Whether we are engaged in anti-terrorist surveillance or global trade deals, trying to foster social cohesion or scientific research, deep knowledge of the way languages operate across cultures is essential.
La Trobe University’s Professor Alexandra Aikhenvald says: 'There are about three thousand languages spoken across the five continents of the modern world. Are they all able to express the logical relations that we take for granted in English?’
Professor Aikhenvald is co-director, with Professor R. M. W. Dixon, of the University’s world-renowned Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, and joint organiser of the week-long international workshop.
Dealing with the semantics of clause linkage, the event is bringing together experts from North and South America, Europe, Asia and from across Australia and New Zealand. They will present their findings on languages they have been studying for decades.
‘Some of these, like Korean, are spoken by tens of millions of people,’ says Professor Aikhenvald. ‘Others, often of bewildering complexity, are used in everyday life by just a few hundred tribes’ people in the jungles of Amazonia, the swamps of New Guinea, or the mountainous terrain of war-torn Nepal.’
For example, Professor Yaron Matras, of the University of Manchester, is the world expert on the Romani languages of Gypsies. Professor Maarten Mous, from the Netherlands, has devoted many years to the study of Konso, an Afro-Asiatic language from Ethiopia.
Professor Alan Dench, from the University of Western Australia, worked with the last speaker of Martuthunira in Australia’s Pilbara. Professor Aikhenvald’s own work deals with the Manambu language of Papua New Guinea.
The workshop will be opened at 9 am Monday, 13 August 2007, by La Trobe University Vice-Chancellor, Professor Paul Johnson. It is being held until 18 August at the University’s Institute for Advanced Study, Michael J. Osborne Centre, Main Drive, Bundoora, Melway ref: Map 573 - F1.
Friday, 10 August 2007International language scholars meet in Melbourne Fifteen of the world’s top linguistics scholars will gather at La Trobe University’s main Melbourne campus at Bundoora next week, pooling their knowledge and ideas to shed light on the ways in which the human mind operates.Further information
For media enquiries and requests for interviews, please contact Professor Aikhenvald tel: 03 9479 6402; email: a.aikhenvald@latrobe.edu.au or Ernest Raetz, tel: 03 9479 2315; email: e.raetz@latrobe.edu.au