Inside the Indonesian bureaucracy: a sociolinguistic study of the role of talk in the doing of bureaucratic work. While talk is central to the conduct of everyday life, we know little about its role in the doing of everyday tasks in multilingual institutional settings in Indonesia. This project seeks to fill this gap by investigating the role of talk in the building and maintenance of social relationships in a multilingual Indonesian bureaucracy.
The grammar of knowledge: a cross-linguistic view of evidentials and epistemological expressions. How does a speaker know that what they say is correct? Some languages have obligatory marking for stating 'information source' ('seen', 'inferred', or 'reported'). In others a source is optional - 'the (reported) theft'. This cross-linguistic investigation will advance our understanding of human interaction and the expression of knowledge.
Bilingualism in the bush: reconceptualising 'speech community' in immigrant family language maintenance in regional Australia. This project will investigate how immigrant families in regional Australian centres maintain their children's home language(s) in the absence of the critical mass of speakers, networks and resources found in metropolitan areas. It will establish how such families can best be supported through community and educational services to ensure that children grow up bilingual, w ....Bilingualism in the bush: reconceptualising 'speech community' in immigrant family language maintenance in regional Australia. This project will investigate how immigrant families in regional Australian centres maintain their children's home language(s) in the absence of the critical mass of speakers, networks and resources found in metropolitan areas. It will establish how such families can best be supported through community and educational services to ensure that children grow up bilingual, with the attendant benefits of improved cognitive, social and academic skills. The project will examine home practices and the interface between home and early childhood services. Outcomes will include a better understanding of successful family language planning practices in isolated regions and a reconceptualisation of 'speech community' through communications technologies.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE120102017
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$375,000.00
Summary
Typology of language use: quantitative investigations of discourse from endangered languages. This project investigates striking similarities in information management across under-studied, non-European languages with varying grammatical patterns. Employing an innovative quantitative methodology to the study of natural language usage, this is a foundational research project in the emergent field of text-based language typology.
Australian Laureate Fellowships - Grant ID: FL120100116
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$2,416,141.00
Summary
How gender shapes the world: a linguistic perspective. This project will seek to understand and explain gender roles in Australian society, and in nearby nations. Emphasis is placed on training researchers with an immigrant or minority background, working towards the empowerment of women researchers. This will enhance our nation's capacity to interpret and manage gender roles in multicultural contexts.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE180101609
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$392,315.00
Summary
Telling the whole story in one sentence. This project aims to produce a framework for analysis of the ultra-long sentences that occur in hundreds of languages and to investigate the processing of these sentences by adults and children. Anticipated outcomes are enhanced models of language structure, mental processing of language, and brain functions. Understanding of drastically-different sentence types in the world’s languages will further benefit foreign language learners, machine translators, ....Telling the whole story in one sentence. This project aims to produce a framework for analysis of the ultra-long sentences that occur in hundreds of languages and to investigate the processing of these sentences by adults and children. Anticipated outcomes are enhanced models of language structure, mental processing of language, and brain functions. Understanding of drastically-different sentence types in the world’s languages will further benefit foreign language learners, machine translators, and immigrants learning English.Read moreRead less
The building blocks of meaning: a linguistic approach. This project will investigate how complex meanings are built up from more basic building blocks, and to what extent basic meanings differ between different languages, cultures, and geographical zones. The project is expected to lead to significant advances in the scientific knowledge of language. Nothing comparable has been attempted before. Expected outcomes include a rich harvest of new knowledge, digital tools to assist with analysing and ....The building blocks of meaning: a linguistic approach. This project will investigate how complex meanings are built up from more basic building blocks, and to what extent basic meanings differ between different languages, cultures, and geographical zones. The project is expected to lead to significant advances in the scientific knowledge of language. Nothing comparable has been attempted before. Expected outcomes include a rich harvest of new knowledge, digital tools to assist with analysing and translating complex meanings, and ongoing international collaborations. This will provide significant benefits such as enabling messaging and communication in education, health care, service delivery and international affairs to be clearer, more accessible and more translatable.Read moreRead less
Improving Communication with Aboriginal English Speakers: A Study of cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. The project will explore cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. Often unfamiliarity with Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations on the part of non-Aboriginal people leads to miscommunication, disadvantaging Aboriginal speakers, especially in institutional contexts (for example, schoolrooms, courtrooms, Centrelink offices). The aim of this study is to alleviate such ....Improving Communication with Aboriginal English Speakers: A Study of cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. The project will explore cultural conceptualisations in Aboriginal English. Often unfamiliarity with Aboriginal cultural conceptualisations on the part of non-Aboriginal people leads to miscommunication, disadvantaging Aboriginal speakers, especially in institutional contexts (for example, schoolrooms, courtrooms, Centrelink offices). The aim of this study is to alleviate such problems, and significantly advance Aboriginal English research, by exploring culturally constructed conceptualisations, in particularly cultural-conceptual metaphor, underlying the use of Aboriginal English, using the the analytical tools of Cultural Linguistics. The study will also make a significant contribution to the development of Cultural Linguistics. Read moreRead less
Grammatical variation in English worldwide: the role of colloquialisation, Americanisation and other factors. The first large-scale study of grammatical features in English worldwide and their relationship to sociocultural practices, this project will provide insights into the interplay of local and global forces in the shaping of English and enhance Australia’s capacity to interpret and engage with societies in which English is a major language.
Understanding bilingual language acquisition in northern Indigenous Australia: phonological, lexical, orthographic, and family factors. Children's language outcomes are critical for health, social inclusion, education and employment. In northern Australia many Indigenous children grow up as Kriol/English bilinguals in disadvantaged communities; this research will establish the linguistic, educational, and family factors in successful language acquisition for these children.