Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Please visit my personal website for more information about current projects, downloadable papers and more.
My research interests lie in three intersecting domains: semantic and structural typology; the relationship between language, culture and cognition; and the documentation and analysis of endangered languages, especially those of the Australian continent. It explores questions like:
1) How much (and what) is common to all human languages (and why)?
2) How much (and why) do languages differ from one another?
3) To what extent do the differences and similarities between languages reflect and/or shape how we think about the world?
Much of my research builds upon collaborations with speakers of Paman languages (e.g. Kuuk Thaayorre) spoken in and around the community of Pormpuraaw (Cape York Peninsula, Australia). The knowledge they have shared has impressed on me the importance of language documentation, especially in contexts of language obsolescence. It has also given me an appreciation of how linguistic analysis can be enriched by acknowledging that grammatical structures are part of a larger communicative system, encompassing multiple languages, registers and modalities.
Current research interests include:
- the role of cultural and physical environment in shaping spatial language and thought (with Bill Palmer, Joe Blythe, Maia Ponsonnet, Tom Ennever, Dorothea Hoffmann, Eleanor Yacopetti, Jonathon Lum and Jonathan Schlossberg);
- cultural, gestural and conceptual representations of geo-centric directions (north, south, east, west) and viewpoint-bound directions (left/right) in the absence of such directional language (with Joe Blythe, Hywel Stoakes, Juergen Bohnemeyer, Jonathon Lum);
- the cross-cultural representation of time in terms of space in both language and thought (with Lera Boroditsky, Gede Primahadi Wijaya Rajeg, Poppy Siahaan);
- the indirect expression of desire in Australian languages;
- Indigenous names for places in contemporary Australia;
- kinship semantics and manual kin signs (with Jenny Green, Anastasia Bauer and Elizabeth Marrkilyi Ellis);
- representing knowledge, beliefs and emotions in Australian Aboriginal languages;
- the ethics of collaboration between Indigenous and non-Indigenous linguists and language workers in Australia (with Lesley Woods, Tonya Stebbins, Vicki Couzens, Margaret Carew).
Research area keywords
- Australian Aboriginal languages
- Linguistic Typology
- Grammatical description
- Semantics
- Pragmatics
- Language & Cognition
- Language & Culture
- Language reclamation and revitalisation
- Ethical collaboration in linguistic research
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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Unlocking the archive: reuniting Indigenous languages and their communities
Gaby, A. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI))
Australian Research Council (ARC)
5/02/24 → 4/02/29
Project: Research
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A descriptive grammar of Warriyangga/Thiinma
Gaby, A. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)) & Cook, J. (Chief Investigator (CI))
8/08/22 → 31/12/25
Project: Research
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Kukatja capacity building and linguistic fieldwork in Balgo, Australia
Round, E. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)) & Gaby, A. (Chief Investigator (CI))
1/03/24 → 31/05/24
Project: Research
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Paper & Talk 2.0
Joachim, E. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Gaby, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Parncutt, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Marmion, D. (Chief Investigator (CI)) & Reed, L. (Chief Investigator (CI))
31/07/22 → 30/07/24
Project: Research
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Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia
Palmer, W. (Primary Chief Investigator (PCI)), Gaby, A. (Chief Investigator (CI)), Blythe, J. (Chief Investigator (CI)) & Ponsonnet, M. (Chief Investigator (CI))
23/11/20 → 22/11/23
Project: Research
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Resounding relations: Habits of improvisation in Yolŋu song and contemporary Australian jazz
Curkpatrick, S., Burke, R., Gaby, A., Knight, P. & Wilfred, D., 4 Jul 2024, In: Performance Research. 28, 6, p. 47-56 10 p., 28.6.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Gender-based dialects
Bradley, J. & Gaby, A., 2023, The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages. Bowern, C. (ed.). 1st ed. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, p. 628-636 9 p. (Oxford Guides to the World's Languages).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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Pronouns
Gaby, A. & Shoulson, O., 2023, The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages. Bowern, C. (ed.). 1st ed. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, p. 268-277 10 p. (Oxford Guides to the World's Languages).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
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Reflexive constructions in Kuuk Thaayorre
Gaby, A., 2023, Reflexive constructions in the world’s languages. Janic, K., Puddu, N. & Haspelmath, M. (eds.). Berlin Germany: Language Science Press, p. 567–585 19 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile -
Reflexives and reciprocals
Gaby, A., 2023, The Oxford Guide to Australian Languages. Bowern, C. (ed.). 1st ed. Oxford UK: Oxford University Press, p. 360-377 18 p. (Oxford Guides to the World's Languages).Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Book) › Research › peer-review
Activities
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Linguistic Association of Canada and United States Conference
Gaby, A. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
5 Jul 2023 → 7 Jul 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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International Cognitive Linguistics Conference 2023
Gaby, A. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
7 Aug 2023 → 11 Aug 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Multilingualism, Multimodality and Language Research
Gaby, A. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
19 Feb 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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1st International Conference on Linguistics and Multidisciplinary Research
Gaby, A. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
18 Oct 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Catching Language Data summer school
Gaby, A. (Keynote/plenary speaker)
21 Jun 2021 → 25 Jun 2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to workshop, seminar, course
Press/Media
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Explainer: the seasonal ‘calendars’ of Indigenous Australia
Gaby, A. & Yunkaporta, T.
3/01/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities