Linguistics

Linguistics research in the School looks into the nature of language as a manifestation of human cognition and social interaction, and the use of language to achieve social action, social identities and interpersonal relationships.It includes theoretical and empirical studies of language structure and meaning, studies of language change, language documentation and description, and the pragmatics of language and interaction in cross-cultural and institutional settings. It is concentrated around three subthemes, Linguistic structure, meaning and change; Discourse and interaction; and Australian Indigenous languages.

Linguistic structure, meaning and change focuses on how aspects of language are structured, such as sound patterns, word and sentence formation, and the organisation of linguistic meaning. This includes research on particular individual languages as well as comparisons across languages.

Discourse and interaction looks into linguistic and other communicative practices as they are used to achieve social actions.

The School makes a strong contribution to raising awareness, both within Indigenous communities and among the Australian public in general, of the significance of Australian Indigenous Languages, including new languages, and to the documentation, learning and teaching of these languages. Projects are mostly conducted in collaboration with particular language communities.