Claire Bowern

I'm an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Rice University. I'm from Australia, and most of my fieldwork and research involves Australian languages. My undergrad degree is in Linguistics and Classics (from ANU) and my PhD is from Harvard, on the historical morpho-syntax of Nyulnyulan languages (a family of Australian languages spoken in North-Western Australia). I'm a member of the Centre for Research on Language Change at the Australian National University. This is what I look like.

Research

I'm on leave for the 2007-2008 academic year.

At the moment I'm mostly working on language contact and reconstruction in Pama-Nyungan "border" areas - Nyulnyulan/Marrngu, Yolŋu/Burrarran, and Western Torres Strait/Eastern Trans-Fly. I've done fieldwork in the first two areas mentioned and am working on (synchronic) descriptive and learner's materials of Bardi and Yan-nhaŋu.

I was recently awarded a grant from the NSF/NEH's Documenting Endangered Languages Program to work on Bardi texts from the 1920's. More information is available here. In the same round, I was awarded an NSF CAREER grant to work on Pama-Nyungan and Australian prehistory. More details will be available soon here. Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method is a book I edited with Harold Koch recently (it was reviewed on the Linguist List by Stephen Anderson here). I am interested in methodological and modelling questions of language history and reconstruction, particularly as a consequence of the apparent 'problems' that Australian languages pose for traditional views of language change. I've been a critic of Punctuated Equilibrium as applied to Australia for some time, and some of my arguments against using such a model can be found in this paper (Another look at Australia as a linguistic area, published in Linguistic Areas, ed Matras, McMahon and Vincent, 2006)

Papers of mine of various ages and quality can be found on this site under the "papers" link.

I moderate the HISTLING-L mailing list. If you'd like to join the list, go to this page and fill out the form.

		Dr Claire Bowern Department of Linguistics, Rice University Office: Herring Hall 216 Office hours: by appointment only for 2007-2008 Office Phone: x5150 Email: my last name at rice.edu


		My book on field methods is now out! The web site for the book can be found here, at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~bowern/fieldwork/.
Teaching CV [pdf] CV [web] Papers Fieldwork Titan Nhirrpi Links BiBTeX files Ozpapersonline Anggarrgoon Fight spam		Biography I'm an Assistant Professor of Linguistics at Rice University. I'm from Australia, and most of my fieldwork and research involves Australian languages. My undergrad degree is in Linguistics and Classics (from ANU) and my PhD is from Harvard, on the historical morpho-syntax of Nyulnyulan languages (a family of Australian languages spoken in North-Western Australia). I'm a member of the Centre for Research on Language Change at the Australian National University. This is what I look like. I will be moving to Yale's linguistics department at the end of this academic year. Research I'm on leave for the 2007-2008 academic year. At the moment I'm mostly working on language contact and reconstruction in Pama-Nyungan "border" areas - Nyulnyulan/Marrngu, Yolŋu/Burrarran, and Western Torres Strait/Eastern Trans-Fly. I've done fieldwork in the first two areas mentioned and am working on (synchronic) descriptive and learner's materials of Bardi and Yan-nhaŋu. I was recently awarded a grant from the NSF/NEH's Documenting Endangered Languages Program to work on Bardi texts from the 1920's. More information is available here. In the same round, I was awarded an NSF CAREER grant to work on Pama-Nyungan and Australian prehistory. More details will be available soon here. Australian Languages: Classification and the Comparative Method is a book I edited with Harold Koch recently (it was reviewed on the Linguist List by Stephen Anderson here). I am interested in methodological and modelling questions of language history and reconstruction, particularly as a consequence of the apparent 'problems' that Australian languages pose for traditional views of language change. I've been a critic of Punctuated Equilibrium as applied to Australia for some time, and some of my arguments against using such a model can be found in this paper (Another look at Australia as a linguistic area, published in Linguistic Areas, ed Matras, McMahon and Vincent, 2006) Papers of mine of various ages and quality can be found on this site under the "papers" link. I moderate the HISTLING-L mailing list. If you'd like to join the list, go to this page and fill out the form. Some Recent Work: The Historical Linguistics of Complex Predication [forthcoming, Diachronica] Cladistic Studies of Australian Languages [PDF of slides, Spring Reconstruction Workshop, Ann Arbor] Fieldwork in Language Contact Situations [forthcoming, Handbook of Language Contact] Teaching I taught a class on historical linguistics in Australia (especially Pama-Nyungan languages) at the 2007 LSA Institute at Stanford. I have put the handouts from the class in a zip archive here. Next year I will be teaching classes on research methods, Australian languages, and field methods. Current Students Linda Lanz (PhD) Michelle Morrison (PhD) Cassandra Pace (PhD) Katie Nelson (PhD) Chelsea McCracken (PhD) Current and Proximal Future Whereabouts Boston (April 7-10) Arizona (May 9-13) One Arm Point, Broome, Kimberley, etc (May 15-July) Canberra, Sydney, ALS, etc (July)

	Last updated: March 7th, 2008

Biography

Research

Teaching

Current Students

Current and Proximal Future Whereabouts