manson (CRLD, La Trobe University) on documenting historical linguistics. With the rapid decline in the number of languages and language families, linguists have increased their documentation efforts to gather as much language data as possible before a language’s demise. However, collecting enough textual material and commenting/annotating/glossing to be useful for semanticists and historical linguists is a prohibitive undertaking for an individual, and even more so when there are...

Professor Victor Friedman (Linguistics, University of Chicago) on typology and reality in the Balkans. This talk will contribute to the discussion of how so-called universals (typology) and language contact (areal linguistics) can be used in a nuanced fashion, and without conflation, to account for language change. Features of the Balkan languages not described in standard Balkan linguistic handbooks will serve as examples. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for...

Professor Victor Friedman (Linguistics, University of Chicago) on typology and reality in the Balkans. This talk will contribute to the discussion of how so-called universals (typology) and language contact (areal linguistics) can be used in a nuanced fashion, and without conflation, to account for language change. Features of the Balkan languages not described in standard Balkan linguistic handbooks will serve as examples. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for...

Dr Mark Turin (Linguist, Yale University) on his work preserving the languages of the Himilayan region. Copyright 2013 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Anthony Jukes (Australian Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Research on Language Diversity, La Trobe University) on Makassarese, a language of South Sulawesi (Indonesia) spoken by up to 2 million people. It has a set of verb prefixes cognate with symmetrical voice-marking morphology in other Austronesian languages of Indonesia and the Philippines. However unlike many of these languages Makassarese has an asymmetrical voice system, involving a passive prefix opposed to several ‘active’...

Dr Anthony Jukes (Australian Postdoctoral Fellow, Centre for Research on Language Diversity, La Trobe University) on Makassarese, a language of South Sulawesi (Indonesia) spoken by up to 2 million people. It has a set of verb prefixes cognate with symmetrical voice-marking morphology in other Austronesian languages of Indonesia and the Philippines. However unlike many of these languages Makassarese has an asymmetrical voice system, involving a passive prefix opposed to several ‘active’...

Dr Brett Baker (Languages and Linguistics, University of Melbourne) studies Australian indigenous languages. In the Australian language Wubuy (aka Nunggubuyu), as in other Gunwinyguan languages, we find that nouns and some other kinds of constituents (quantifiers) can occur inside the word that hosts the main verb root, along with the morphology of agreement and tense. Various tests show that these incorporated nouns must be accessible to syntax (for instance, they can be externally modified,...

Dr Stephen Morey (Centre for Research on Language Diversity, La Trobe University) on how languages are studied and preserved. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Howard Manns (Linguistics, Monash University) revisits the study of dialects in contact in light of the forces of globalisation. How the innovative use of traditional methodologies can inform the investigation of dialects in modern, urban environments. This is done by reviewing how three 'waves' of sociolinguistic inquiry informed a recent investigation of dialects in Java, Indonesia. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Ian Tupper (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) on agentive case marking in Pamosu, a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Ian Tupper (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) on agentive case marking in Pamosu, a Papuan language of Papua New Guinea. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Simon Overall (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) describes complementary processes of nasal and oral spreading in Aguaruna, a Jivaroan language of north Peru, and addresses the theoretical problems involved in analysing the data. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Simon Overall (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) describes complementary processes of nasal and oral spreading in Aguaruna, a Jivaroan language of north Peru, and addresses the theoretical problems involved in analysing the data. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Sarah Cutfield (Language Studies, Australian National University) reports on the exophoric (or, ‘spatial’) uses of the demonstrative in interactions in Dalabon, a non-Pama‐Nyungan language of southwestern Arnhem Land. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Sarah Cutfield (Language Studies, Australian National University) reports on the exophoric (or, ‘spatial’) uses of the demonstrative in interactions in Dalabon, a non-Pama‐Nyungan language of southwestern Arnhem Land. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Sarah Cutfield (Language Studies, Australian National University) reports on the exophoric (or, ‘spatial’) uses of the demonstrative in interactions in Dalabon, a non-Pama‐Nyungan language of southwestern Arnhem Land. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Stephen Morey (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) on modification in Tai Ahom. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Stephen Morey (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) on modification in Tai Ahom. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

Dr Stephen Morey (Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity, La Trobe University) on modification in Tai Ahom. Copyright 2012 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

David Nathan (Linguistics, University of London) on marshalling documentation at the endangered language archive. Copyright 2011 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.

David Nathan (Linguistics, University of London) on marshalling documentation at the endangered language archive. Copyright 2011 La Trobe University, all rights reserved. Contact for permissions.