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PROF NICHOLAS EVANS



Contact Details

Organization: Languages and Linguistics
Position: Honorary (Professorial Fellow)
Homepage: http://www.linguistics.unimelb.edu.au/about/staff/profiles/evans/
Work: 8344 8988
Fax: 9347 2613
Room: 526
Level: 05
Building: Arts Centre
Campus: Parkville

Research Expertise and International Linkages

Research Expertise

Research Interest Country of Expertise
Australian Aboriginal languages Australia
Other Endangered Languages Australia
Anthropological Linguistics Australia
Language Typology Australia
Historical Linguistics Australia
Semantics Australia

International Linkages

Country Establishment Collaboration
Germany University of Cologne Exchange, Research, Teaching
Netherlands Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Research
United Kingdom University of Surrey Research
Mexico University of Sonora Teaching
Mexico Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropologia Social - CIESAS Research, Teaching
Guatemala OKMA - Oxlajuuj Keej Maya' Ajtz'iib' Research, Teaching
Argentina University of Buenos Aires Research, Teaching
Japan Research Institute for Humanity and Nature Research

Qualifications, Honours, Fellowships and Other Awards

Qualifications

Title Institution Date Awarded Abbreviation
Bachelor of Science The Australian National University 31-Dec-1979
Master of Arts The Australian National University 31-Dec-1982
Doctor of Philosophy The Australian National University 31-Dec-1986

Fellowships

Fellowship Date Awarded
Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA)

Government Research Classifications

Research Fields, Courses and Discipline Classifications

Socio-Economic Objective Classifications

Grants and Contracts

Research Grants, Contracts and Consultancies awarded to the University of Melbourne as the administering institution (since 2003) as recorded in Themis Agreements.

Grants

Title Role Funding Source Scheme Award Date
Reciprocals across languages Chief Investigator AUST RESEARCH COUNCIL Discovery Projects 01/01/2003
Yiwarruj, yinyman, radbiyi Ida mali: Iwaidja & other endangered languages of the Cobourg Peninsula (Australia) in their cultural context Chief Investigator VOLKSWAGEN STIFTUNG Cooperative Projects 01/01/2003
SHARING ACCESS AND ANALYTICAL TOOLS FOR ETHNOGRAPHIC DIGITAL MEDIA USING HIGH SPEED NETWORKS Chief Investigator AUST RESEARCH COUNCIL ARC Special Research Initiatives E-Research 01/01/2005
Social cognition and language the design resources of grammatical diversity Chief Investigator AUST RESEARCH COUNCIL Discovery Projects 01/01/2008
ISOLATION, INSULARITY AND CHANGE IN ISLAND POPULATIONS - AN INTERDISPLINARY STUDY OF ABORIGINAL CULTURAL PATTERNS IN THE GULF OF CARPENTARIA Chief Investigator UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND Discovery Projects (AUST RESEARCH COUNCIL)

Publications

Publications produced at the University of Melbourne and reported in the Annual Publications Collection and 'Research Report' since 2001. The Themis Publications module, released in November 2006, allows additional publications from previous institutions and publications from past years to be entered.

Publications in 2008

Journal Articles

  • Big words, small phrases: Mismatches between pause units and the polysynthetic word in Dalabon


    Year: 2008
    Journal: Linguistics
    Volume: 46
    Issue: 1
    Page numbers: 89-129
    Author(s):
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Publications in 2007

Book Chapters

  • Insubordination and its uses
    Year: 2007
    Book: Finiteness
    Publisher: Oxford University Press(New York)
    Authors(s):
  • Pseudo-Argument Affixes in Iwaidja and Ilgar: A Case of Deponent Subject and Object Agreement
    Year: 2007
    Book: Deponency and Morphological Mismatches
    Publisher: Oxford University Press(New York)
    Authors(s):
  • Standing up  your mind: Remembering in Dalabon
    Year: 2007
    Book: The Language of Memory in a Crosslinguistics Perspective
    Publisher: Benjamins - John Benjamins Publishing Company(Amsterdam)
    Authors(s):
  • Warramurrungunji undone: Australian languages in the 51st Millennium
    Year: 2007
    Book: Endangered Languages
    Publisher: Helmut Buske Verlag(Hamburg)
    Authors(s):

Journal Articles

  • Indigenous language team shifts focus to land and sea management


    Year: 2007
    Journal: Waves
    Volume: 13
    Issue: 2
    Page numbers: 14
    Author(s):
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  • Valency mismatches and the coding of reciprocity in Australian languages
    Year: 2007
    Journal: Linguistic Typology
    Volume: 11
    Issue: 3
    Page numbers: 541-597
    Author(s):
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Conference Publications/Papers

  • Searching for meaning in the library of Babel: field semantics and problems of digital archiving
    Year: 2007
    Event name: SOAS
    Conference Publication: Language Documentation and Description
    Volume: 4
    Page numbers: 58-99
    Publisher: Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (School of Oriental and African Studies)(London)
    Author(s):

Publications in 2006

Books

  • Catching Language: The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing
    Year: 2006
    Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter(Berlin)
    Authors(s):
  • Majila Inkawart
    Year: 2006
    Publisher: iwaidja inyman(jabiru)
    Authors(s):

Book Chapters

  • Introduction: Catching Language
    Year: 2006
    Book: Catching Language: The Standing Challenge of Grammar Writing
    Publisher: Mouton de Gruyter(Berlin)
    Authors(s):
    Editors(s):

Journal Articles

  • Commentary on Mark Clendon, 'Reassessing Australia's Linguistic Prehistory'
    Year: 2006
    Journal: Current Anthropology
    Volume: 47
    Issue: 1
    Page numbers: 53
    Author(s):
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  • Understanding isolation and change in island human populations through a study of indigenous cultural patterns in the Gulf of Carpentaria
    Year: 2006
    Journal: Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia
    Volume: 130
    Issue: 1
    Page numbers: 2-47
    Author(s):
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  • Who said Polysynthetic Languages Avoid Subordination? Multiple Subordination Strategies in Dalabon
    Year: 2006
    Journal: Australian Journal of Linguistics
    Volume: 26
    Issue: 1
    Page numbers: 31-58
    Author(s):
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Major Reference Works

  • Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics:Dyadic Constructions
    Year: 2006
    Reference Work Title: Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
    Publisher: Elsevier(Oxford)
    Author(s):
  • Encylopedia of Language and Linguistics:Kayardild
    Year: 2006
    Reference Work Title: Encylopedia of Language and Linguistics
    Publisher: Elsevier
    Author(s):

Conference Publications/Papers

  • Verbos de parentesco en ilgar e iwaidja
    Year: 2006
    Event name: VIII Encuentro Internacional de Linguistica en el Noroeste
    Conference Publication: Memorias del VIII Encuentro Internacional de Linguistica en el Noroeste
    Volume: 1
    Page numbers: 11-49
    Publisher: Universidad de Sonora(Hermosillo)
    Author(s):
    Editor(s):

Publications in 2005

Books

  • Materials on Golin: Grammar, texts and dictionary


    Year: 2005
    Publisher: Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics(Melbourne)
    Authors(s):

Book Chapters

  • East Across a Narrow Sea: Micro-Colonization and Synthetic Prehistory in the Wellesley Islands, Northern Australia
    Year: 2005
    Book: Linguistics, Archaeology and the Human Past
    Publisher: Research Institute for Humanity and Nature(Kyoto)
    Authors(s):

Journal Articles

  • Australian Languages Reconsidered: A Review of Dixon (2002)
    Year: 2005
    Journal: Oceanic Linguistics
    Volume: 44
    Issue: 1
    Page numbers: 242 - 286
    Publisher: University of Hawaii Press(Hawaii)
    Author(s):
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  • Mundari and argumentation in word-class analysis
    Year: 2005
    Journal: Linguistic Typology
    Volume: 9
    Issue: 3
    Page numbers: 442 - 457
    Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
    Author(s):
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  • Mundari: The myth of a language without word classes
    Year: 2005
    Journal: Linguistic Typology
    Volume: 9
    Issue: 3
    Page numbers: 351 - 390
    Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
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  • Obituary: Listening to the Pacific: In remembrance of Terry Crowley
    Year: 2005
    Journal: Linguistic Typology
    Volume: 9
    Page numbers: 157 - 163
    Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
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Major Reference Works

  • Lexikologie/Lexicology:Some distinctive characteristics of the vocabulary of Australian languages
    Year: 2005
    Reference Work Title: Lexikologie/Lexicology
    Publisher: Walter de Gruyter(Berlin)
    Author(s):

Conference Publications/Papers

  • The intra-word pause and disfluency in Dalabon
    Year: 2005
    Event name: DiSS Conference: Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech: An ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop
    Conference Publication: DiSS Conference: Disfluency in Spontaneous Speech: An ISCA Tutorial and Research Workshop
    Page numbers: 77 - 81
    Publisher: Universite de Provence(Aix-en-Provence)
    Author(s):

Creative Works

  • Muthaa miburlda ngad: The life of Sally Gabori


    Year: 2005
    Book/Anthology/Journal/Catalogue Title: Sally's Story
    Edition: 1
    ISBN: 0975215825
    Publisher: WOOLLOONGABBA ART GALLERY(BRISBANE)
    Authors/Performers:

Publications in 2004

Books

  • Dalabon Dictionary
    Year: 2004
    Publisher: Maningrida Arts and Culture(Winnellie)
    Authors(s):

Book Chapters

  • Bininj Gun-Wok
    Year: 2004
    Book: The Compound Noun: Data on Seventeen Languages
    Publisher: Presses Universitaires de Lyon(Lyon)
    Authors(s):
  • Experiencer objects in Iwaidjan language (Australia)
    Year: 2004
    Book: Non-nominative Subjects Volume 1
    Publisher: Benjamins - John Benjamins Publishing Company(Amsterdam)
    Authors(s):

Conference Publications/Papers

  • Pausing strategies and prosodic boundaries in Dalabon
    Year: 2004
    Event name: 10th Australian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology
    Conference Publication: Proceedings of the 10th Australian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology
    Page numbers: 426 - 439
    Publisher: Australian Speech Science and Technology Association(Canberra)
    Author(s):

Publications in 2003

Books

  • Bininj Gun-Wok: A pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune


    Year: 2003
    Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Publishers(Canberra)
    Authors(s):
  • The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region
    Year: 2003
    Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Publishers(Canberra)
    Authors(s):

Book Chapters

  • Proto-Gunwinyguan verb suffixes


    Year: 2003
    Book: The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia: Comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region
    Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Publishers(Canberra)
    Authors(s):
  • Comparative non-Pama-Nyungan and Australian Historical linguistics
    Year: 2003
    Book: The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region
    Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Publishers(Canberra)
    Authors(s):
  • Dalabon verb conjugations
    Year: 2003
    Book: The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of Northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region
    Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Publishers(Canberra)
    Authors(s):

Journal Articles

  • Context, culture, and structuration in the languages of Australia
    Year: 2003
    Journal: Annual Review of Anthropology
    Volume: 32
    Page numbers: 13-40
    Publisher: Annual Reviews
    Author(s):
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  • Typologies of agreement: some problems from Kayardild
    Year: 2003
    Journal: Transactions of the Philological Society
    Volume: 101
    Issue: 2
    Page numbers: 203-234
    Publisher: Blackwell
    Author(s):
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Publications in 2002

Books

  • Problems of Polysynthesis
    Year: 2002
    Publisher: Akademie Verlag(Berlin)
    Authors(s):

Book Chapters

  • Country and the word: Linguistic evidence in the Croker Sea claim
    Year: 2002
    Book: Language in Native Title
    Publisher: Aboriginal Studies Press(Canberra)
    Authors(s):
  • Introduction: problems of polysynthesis
    Year: 2002
    Book: Problems in Polysynthesis
    Publisher: Akademie Verlag(Berlin)
    Authors(s):
  • Morphology, typology, computation
    Year: 2002
    Book: Morphology 2000
    Publisher: Benjamins - John Benjamins Publishing Company(Amsterdam)
    Authors(s):
  • The true status of grammatical object afixes: evidence from Bininj Gun-wok
    Year: 2002
    Book: Problems in Polysynthesis
    Publisher: Akademie Verlag(Berlin)
    Authors(s):

Journal Articles

  • An acoustic phonetic analysis of intonational prominence in two Australian languages
    Year: 2002
    Journal: Journal of the International Phonetic Association
    Volume: 32
    Issue: 2
    Page numbers: 1-18
    Author(s):
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  • The semantics of gender in Mayali: partially parallel systems and formal implementation
    Year: 2002
    Journal: Language
    Volume: 78
    Issue: 1
    Page numbers: 111-155
    Publisher: Linguistic Society of America(Washington DC)
    Author(s):
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  • Thematic organization of discourse and referential choices in Australian languages
    Year: 2002
    Journal: Discourse and Cognition
    Volume: 8
    Issue: 2
    Page numbers: 1-21
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Conference Publications/Papers

  • Left-edge tonal events in Kayardild (Australian) - a typological perspective
    Year: 2002
    Event name: 1st international conference on speech prosody
    Conference Publication: Speech prosody 2002: Proceedings from the 1st international conference on speech prosody
    Page numbers: 295-298
    Publisher: Universite de Provence(Aix-en-Provence)
    Author(s):

Reports

  • Riwudbarrki: Thoughts on traditional Iwaidja culture and park management, as told by Big Bill Neidjie, transcribed and translated by Bruce Birch in collaboration with Nicholas Evans. A consultancy comissioned by the Kakadu National Park Board of Management
    Year: 2002
    Customer: Kakadu National Park Board of Management
    Publisher: The University of Melbourne(Melbourne)
    Authors:

Publications in 2001

Book Chapters

  • Dalabon pronominal prefixes and the typology of syncretism: a Network Morphology analysis.
    Year: 2001
    Book: Yearbook of Morphology 2000.
    Publisher: Kluwer Academic Publishers(Dordrecht)
    Authors(s):
  • The Kayardild language
    Year: 2001
    Book: Voices of Queensland: Words from the Sunshine State
    Publisher: Oxford University Press(South Melbourne)
    Authors(s):
  • The complete person: networking the physical and the social.
    Year: 2001
    Book: Forty years on: Ken Hale and Australian languages.
    Publisher: Pacific Linguistics Publishers(Canberra)
    Authors(s):
  • The last speaker is dead - long live the last speaker!
    Year: 2001
    Book: Linguistic fieldwork.
    Publisher: Cambridge University Press(Cambridge)
    Authors(s):
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