Staff profile

Dr Tonya N Stebbins

Associate Professor

Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

School of Communication, Arts and Critical Enquiry Centre for Research on Linguistic Diversity

NR6 Building, Room 218, Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

PhD (Linguistics) University of Melbourne.

Membership of professional associations

Australian Linguistics Society.

Area of study

Linguistics

Brief profile

Tonya Stebbins completed her PhD while working on language revitalization and documentation project with the Tsimshian Nation in British Columbia, Canada. She has also worked in East New Britain, Papua New Guinea with the Mali (Baining) community, on language description and documentation. She has published on a number of practical problems relating to the documentation of languages experiencing pressure from other dominant communities in terms of orthography, lexicography, the negotiation of working relationships and the inclusion of indigenous perspectives. This has lead to a more general interest in the Sociology of Linguistics.

Research interests

Language and Culture in Society

- Language endangerment

- Papuan and Austronesian Languages

- Sociology of Language

Linguistic Anthropology

- Language description

Teaching units

LIN2/3CCC - Intercultural Communication. LIN2/3DAS - Discourse Analysis. LIN2/3EUG - English: a user's guide. LIN3MPS - Morphosyntax. HUS1PWR - Professional Writing.

Recent publications

  • in press ‘Papuan families of island Melanesia’ To appear in Oceania edited by Bill Palmer in the new Mouton series ‘Field of Linguistics’. [Co-authored with Bethwyn Evans and Angela Terrill]
  • to appear ‘Finding the languages we go looking for.’ To appear in Ideologies and Beliefs about Endangered Languages, edited by Peter Austin and Julia Sallabank, submitted to the British Academy for publication in their monograph series with Oxford University Press.)
  • forthcoming ‘On becoming an object of study: legitimisation in the discipline of Linguistics.’ (Originally presentedat the International Workshop on The Shaping of Language: The Relationship between the Structures of Languages and their Social, Cultural, Historical, and Natural Environments, hosted by the Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University.)
  • 2012 ‘On being a linguist and doing linguistics: negotiating ideology through performativity.’ Accepted for publication in Language Documentation and Conservation in 2012.
  • 2012 Mali (Baining) – English Dictionary. Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics. [With the assistance of Julius Tayul.]
  • 2011 Mali (Baining) Grammar. Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics.
  • 2010 ‘Principles and practicalities of corpus design in language retrieval: a three step approach to the Beynon corpus of early twentieth century Sm’algyax materials.’ Language Documentation and Conservation. 4:34-59. [Co-authored with Birgit Hellwig.]
  • 2010 ‘Explaining the unknowable: accessibility of meaning and the exegesis of Mali Baining songs.’ Australian Journal of Linguistics Special issue on ‘The Language of Song.’ 30.1:141-154. [Co-authored with Mark Planigale.]
  • 2010 ‘Introduction.’ Australian Journal of Linguistics Special issue on ‘The Language of Song.’ 30.1:1-17. [Co-authored with Myf Turpin.]
  • 2009 Mali (Baining) Texts. Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics. pp. 295. [With the assistance of Julius Tayul.]
  • 2009 ‘The Papuan languages of the Eastern Bismarcks: migration, origins and connections.’ In Bethwyn Evans (ed.) Discovering history through language. Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. p. 223-243.
  • 2009 ‘Semantics of clause linking in Mali.’ In R.M.W. Dixon and A.Y. Aikhenvald (eds.) Semantics of Clause Linking: a cross-linguistic typology. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.356-379.

Older publications

  • 2008 ‘Authenticities and lineages: Revisiting concepts of continuity and change in language.’ International Journal of the Sociology of Language. 189:1-30. (Issue devoted to ‘Authenticity and Linguistic Heritage in the Age of Globalization’.) [Co-authored with Christina Eira.]
  • 2007 ‘New Guinean languages’ in Osahito Miyaoka et al (ed.) Vanishing Languages of the Pacific. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 239-266 [Co-authored with Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald]
  • 2005 ‘Nominal classification in Mali.’ In Anthropological Linguistics. 47.1:77-131.
  • 2004a ‘Mali Baining perspectives on language and culture stress.’ In International Journal of the Sociology of Language, (Small Languages and Small Language Communities) 169.161-175.
  • 2004b ‘Polysemy, homonymy, and sense modulation in Sm’algyax.’ In International Journal of Lexicography 17.1:1-32.
  • 2003 ‘On the status of intermediate form classes: words, clitics, and affixes in Sm’algyax (Coast Tsimshian).’ In Linguistic Typology 7.3:383-416.
  • 2003 Fighting language endangerment: community directed research on Sm’algyax (Coast Tsimshian). With an introduction by Fumiko Sasama. Suita, Osaka: The Endangered Languages of the Pacific Rim Project. 322 pp.
  • 2002 ‘Working together to strengthen Sm’algyax’ in Bradley, D & M. Bradley (eds.) Language endangerment and language maintenance: an active approach. London: Curzon Press. p. 59-76.
  • 2001 ‘Emergent spelling patterns in Sm’algyax.’ In Written language and literacy 4.2:163-194.
  • 1997 ‘Asymmetrical nominal number marking: a functional account.’ In Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung. 50:1.5-47.
  • 1996 ‘An analysis of false starts.’ In Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 19.1:111-127.

Research projects

  • Meeting point: integrating Aboriginal and linguistics knowledge systems for description (2011-2014)
  • The Baining languages: a window on the history of Island Melanesia (2007-2011)