Katarzyna (Kasia) I. Wojtylak (PhD James Cook University) is an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Language and Culture Research Centre (LCRC). Since October 2018, Kasia has taken on a one-year position at the University of Regensburg, Germany, as a lecturer in Linguistics. Kasia's main research focus are Amazonian languages and contact linguistics. Since 2010, she have been working with the Witoto Murui people (Witotoan, Northwest Amazonia).

After completing two BA’s (2009, 2010) and an MPhil in Linguistics (2012) at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, in 2013, Kasia embarked on a PhD in Anthropological Linguistics at JCU. In December 2017, she graduated summa cum laude; her thesis is a reference grammar of Witoto Murui praised by the examiners as “earning a fully deserved place within the top 5% dissertations of its kind”. 

The main significance of Kasia's work lies in formulating generalizations concerning the typology of linguistic borrowing and providing reconstructions, comparative dictionaries, and further documentation for endangered languages of Caquetá-Putumayo (C-P) spoken in southern Colombia and northern Peru.

Interests

Professional

• Professional development courses

Research

• Languages and cultures of Amazonia and Australia, with a special focus on the Northwest Amazonian languages and the languages of North Queensland
• Language and cultures of the Caqueta-Putumayo River Basins in Northwest Amazonia (Witoto, Ocaina, Nonuya, Bora, Muinane, Resigaro and Andoque)
• The way languages influence each other in language contact
• Human dynamics in Amazonia, including groups' migration and spread patterns

Teaching

• Research-led teaching

Experience

• 2018 to 2019 - Research and Teaching Fellow, University of Regensburg (Regensburg, Germany)
• 2017 to 2018 - Post-doctoral Research Fellow at LCRC, James Cook University (Cairns, Australia)
• 2016 to 2018 - Co-ordinator at Tropical Language and Culture Documentation Laboratory, James Cook University (Cairns, Australia)
• 2014 to 2017 - Research Assistant (LCRC - Language and Culture Research Centre), James Cook University (Cairns, Australia)
• 2013 to 2017 - PhD scholar in Anthropological Linguistics, James Cook University (Cairns, Australia)
• 2010 to 2012 - Research Assistant (DOBES - Documentation of Endangered Languages programme), Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (Nijmegen, the Netherlands)
• 2010 - Research Assistant (Cross-Dialectal study of Dutch in Europe), The Meertens Institute (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)
• 2009 to 2010 - Student Board Member at the Faculty of Arts (Linguistics Department), VU University Amsterdam (Amsterdam, the Netherlands)

Research Disciplines

• Linguistics (4704)

Socio-Economic Objectives

• Expanding knowledge (2801)

Awards

• 2018 - JCU Research Support Program Grant (collaborator) "Linguistic and biological diversity: a tropical perspective".
• 2018 - The Jacobs Research Funds Grant (co-author) "Collection of oral discursive genres in Murui, a language from Northwest Amazonia".
• 2018 - Medal for Excellence for a Doctoral Research Thesis at JCU for 2017.
• 2018 - Australian Linguistic Society Research Grant (co-author) "The language of space in Carijona (Carib, Northwest Amazonia)".
• 2017 - PhD thesis cum laude distinction. James Cook University.
• 2017 - Australian Linguistic Society Research Grant.
• 2017 - Higher Degree Research Enhancement Scheme (HDRES). JCU Support grant.
• 2017 - Student Services and Amenities Fees (SSAF). JCU Research Grant.
• 2016 - Official Selection for the Understory Film Festival, Cairns, Australia
• 2015 - Photo competition. Official section for James Cook University Calendar 2016.
• 2014 - Firebird Foundation for Anthropological (Collection of Oral Literature and Traditional Ecological Knowledge) Research Grant "Collection of Murui Oral Literature".
• 2014 - Celebrating Research. JCU Research Grant.
• 2014 - JCU Finalist of the ‘Three Minutes Thesis competition’ (3MT). JCU Townsville.
• 2013 - Best Research Master Thesis of 2011-2011 Finalist (VU University Amsterdam, Faculty of Arts). Amsterdam, the Netherlands
• 2010 - VU University Amsterdam Funds Facultaire Beaurs. VU University Amsterdam Research Grant.
• 2010 - VU University Amsterdam Faculty of Arts Fondsendesk Beurs. VU University Amsterdam Research Grant.
• 2013 to 2017 - PhD scholarship within the Australian Laureate Fellowship Project of Prof. Alexandra Aikhenvald. JCU.
• 2007 to 2012 - Dutch Student Scholarship Program. Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

These are the most recent publications associated with this author. To see a detailed profile of all publications stored at JCU, visit ResearchOnline@JCU.

Journal Articles

• Wojtylak K (2019) Talking to the spirits: a jungle-at-night register of the Murui people from the Northwest Amazon. The Mouth: critical studies on language, culture and society, 4. pp. 78-90
• Wojtylak K (2019) Traversing language barriers: 'Witoto' signal drums from Northwest Amazonia. International Journal of Language and Culture, 6 (1). pp. 196-217
• Overall S and Wojtylak K (2018) Nominalizations in the Americas - Introduction. STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 71 (1). pp. 1-18
• Wojtylak K (2018) Comparative constructions in Murui (Witotoan, Northwest Amazonia). Linguistic Discovery, 16 (1). pp. 162-182
• Wojtylak K (2018) Nominalizations in Murui (Witotoan). STUF - Language Typology and Universals, 71 (1). pp. 19-46
• Bakhuis W and Wojtylak K (2011) Een verkenning van drie woordenlijsten Leeg Duits: analyse op basis van het Notebook (z.j. [1890?]) van Walter Hill, 'The Jersey Dutch dialect' (1910) van J. Dyneley Prince en Crumbs from an old Dutch closet (1938) van Lawrence G. van Loon. Trefwoord, 2011. pp. 1-15

Book Chapters

• Wojtylak K (2021) Links between language and society among the Murui of north-west Amazonia. In: The Integration of Language and Society: a cross-linguistic typology. Explorations in Linguistic Typology. Oxford University Press, New York, NY, USA, pp. 215-234
• Wojtylak K (2020) The phonological and grammatical status of Murui ‘word’. In: Phonological word and grammatical word: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, U.K., pp. 121-146
• Wojtylak K (2020) Multifaceted body parts in Murui: a case study from Northwest Amazonia. In: Body Part Terms in Conceptualization and Language Usage. Cognitive Linguistic Studies in Cultural Contexts. John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, NDL, pp. 170-190
• Wojtylak K (2019) The elusive verbal classifiers in ‘Witoto’. In: Genders and Classifiers: A Cross-Linguistic Typography. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 176-196
• Wojtylak K (2018) Evidentiality in Boran and Witotoan languages. In: The Oxford Handbook of Evidentiality. Oxford Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK, pp. 388-408
• Wojtylak K (2016) Classifiers as derivational markers in Murui (Northwest Amazonia). In: Word-Formation Across Languages . Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, pp. 393-425

More

ResearchOnline@JCU stores 23+ research outputs authored by Dr Katarzyna Wojtylak from 2011 onwards.

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

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.