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
Network
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Paper & Talk 2.0
Joachim, E., Gaby, A., Parncutt, A., Marmion, D. & Reed, L.
31/07/22 → 30/07/24
Project: Research
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Landscape, language and culture in Indigenous Australia
Palmer, W., Gaby, A., Blythe, J. & Ponsonnet, M.
23/11/20 → 22/11/23
Project: Research
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BoL: Breath of Life: Repatriating the ‘sleeping’ Aboriginal languages of Australia
Gaby, A., Marmion, D. & Murphy, E.
29/03/19 → 31/12/19
Project: Research
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Thinking and talking about atolls: the role of environment in shaping language and our understanding of physical space
Gaby, A. & Palmer, W.
Australian Research Council (ARC)
1/01/12 → 31/12/14
Project: Research
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Comment on Ian Keen - The Evolution of Australian Kin Terminologies: Models, Conditions, and Consequences
Gaby, A., 2022, In: Current Anthropology. 63, 1, p. 52-53 2 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment / Debate › Other › peer-review
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Diversity in representing space within and between language communities
Lum, J., Palmer, B., Schlossberg, J. & Gaby, A., 1 Jan 2022, In: Linguistics Vanguard. 8, 1, p. 1-10 10 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Other › peer-review
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Frames of spatial reference in five Australian languages
Palmer, B., Hoffmann, D., Blythe, J., Gaby, A., Pascoe, B. & Ponsonnet, M., 2022, In: Spatial Cognition and Computation. 22, 3-4, p. 225-263 39 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
Open AccessFile3 Citations (Scopus) -
Geocentric directional systems in Australia: a typology
Hoffmann, D., Palmer, B. & Gaby, A., 1 Jan 2022, In: Linguistics Vanguard. 8, 1, p. 67-89 23 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
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Reference frames in language and cognition: cross-population mismatches
Bohnemeyer, J., Danziger, E., Lum, J., Alshehri, A., Benedicto, E., Blythe, J., Cerqueglini, L., Donelson, K., Eggleston, A., Gaby, A., Lin, Y. T., Moore, R., Nikitina, T., Stoakes, H. & Yulbarangyang Balna, M., 1 Jan 2022, In: Linguistics Vanguard. 8, S1, p. 175-189 15 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer-review
2 Citations (Scopus)
Activities
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International Cognitive Linguistics Conference 2023
Alice Gaby (Keynote/plenary speaker)
7 Aug 2023 → 11 Aug 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Linguistic Association of Canada and United States Conference
Alice Gaby (Keynote/plenary speaker)
5 Jul 2023 → 7 Jul 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Contribution to conference
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Multilingualism, Multimodality and Language Research
Alice Gaby (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
Alice Gaby (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
Alice Gaby (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
Alice Gaby & Tyson Yunkaporta
3/01/18
1 Media contribution
Press/Media: Public Engagement Activities