Dr Mary Laughren
Honorary Senior Fellow
School of Languages and Cultures
Researcher biography
Dr Mary Laughren's research interests include syntax semantics interface, lexicography, language in education, and Australian Aboriginal languages.
Her current research interests include the documentation of the Waanyi language (southern Gulf of Carpentaria) in collaboration with Gavan Breen, and the Warlpiri language (central Australia). In partnership with Prof Nicolas Peterson (ANU) and Dr Myfany Turpin (UQ) she is recording and documenting traditional Warlpiri songs analysing them in their social and performance context, with particular emphasis on the relationship between linguistic and musical properties. She is also actively engaged in the professional development of Warlpiri teaching personnel working in Warlpiri community schools, and in Waanyi language revitalisation.
She is the author of:
- Articles on African and Australian languages.
Compiler of:
- Warlpiri-English encyclopaedic dictionary.
Co-editor of:
- Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages, Pacific Linguistics. ANU Canberra, 2001.
Publications
Books
Laughren, Mary , Hale, Kenneth , Egan Nungarrayi, Jeannie , Jangala, Marlurrku Paddy Patrick , Hoogenraad, Robert , Nash, David and Simpson, Jane (2022). Warlpiri encyclopaedic dictionary. Canberra, ACT, Australia: Aboriginal Studies Press.
Hoogenraad, Robert and Laughren, Mary (2012). Warlpiri picture dictionary: warlpiri yimi kuruwarri-kirli. Alice Springs, NT, Australia: IAD Press.
Book Chapters
Turpin, Myfany, Morais, Megan, Laughren, Mary, Nampijinpa Martin, Peggy and Napurrurla Morton, Helen (2024). Warnajarra: innovation and continuity in design and lyrics in a Warlpiri women's song set. Vitality and change in Warlpiri songs: juju-ngaliyarlu karnalu-jana pina-pina-mani kurdu-warnu-patu jujuku. (pp. 207-251) edited by Georgia Curran, Linda Barwick, Valerie Napaljarri Martin, Simon Japangardi Fisher and Nicolas Peterson. Sydney, NSW Australia: Sydney University Press. doi: 10.2307/jj.12166957.16
Walker Napurrurla, Fanny, Barwick, Linda and Laughren, Mary (2024). Expert domains of knowledge in Ngurlu yawulyu songs from Jipiranpa. Vitality and change in Warlpiri songs: juju-ngaliyarlu karnalu-jana pina-pina-mani kurdu-warnu-patu jujuku. (pp. 145-198) edited by Georgia Curran, Linda Barwick, Valerie Napaljarri Martin, Simon Japangardi Fisher and Nicolas Peterson. Sydney, NSW Australia: Sydney University Press. doi: 10.2307/jj.12166957.15
Mary Laughren (2023). Reflexive constructions in Warlpiri. Reflexive constructions in the world's languages. (pp. 587-619) edited by Katarzyna Janic, Nicoletta Puddu and Martin Haspelmath. Berlin, Germany: Language Science Press. doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7861660
Laughren, Mary (2021). Some notes on Australian languages and Waanyi in particular. Alexis Wright, Carpentaria: the Law of the Land. (pp. 202-215) edited by Susan Barrett, Estelle Castro-Koshy and Laura Singeot. Paris, France: Belin: Education.
Stead, Jeffrey, Laughren, Mary and Graham, Robert (2020). The politics of suffering: some contrarian reflections. Ethnographer and contrarian: biographical and anthropological essays in honour of Peter Sutton. (pp. 133-151) edited by Julie D. Finlayson and Frances Morphy. Mile End, South Australia: Wakefield Press.
Laughren, Mary, Curran, Georgia, Turpin, Myfany and Peterson, Nicolas (2018). Women's yawulyu songs as evidence of connections to and knowledge of land: the Jardiwanpa. Language, land and song: studies in honour of Luise Hercus. (pp. 344-371) edited by Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch and Jane Simpson. Batchelor, N.T., Australia: Batchelor Institute Press.
Laughren, Mary (2018). Asymmetrical distinctions in Waanyi kinship terminology. Skin, kin and clan: the dynamics of social categories in Indigenous Australia. (pp. 391-429) edited by Patrick McConvell, Piers Kelly and Sebastien Lacrampe. Acton, ACT, Australia: ANU Press.
Laughren, Mary (2018). Serial verbs in Waanyi and its neighbours. Language, land and song: studies in honour of Luise Hercus. (pp. 139-157) edited by Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch and Jane Simpson. Batchelor, N.T., Australia: Batchelor Institute Press.
Laughren, Mary, Turpin, Myfany and Turner, Gemma (2017). Songs performed by Willie Rookwood at Woorabinda in 1965. Recirculating songs: revitalising the singing practices of Indigenous Australia. (pp. 119-139) edited by Jim Wafer and Myfany Turpin. Canberra, ACT Australia: Pacific Linguistics.
Laughren, Mary (2017). The Ergative in Warlpiri: a case study. The Oxford handbook of ergativity. (pp. 1-46) edited by Jessica Coon, Diane Massam and Lisa Demena Travis. Oxford, United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198739371.013.39
Laughren, Mary (2016). Serial verbs in Waanyi and its neighbours. Language, land and song: studies in honour of Luise Hercus. (pp. 172-193) edited by Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch and Jane Simpson. London, United Kingdom: EL Publishing.
Laughren, Mary (2016). Possession in Kuku-Thaypan through a comparative lens. Land and language in Cape York Peninsula and the Gulf Country. (pp. 179-198) edited by Jean-Christophe Verstraete and Diane Hafner. Philadelphia, United States: John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi: 10.1075/clu.18.09lau
Laughren, Mary, Curran, Georgia, Turpin, Myfany and Peterson, Nicolas (2016). Women’s yawulyu songs as evidence of connections to and knowledge of land: the Jardiwanpa. Language, land and song: studies in honour of Luise Hercus. (pp. 419-449) edited by Peter K. Austin, Harold Koch and Jane Simpson. London, United Kingdom: EL Publishing.
Laughren, Mary (2013). Pitjantjatjara. Puzzles in Logic, Languages and Computation: The Red Book. (pp. 78-79) edited by Dragomir Radev. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Laughren, Mary (2013). Volume 2 Problems: Stopping and flapping in Warlpiri. Puzzles in Logic, Languages and Computation: The Green Book. (pp. 55-56) edited by Dragomir Radev. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Laughren, Mary (2013). Volume 2 Problems: Me and my waddy. Puzzles in Logic, Languages and Computation: The Green Book. (pp. 86-87) edited by Dragomir Radev. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Laughren, Mary (2013). Zoque. Puzzles in Logic, Languages and Computation: The Red Book. (pp. 76-77) edited by Dragomir Radev. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Laughren, Mary (2013). Volume 2 Problems: Bamanan-kan. Puzzles in Logic, Languages and Computation: The Green Book. (pp. 88-90) edited by Dragomir Radev. Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.
Laughren, Mary (2010). Warlpiri verbs of change and causation: The thematic core. Complex predicates: Cross-linguistic perspectives on event structure. (pp. 167-236) edited by Mengistu Amberber, Brett Baker and Mark Harvey. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511712234.008
Laughren, Mary, Pensalfini, Rob and Mylne, Tom (2005). Accounting for verb-initial order in an Australian language. Verb First: On the syntax of verb-initial languages. (pp. 367-401) edited by Carnie, Andrew, Harley, Heidi and Dooley, Sheila Ann. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
McConvell, Patrick and Laughren, Mary (2004). The Ngumpin-Yapa Subgroup. Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method. (pp. 151-177) edited by C. Bowern and H. Koch. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Laughren, Mary (2002). Syntactic Constraints in a 'Free Word Order' Language. Language Universals and Variation. (pp. 83-130) edited by Amberber, Mengistu and Collins, Peter. Westport, Connecticut: Praeger Publishers.
Granites, R. and Laughren, M. (2001). Semantic Contrasts in Warlpiri Verbal Morphology: A Warlpiri's Verbal View. Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages. (pp. 151-159) edited by Simpson, Jane, Nash, David, Laughren, Mary, Austin, Peter and Alpher, Barry. Canberra, ACT Australia: Pacific Linguistics.
Laughren, M. (2001). Senufo Vowel Harmony: the Representation of Tongue Height Contrasts. Lecons d'Afrique: Filitations, rupture et reconstitution de langues. Un Hommage a Gabriel Manessy. (pp. 57-89) edited by Robert Nicolai. Paris: Peeters.
Laughren, Mary (2001). What Warlpiri 'avoidance' registers do with grammar. Forty Years On: Ken Hale and Australian Languages. (pp. 199-225) edited by Simpson, Jane, Nash, David, Laughren, Mary and Alpher, Barry. Canberra: Australian National University.
Laughren, M. (2000). Australian Aboriginal Languages: Their contemporary status and functions. The Handbook of Australian Languages. (pp. 1-32) edited by Barry J. Blake and Robert Malcolm Ward Dixon. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.
Journal Articles
Glowczewski, Barbara, Patrick, Jerry Jangala and Laughren, Mary (2020). Jurntu Purlapa—Warlpiri songline for the Jurntu Fire Dreaming site (Australia). Cahiers de littérature orale, 87 (87), 225-231. doi: 10.4000/clo.8733
Laughren, Mary and Ponsonnet, Maia (2020). Ear and belly in Warlpiri descriptions of cognitive and emotional experience. Pragmatics and Cognition, 27 (1), 240-271. doi: 10.1075/pc.00016.lau
Curran, Georgia, Barwick, Linda, Turpin, Myfany, Walsh, Fiona and Laughren, Mary (2019). Central Australian Aboriginal songs and biocultural knowledge: evidence from women's ceremonies relating to edible seeds. Journal of Ethnobiology, 39 (3), 354-370. doi: 10.2993/0278-0771-39.3.354
Laughren, Mary (2016). Review of Barbara Glowczewski, Desert dreamers: with the Warlpiri people of Australia. Australian Aboriginal Studies (2), 132-135.
Estival, Dominique, Bow, Cathy, Henderson, John, Kelly, Barbara, Laughren, Mary, Mayer, Elisabeth, Molla, Diego, Mrowa-Hopkins, Colette, Nordlinger, Rachel, Rieschild, Verna, Schalley, Andrea C., Stanley, Alexander W. and Vaughan, Jill (2014). Australia loves language puzzles: the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO). Linguistics and Language Compass, 8 (12), 659-670. doi: 10.1111/lnc3.12096
Turpin, Myfany and Laughren, Mary (2013). Edge effects in warlpiri yawulyu songs: Resyllabification, Epenthesis, final vowel modification. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 33 (4), 399-425. doi: 10.1080/07268602.2013.857569
Barwick, Linda, Laughren, Mary and Turpin, Myfany (2013). Sustaining women's yawulyu/awelye: Some practitioners' and learners' perspectives. Musicology Australia, 35 (2), 191-220. doi: 10.1080/08145857.2013.844491
Laughren, Mary (2013). From linguistic research findings to useful products for Australian Aboriginal communities. etropic: Electronic Journal of Studies in the Tropics, 12 (1), 73-83. doi: 10.25120/etropic.12.1.2013.3395
Laughren, Mary (2010). Yuendumu Everyday: Contemporary Life in Remote Aboriginal Australia, by Yasmine Musharbash. Aboriginal History, 34 (1), 181-289.
Laughren, Mary (2004). Review of Moskovsky, Christo, aspects of binding in Bulgarian, Frankfur am main: Peter Lang (European University Studies, series XXI linguistics, 2002. Australian Journal of Linguistics, 24 (2), 225-232.
Laughren, M (2003). Nhanda: An aboriginal language of Western Australia.. Oceanic Linguistics, 42 (1), 259-266. doi: 10.2307/3623460
Laughren, M. (2002). Obituary: Kenneth Locke Hale (1934-2001). Aboriginal History, 25, 265-275.
Conference Papers
Estival, Dominique, Henderson, John, Laughren, Mary, Mollá, Diego, Bow, Cathy, Nordlinger, Rachel, Rieschild, Verna, Schalley, Andrea C., Stanley, Alexander W. and Mrowa-Hopkins, Colette (2013). Learning from OzCLO, the Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad. ACL 2013: 51st Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Sofia, Bulgaria, 4 -9 August, 2013. Stroudsburg, PA, USA: Association of Computational Linguistics.
Turpin, Myfany and Laughren, Mary (2013). Text and meter in a Lander Warlpiri song series. Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, Melbourne, Australia, 1 October 2013. Melbourne, Australia: University of Melbourne.
Laughren, Mary (2013). A revised analysis of Warlpiri verb inflections plus auxiliary combinations: their make-over in 'Light' Warlpiri. ALS 2012: 43rd Annual Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, Perth, WA, Australia, 5-7 December, 2012. St. Lucia, QLD, Australia: Australian Linguistic Society.
Ingram, John, Laughren, Mary and Chapman, Jeff (2008). Connected speech processes in Warlpiri. 9th Annual Conference of the International Speech Communication Association (Interspeech 2008) incorporating the 12th Australasian International Conference on Speech Science and Technology (SST 2008), Brisbane, Australia, 22-26 September 2008. Baixas, France: International Speech Communication Association.
Laughren, Mary and Eisenchlas, Susana (2006). The role of animacy and definiteness in the clitic-DP nexus. 2005 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society ALS2005, Melbourne, Australia, 28-30 September 2005. Australia: Australian Linguistic Society.
Pentland, Christina and Laughren, Mary (2005). Distinguishing prosodic word and phonological word in Walpiri: Prosodic constituency in morphologically complex words. ALS 2004 Conference, Sydney, Australia, 13-15 July 2004. Sydney, Australia: The Australian Linguistic Society.
Laughren, M. (2004). Wanyi word formation and vowel harmony. 2003 Australian Linguistic Society Conference, University of Newcastle, School of Language & Media, 26 - 28 September 2003. Newcastle: The School of Language & Media, the University of Newcastle.
Laughren, M. (2002). Wanyi Reflexive-Reciprocal Constructions. 2001 Conference of the Australian Linguistics Society, Canberra: ANU, 27-30 September, 2001. Canberra: Australian Linguistics Society, ANU.
Laughren, M. (2000). Constraints on the pre-auxiliary position in Warlpiri and the nature of Auxiliary. 1999 Conference of the Australian Linguistic Society, U of Western Australia, Perth, 28 September - 2 October. www.arts.uwa.edu.au/LingWWW/als99/proceedings: Australian Linguistic Society.
Creative Work
Willowra Community, Laughren, Mary, Turpin, Myfany and Morton, Helen Napurrurla (2010). Yawulyu Wirliyajarrayi-wardingkiki: ngatijirri, ngapa. Willowra songlines: Budgerigar and rain. Willowra, NT, Australia: Willowra Community.