The Language of Knowledge. Knowledge is central to our lives. The way we attribute knowledge to others governs whom we trust, how we reason, what we do, and whether we succeed. The significance of this project consists in a deeper understanding of our attributions of knowledge, situated within the context of questions. This project offers the benefits of quality foundational research in an interdisciplinary venue. It connects to a range of areas of National Research Priority including An Environ ....The Language of Knowledge. Knowledge is central to our lives. The way we attribute knowledge to others governs whom we trust, how we reason, what we do, and whether we succeed. The significance of this project consists in a deeper understanding of our attributions of knowledge, situated within the context of questions. This project offers the benefits of quality foundational research in an interdisciplinary venue. It connects to a range of areas of National Research Priority including An Environmentally Sustainable Australia, Promoting and Managing Good Health, and Frontier Technologies for Building and Transforming Australian Industries, insofar as all of these areas of National Research Priority are concerned with the acquisition and transfer of knowledge.Read moreRead less
Small stones can break big canoes: Securing records of the world's indigenous languages. Fragile records of the world’s Indigenous languages are at risk of being lost. Better research methods that can benefit not only academics but also the general public aim to be developed in this project and used to train new researchers and community members in creating better records. Collaborating across Australia and the Pacific in building tools that will result in better research practices, it will incr ....Small stones can break big canoes: Securing records of the world's indigenous languages. Fragile records of the world’s Indigenous languages are at risk of being lost. Better research methods that can benefit not only academics but also the general public aim to be developed in this project and used to train new researchers and community members in creating better records. Collaborating across Australia and the Pacific in building tools that will result in better research practices, it will increase knowledge of what research has been done, and will target areas for future focus. Modelling new fieldwork methods, building reusable datasets, and curating long-term collections of language records will all be part of this project, as will outreach to support similar work both in linguistics and in the broader community.Read moreRead less
Hearing the future: supporting Indigenous linguistic diversity. This project aims to find new ways to support the extraordinary diversity of Indigenous languages spoken in Australia. In Arnhem Land the ability to understand but not speak a language is widespread and plays a crucial role supporting linguistic diversity. This ability, receptive multilingualism, will be examined using an innovative interdisciplinary methodology, generating new understandings about the relationship between multiling ....Hearing the future: supporting Indigenous linguistic diversity. This project aims to find new ways to support the extraordinary diversity of Indigenous languages spoken in Australia. In Arnhem Land the ability to understand but not speak a language is widespread and plays a crucial role supporting linguistic diversity. This ability, receptive multilingualism, will be examined using an innovative interdisciplinary methodology, generating new understandings about the relationship between multilingualism and linguistic diversity that are crucial to tackling the global decline in Indigenous languages. The findings will help communities, educators and policymakers develop new strategies to support Australia’s Indigenous languages which are vital to Indigenous health and wellbeing.Read moreRead less
Semantic categories: Exploring the history of the Baining languages of Island Melanesia. The project adds to our knowledge of the historical, linguistic and ethnic relationships within Island Melanesia, thus contributing directly to our understanding of the complexities of this region. This regional focus expands Australia's expertise in Melanesian research, and reaffirms Australia's leading position in this area. Such expertise attracts outstanding international students and researchers to Aust ....Semantic categories: Exploring the history of the Baining languages of Island Melanesia. The project adds to our knowledge of the historical, linguistic and ethnic relationships within Island Melanesia, thus contributing directly to our understanding of the complexities of this region. This regional focus expands Australia's expertise in Melanesian research, and reaffirms Australia's leading position in this area. Such expertise attracts outstanding international students and researchers to Australia, strengthens the Australian research community, and increases the international visibility of Australian-based research. Furthermore, studying semantic categories provides a unique insight into how speakers of different languages categorise the world around and within them, thereby facilitating intercultural understanding.Read moreRead less
Unlocking the missing Millennia of mainland Southeast Asia. This project will reveal the prehistoric transition from Neolithic to Bronze Age in South and Southeast Asia, the missing Millennia of the archaeological record. Sophisticated linguistic analyses, facilitated by innovative computational methods and bioinformatics, reconstruct the languages, migrations, and societies of the region’s oldest cultures
The new voice of Multicultural Australian English. This project aims to generate an integrated and inclusive model of Australian-English, through phonetic analysis of the spoken language used by adolescents from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world yet the complex relationship between speech production and cultural diversity is largely unknown in 21st century multicultural Australia. This project aims to establish how adolescents f ....The new voice of Multicultural Australian English. This project aims to generate an integrated and inclusive model of Australian-English, through phonetic analysis of the spoken language used by adolescents from a range of ethnic backgrounds. Australia is one of the most ethnically diverse countries in the world yet the complex relationship between speech production and cultural diversity is largely unknown in 21st century multicultural Australia. This project aims to establish how adolescents from different ethnicities use speech patterns to symbolically express their diverse sociocultural identities. The project expects to inform sociophonetic theories of variation, ethnicity, and identity, providing a framework for supporting sociocultural cohesion in Australia. Read moreRead less
A fast comparative method for historical linguistics. Linguists are able to infer ancient histories of languages by a procedure known as the Comparative Method. Its results are used in related studies of human genetic and cultural change. However, the Comparative Method is a manual-only process and thus currently is a bottleneck for the science of unravelling the human past. This project aims to overcome this limitation and significantly accelerate linguistic discovery, by combining recent advan ....A fast comparative method for historical linguistics. Linguists are able to infer ancient histories of languages by a procedure known as the Comparative Method. Its results are used in related studies of human genetic and cultural change. However, the Comparative Method is a manual-only process and thus currently is a bottleneck for the science of unravelling the human past. This project aims to overcome this limitation and significantly accelerate linguistic discovery, by combining recent advances in computational language processing, statistics and cultural-evolutionary modelling. By producing innovative mathematical means for rapidly discovering ancient language relationships, it will enable a breakthrough in our capacity to uncover human linguistic, genetic and cultural heritage worldwide.Read moreRead less
The Power of the Translator: a New History of Cultural Change and Communication. Translators are crucial agents of cultural exchange. Understanding how translators construct and perform their role is vital to comprehend societies' conceptions of language and culture. This project aims to produce a new history of cultural change and enhance understanding of the translator’s agency in global communication. This will be achieved by studying the voices of translators as they emerge from manuscripts ....The Power of the Translator: a New History of Cultural Change and Communication. Translators are crucial agents of cultural exchange. Understanding how translators construct and perform their role is vital to comprehend societies' conceptions of language and culture. This project aims to produce a new history of cultural change and enhance understanding of the translator’s agency in global communication. This will be achieved by studying the voices of translators as they emerge from manuscripts, prints, and archival documents of the Renaissance, one of the richest periods of cultural interaction between Latin, Greek, and local languages.Read moreRead less
Reconceiving the queer public sphere: an interdisciplinary analysis of same-sex couple domesticity. Using literary, biographical and photographic sources, this project will produce a ground-breaking history of same-sex domestic environments across the twentieth century. Critically analysing queer home life, this project will transform current understandings of the relation between homosexuality, private life and the public sphere.
Understanding human history in Asia through linguistic analysis. This project aims to advance understanding of Australia's position in Asia and stimulate the research culture in linguistics. New research methodologies will advance knowledge and improve Australia's research skill base. Sharing expertise will strengthen institutional ties between Australia and its neighbours.