JCU > Research Portfolio > Prof Alexandra Aikhenvald

About

When Distinguished Professor Sasha Aikhenvald was working in the East Sepik province of New Guinea she was fascinated to discover that the asset most prized by the people of the province was their name. In East Sepik, her name was important and valuable, but when she wanted to enrol in the classics department of Moscow State University in the old Soviet Union, her Jewish surname made her unacceptable.

Instead she chose linguistics for its mathematical rhythms, crossword puzzle complexities and cultural idiosyncrasies. The decision was the catalyst for a prolific body of research that included Berber languages of North Africa and Hebrew but focused on tropical languages, predominantly those of Amazonia, the Papuan languages of New Guinea and Aboriginal Australia.

Interests

Research

The relationship between language and culture, and the ways in which language reflects cultural stereotypes
Languages and cultures of Papua New Guinea, with a special focus on the Manambu language and the Ndu language family, from the East Sepik Province
Language and cultures of Lowland Amazonia, focussing on languages from Arawak family, the largest familyspanning South and Central America, in particular Tariana, Bare, (Warekena of Xie and Baniwa of Icana
The way languages influence each other in language contact, with a particular focus on language contact in Amazonia, and in the Sepik River Basin
Analysis of categories of human languages, including classifiers and genders, the ways in which languages express information source, serial verbs, and many more

Research Disciplines

Socio-Economic Objectives

Honours

Fellowships

2015 - Fellow of Queensland Academy of Arts and Sciences
2008 - Honorary member of Linguistic Society of America
1999 - Fellow of the Academy of the Humanities

Other

2010 to 2013 - Alexander von Humboldt Research Award

Publications

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU. Hover over Altmetrics badges to see social impact.

Journal Articles

Aikhenvald A (2018) Worlds apart: language survival and language use in two Middle Sepik communities. Journal de la Société des Océanistes, 146. pp. 203-212
Aikhenvald A (2018) How to copy your neighbours' ways: a cross-generational perspective on nominalizations in Tariana. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 71 (1). pp. 73-98
Aikhenvald A (2018) Disentangling a versatile prefix: the nature and development of a polysemous marker in Arawak languages. International Journal of American Linguistics, 84 (1).
Aikhenvald A (2016) Gender, shape, and sociality: how humans are special in Manambu. International Journal of Language and Culture, 3 (1). pp. 68-89

Book Chapters

Aikhenvald A (2018) Evidentiality: the basics. In: Oxford Handbook of Evidentiality. Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 148-172
Aikhenvald A (2018) Evidentiality and language contact. In: Oxford Handbook of Evidentiality. Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 148-172
Aikhenvald A (2018) The magic of names: a fieldworker's perspective. In: Word Hunters: Field Linguistics on Fieldwork. Studies in Language Companion Series. John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 9-28
Aikhenvald A (2017) Tariana, an Arawak language from north-west Amazonia. In: The Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis. Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA, pp. 713-734
Aikhenvald A (2017) Polysynthetic structures of Lowland Amazonia. In: The Oxford Handbook of Polysynthesis. Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA, pp. 284-311
Aikhenvald A (2017) Imperatives and commands: a cross-linguistic view. In: Commands. Explorations in Linguistic Typology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 1-45
Aikhenvald A (2017) A typology of noun categorization devices. In: The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Typology. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 361-404
Aikhenvald A and Dixon R (2017) Linguistic typology: setting the scene. In: The Cambridge Handbook of Linguistic Typology. Cambridge Handbooks in Language and Linguistics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, pp. 1-36

More: ResearchOnline@JCU stores 129+ research outputs authored by Prof Alexandra Aikhenvald from 2003 onwards.

Current Funding

Current and recent Research Funding to JCU is shown by funding source and project.

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Projects

The integration of language and society

Indicative Funding: $340,666 over 4 years
Summary: All human societies show pervasive similarities and all languages share recurrent features. Reaching beyond these, the project aims to study (a) substantial social and life-style differences, and (b) particular features of language structure, seeking associations between these. Viewing society and language as an integrated whole, the project team will focus on areas in PNG, Africa, East Asia, Amazonia and Australia, studying related groups in contrasting physical and social environments. Inductive generalisations concerning significant associations between societal and language parameters (eg varying techniques of address relating to articulated kin systems, and social hierarchy) aim to provide insight into the human dynamic.
Investigators: Alexandra Aikhenvald, Robert Dixon and Nerida Jarkey in collaboration with Maarten Mous and Anne Storch (College of Arts, Society & Education, Universiteit Leiden, Universitat zu Koln and The University of Sydney)
Keywords: evidentiality; society and language; genre; linguistic structure

Universities Australia and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) - Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme

Language emergence in multilingual contexts

Indicative Funding: $25,000 over 2 years
Summary: As European colonisation spread around the world, European languages infiltrated numerous areas, giving rise to new language varieties. Bringing indigenous people from various language groups together ? on plantations, in missions and boarding schools ? has resulted in creating new forms of dominant languages for inter-group communication, among them European-based Creoles (such as Tok Pisin, the English-based Creole, and the previously undescribed Unserdeutsch, a creolized variety of German, in PNG). New blended languages emerge, as communities come to live together. We focus on areas of high linguistic diversity covering New Guinea, Amazonia, and East Asia, in the context of multilingual situations.
Investigators: Alexandra Aikhenvald, Luca Ciucci, Katarzyna Wojtylak, Nathan White, Junwei Bai, Peter Maitz, Siegwalt Lindenfelser, Katharina Neumeier and Salome Lipfert (College of Arts, Society & Education and Universitat Augsburg)
Keywords: Creole language; Papuan languages; languages of East Asia; new languages; Hmong language; Unserdeutsch

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Australian Laureate Fellowships

How gender shapes the world: a linguistic perspective

Indicative Funding: $2,416,141 over 6 years
Summary: Gender pervades every aspect of life and of living. An understanding of its nature is central to many disciplines. The way gender is articulated shapes the world of individuals, and of the societies they live in. Study of Social Gender and Linguistic Gender offers a unique window into how humans construct representations of the world and encode them in their languages This project puts forward an innovative research program, systematically investigating gender expression and related socialization across languages and cultures, focusing on key Australian immigrant communities and our strategic neighbour New Guinea. The cutting-edge program will advance cross-cultural understanding and enhance capacity building within Australia and beyond.
Investigators: Alexandra Aikhenvald (College of Arts and Society & Education)
Keywords: Linguistic typology; gendedr; male and female speech

Universities Australia and German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) - Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme

Creativity in language: secret codes, special styles and linguistic taboos

Indicative Funding: $25,000 over 2 years
Summary: Each language has a rich aesthetic texture. Alongside the everyday language style, there can be (a) special speech styles employed in the poetry of songs, (b) special modes of speech used for ritual communication, in male and female initiation, mourning, and within important activities such as hunting or fishing, (c) respectful registers used in the presence of those relatives with whom one is not allowed to communicate directly, and (d) in-group modes of speech for particular age groups (youth languages), and play languages. The formal and the semantic aspects of special linguistic styles and secret languages reveal the mechanisms ? and the limits ? of linguistic creativity of speakers. The kinds of special codes reflect the speakers' social and cultural environment, including relationships between kin groups, the roles of men and women within a society, and societal practices. The project aims at providing a systematic examination of special codes, based on their functions and context of use, and how they relate to the everyday language styles. The project focuses on little-known languages from areas of substantial linguistic diversity in New Guinea, Amazonia, Aboriginal Australia, and Africa. The results will advance our understanding of the nature of language creativity and human cognition.
Investigators: Alexandra Aikhenvald in collaboration with Anne Storch, Katarzyna Wojtylak, Nicola Piper, Ryan Pennington, Nico Nassenstein, Andrea Wolvers and Angelika Mietzner (College of Arts, Society & Education and Universitat zu Koln)
Keywords: Language; Amazonian Languages; Taboo; secret code; african languages; Papuan Languages

Australian Research Council - Linkage - Projects

Land, language and heritage

Indicative Funding: $299,451 over 4 years
Summary: Building on academic work by RMW Dixon and educational initiatives by Ernie Grant, this large-scale cooperative initiative will produce comprehensive documentation of the Jirrbal Aboriginal tribe from North Queensland, in written, audiovisual and web-based form. It embraces traditional culture, recent history and language adaptation, enhancing the work of Partner Organisation, Echo Creek Cultural Centre, in the cross-cultural training it provides. The project is cast within the framework of the Holistic Approach (linking land, language and heritage), integrating and promoting indigenous knowledge. We work towards the empowerment of Indigenous Australians, reaffirmation of their identity and sustainable use of traditional environment.
Investigators: Robert Dixon and Alexandra Aikhenvald (College of Arts and Society & Education)
Keywords: Dyirbal language; Australian languages; language documentation; language and knowledge; Aboriginal empowerment

Australian Research Council - Discovery - Projects

How Languages Differ and Why

Indicative Funding: $350,000 over 3 years
Summary: Each language is always in a state of flux. Changes may be due to regularising its internal composition, borrowing words or structural patterns from another language of which its speakers have some knowledge or developing some new linguistic tool which reflects an important aspect of life-style (e.g. a set of polite pronouns for use in an evolving social hierarchy). We look at which linguistic features are most likely to be borrowed, which are most likely to be retained, and the reasons for this. We will examine the nature of linguistic diversity, with special focus on Papua New Guinea, Amazonia and north-east Queensland. The results will be significant for understanding inter-ethnic communication, and the nature of human cognition.
Investigators: Alexandra Aikhenvald and Robert Dixon (College of Arts and Society & Education)
Keywords: Language NG; Linguistic Diversity; Linguistic Division

Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (SOAS) - Small Grant Scheme

Documentation of Eibela, a languate of Western Province, Papua New Guinea

Indicative Funding: $9,516
Summary: This proposal is for the documentation of Eibela, also called Aimele, as part of a PhD project at James Cook University which will ultimately produce a grammar of the language along with a dictionary and a corpus of texts. Eibela is a severely endangered language with 300 speakers in Lake Campbell, Western Province in Papua New Guinea. This funding will be used to conduct a three month field trip to Lake Campbell in order to record and analyse the language, and support the production and archival of an annotated corpus of audio and video recordings.
Investigators: Grant Aiton and Alexandra Aikhenvald (College of Arts and Society & Education)
Keywords: Anthropological Linguistics; Language Documentation; Oral Literature

Supervision

Advisory Accreditation: I can be on your Advisory Panel as a Primary or Secondary Advisor.

These Higher Degree Research projects are either current or by students who have completed their studies within the past 5 years at JCU. Linked titles show theses available within ResearchOnline@JCU.

Current

A descriptive grammar of a previously unknown language from Papua New Guinea (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM)
A Comprehensive Grammar of Eastern Muya, an Undescribed Tibeto-Burman Language (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM)
Madame de Stael's Political Impact on Feminism and the Abolition of Slavery. (PhD , Advisor Mentor)
A Grammar of Meriam Mir (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM)
A Comprehensive Grammar of Mussau (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM)
A Comprehensive Descriptive Grammar of White Hmong (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM)
A Grammar of the Brokpa Language (PhD , Primary Advisor/AM)

Completed

A grammar of Paluai: the language of Baluan Island, Papua New Guinea (2014, PhD , Primary Advisor)
A grammar of Nungon: a Papuan language of the Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (2014, PhD , Primary Advisor)
'Skin has eyes and ears': audio-visual ethnography in a Sepik society (2014, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
Topics in the grammar of Lele: a language of Manus Island, Papua New Guinea (2015, PhD , Primary Advisor)
A grammar of Ma Manda a Papuan language of Morobe Province, Papua New Guinea (2016, PhD , Primary Advisor)
Decolonisation, interculturality, and multiple epistemologies: Hiwi people in Bolivarian Venezuela (2016, PhD , Secondary Advisor)
A grammar of Murui (Bue): a Witotoan language of Northwest Amazonia (2017, PhD , Primary Advisor)
A reference grammar of Ersu: a Tibeto-Burman language of China (2013, PhD , Primary Advisor)
A grammar of Umbeyajts as spoken by the Ikojts people of San Dionisio del Mar, Oaxaca, Mexico (2017, PhD , Primary Advisor)
A grammar of Eibela: a language of the Western Province, Papua New Guinea (2017, PhD , Primary Advisor)

Data

These are the most recent metadata records associated with this researcher. To see a detailed description of all dataset records, visit the JCU Research Data Catalogue.

Aikhenvald, A. (2012) Warekena of Xie, a North Arawak language, Xie River, northwest Brazil. James Cook University
Aikhenvald, A. (2012) The endangered Tariana, the only Arawak language of the Vaupes River Basin, north-west Amazon, Brazil: a corpus of audio recordings and stories. James Cook University

Collaboration

The map shows research collaborations by institution from the past 7 years.
Note: Map points are indicative of the countries or states that institutions are associated with.