
Chief Investigators

Anthony Angwin
- Title: Associate Professor
- Program: Processing/Technologies
- Institution: The University of Queensland
Anthony Angwin's research interests are centred around the investigation of neurogenic communication disorders.
Anthony is a speech pathologist and senior lecturer conducting research on psycholinguistics and neurogenic communication disorders. In particular, his research interests are focussed upon the investigation of communication impairments associated with Parkinson's disease, stroke and dementia.
Recent Publications
Literacy development in children with cochlear implants: a narrative review
Bibliography
Nicola Bell, Anthony Angwin, Wayne Wilson, and Wendy Arnott. 2022. "Literacy development in children with cochlear implants: a narrative review." Australian Journal of Learning Difficulties. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/19404158.2021.2020856.
Acquisition of novel word meaning via cross-situational word learning: An event-related potential study
Bibliography
Anthony Angwin, Samuel Armstrong, Courtney Fisher, and Paola Escudero. 2022. "Acquisition of novel word meaning via cross-situational word learning: An event-related potential study." Brain and Language. 229: 105111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105111.
Effects of emotional cues on novel word learning in typically developing children in relation to broader autism traits
Bibliography
Melina West, Anthony Angwin, David Copland, Wendy Arnott, and Nicole Nelson. 2021. "Effects of emotional cues on novel word learning in typically developing children in relation to broader autism traits." Journal of Child Language. 1-19. doi: 10.1017/S0305000921000192.
Corticostriatal regulation of language functions
Bibliography
David Copland, Sonia Brownsett, Kartik Iyer, and Anthony Angwin. 2021. "Corticostriatal regulation of language functions." Neuropsychology Review. 31 (3): 472–494. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11065-021-09481-9.
The effect of sleep on novel word learning in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Bibliography
Emma Schimke, Anthony Angwin, Bonnie Cheng, and David Copland. 2021. "The effect of sleep on novel word learning in healthy adults: A systematic review and meta-analysis." Psychonomic Bulletin and Review. 28 (6): 1811–1838. doi: 10.3758/s13423-021-01980-3.

Anne Cutler
- Title: Distinguished Professor ✝︎
- Program: Processing
- Institution: The MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University
Anne Cutler studied languages and psychology at the Universities of Melbourne, Berlin and Bonn, taught German at Monash University, but embraced psycholinguistics as soon as it emerged as an independent sub-discipline, taking a PhD in the subject at the University of Texas. Postdoctoral fellowships at MIT and Sussex University followed, and from 1982 to 1993 a staff position at the Medical Research Council Applied Psychology Unit in Cambridge. In 1993 she became a director at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands, a post she held till 2013. She was also professor of comparative psycholinguistics at the Radboud University Nijmegen from 1995 to 2013, and, from 2006 to 2013, part-time Research Professor in MARCS Auditory Laboratories. In 2013 she took up a full-time position at the MARCS Institute.
Recent Publications
Cross-language data on five types of prosodic focus
Bibliography
Martin Ip, and Anne Cutler. May 2016. "Cross-language data on five types of prosodic focus". In Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2016, Boston.
Processing advantages for focused words in Korean
Bibliography
Heather Kember, Jiyoun Choi, and Anne Cutler. June 2016. "Processing advantages for focused words in Korean". In Proceedings of Speech Prosody 2016, Boston.
Language-specificity in speakers’ strategies of focus expression
Bibliography
Martin Ip, and Anne Cutler. July 2016. "Language-specificity in speakers’ strategies of focus expression". In Abstracts of Laboratory Phonology, Ithaca, New York.
Learning to Perceive Non-Native Tones via Distributional Training: Effects of Task and Acoustic Cue Weighting
Bibliography
Liquan Liu, Chi Yuan, Jia Hoong Ong, Alba Tuninetti, Mark Antoniou, Anne Cutler, and Paola Escudero. 2022. "Learning to Perceive Non-Native Tones via Distributional Training: Effects of Task and Acoustic Cue Weighting." Brain Sciences. 12 (5): 559. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050559.
Managing Speech Perception Data Sets
Bibliography
Cutler, Anne, Ernestus, Mirjam, Warner, Natasha, and Weber, Andrea. 2022. "Managing Speech Perception Data Sets". In The Open Handbook in Linguistic Data Management, MIT Press.

Paola Escudero
- Title: Professor
- Program: Learning (and Processing)
- Institution: The MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University
Paola Escudero is based at The MARCS Institute. Her main interest within CoEDL is on how the learning of phonetic detail takes place in multilingual communities. She collaborates with CI Kidd (Processing) on statistical learning in monolingual and bilingual infants, with CI Fletcher (Processing/Shape) on comparing Australian English accents, with AI Byrd (Technology Thread) and Postdoc Ellison (Shape) on an app that can be used to collect processing data in the field, and with PhD Kashima, Postdocs Ellison and Schokkin (Shape) on the phonetic description of PNG languages. Paola’s team is also collaborating with CIs Rumsey and Wigglesworth’s teams (Learning) on adapting laboratory methods for testing processing questions in the field, as well as with Postdoc Durantin (Evolution) on EEG analysis techniques that can be applied to individual language learners. Paola was awarded an ARC Future Fellowship which she started in 2017.
Recent Publications
Rapid learning of minimally different words in five- to six-year-old children: effects of acoustic salience and hearing impairment
Bibliography
Paola Escudero, Marcel Raymond Giezen, and Anne Baker. 21 May 2015. "Rapid learning of minimally different words in five- to six-year-old children: effects of acoustic salience and hearing impairment." Journal of Child Language. 43 (2): 310-337. doi: 10.1017/S0305000915000197.
Learning to Perceive Non-Native Tones via Distributional Training: Effects of Task and Acoustic Cue Weighting
Bibliography
Liquan Liu, Chi Yuan, Jia Hoong Ong, Alba Tuninetti, Mark Antoniou, Anne Cutler, and Paola Escudero. 2022. "Learning to Perceive Non-Native Tones via Distributional Training: Effects of Task and Acoustic Cue Weighting." Brain Sciences. 12 (5): 559. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050559.
Unattended distributional training can shift phoneme boundaries.
Bibliography
Kateřina Chládková, Paul Boersma, and Paola Escudero. 2022. "Unattended distributional training can shift phoneme boundaries.." Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. 1-14. doi: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1366728922000086.
Music Perception Abilities and Ambiguous Word Learning: Is There Cross-Domain Transfer in Nonmusicians?
Bibliography
Eline Smit, Andrew Milne, and Paola Escudero. 2022. "Music Perception Abilities and Ambiguous Word Learning: Is There Cross-Domain Transfer in Nonmusicians?." Frontiers in psychology. 13: 801263. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.801263.
Acquisition of novel word meaning via cross-situational word learning: An event-related potential study
Bibliography
Anthony Angwin, Samuel Armstrong, Courtney Fisher, and Paola Escudero. 2022. "Acquisition of novel word meaning via cross-situational word learning: An event-related potential study." Brain and Language. 229: 105111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandl.2022.105111.

Bethwyn Evans
- Title: Doctor
- Program: Evolution
- Institution: The Australian National University
Bethwyn Evans’s research is focused on language change and language contact, and the role that linguistics plays in understanding our non-linguistic past. She predominantly works on Austronesian and Papuan languages in Bougainville, Papua New Guinea. Beth collaborates with Simon Greenhill on exploring the links between micro- and macro-level processes of language evolution.
Recent Publications
The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia
Bibliography
Stebbins, Tonya, Evans, Bethwyn, and Terrill, Angela. 2018. "The Papuan languages of Island Melanesia". In The languages and Linguistics of the New Guinea Area, 775–894. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.
Foundations of the new historical linguistics
Bibliography
Bowern, Claire, and Evans, Bethwyn. 2015. "Foundations of the new historical linguistics". In The Routledge handbook of historical linguistics, London: Routledge.
The Routledge handbook of historical linguistics
Bibliography
Claire Bowern, and Bethwyn Evans. 2015. The Routledge handbook of historical linguistics. London : Routledge.
Demographic correlates of language diversity
Bibliography
Greenhill, Simon, Bowern, Claire, and Evans, Bethwyn. 2015. "Demographic correlates of language diversity". In The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, 555-578. London: Routledge.
The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics
Bibliography
Claire Bowern, and Bethwyn Evans. 2015. The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics. New York : Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

Nicholas Evans
- Title: Distinguished Professor
- Program: Shape (and Evolution)
- Institution: The Australian National University
Nicholas (‘Nick’) Evans is the Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language. His central research focus is the diversity of human language and what this can tell us about the nature of language, culture, deep history, and the possibilities of the human mind. His 2010 book Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us sets out a broad program for the field’s engagement with the planet’s dwindling linguistic diversity. Nick has carried out fieldwork on several languages of Northern Australia and Papua New Guinea, particularly Kayardild, Bininj Gun-wok, Dalabon, Ilgar, Iwaidja, Marrku and Nen, with published grammars of Kayardild (1995) and Bininj Gun-wok (2003), and dictionaries of Kayardild (1992) and Dalabon (2004). His ARC Laureate Project The Wellsprings of Linguistic Diversity examines how microvariation at speech community level relates to macro-diversity of languages and language families, and he is leading a team in a cross-linguistic study of how diverse grammars underpin social cognition.
Recent Publications
Artist Sally Gabori had a language of her own.
Bibliography
Array
A life of polysynthesis: Hans-Jurgen Sasse (1943–2015)
Bibliography
Nicholas Evans, Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, and Dejan Matić. January 2015. "A life of polysynthesis: Hans-Jurgen Sasse (1943–2015)." Linguistic Typology. 19 (2) doi: 10.1515/lingty-2015-0010.
How a man got off the grog: A Dalabon 'family problems' story
Bibliography
Nicholas Evans, and Manuel Pamkal. 2022. "How a man got off the grog: A Dalabon 'family problems' story." Asian and African Languages and Linguistics. (16): 165-186. doi: https://www.doi.org/10.15026/117161.
Words of Wonder: Endangered Languages and What They Tell Us
Bibliography
Nicholas Evans. 2022. Words of Wonder: Endangered Languages and What They Tell Us. : Wiley-Blackwell.
Language vs individuals in cross-linguistic corpus typology
Bibliography
Barth, Danielle, Evans, Nicholas, Arka, I Wayan, Bergqvist, Henrik, Forker, Diana, Gipper, Sonja, Hodge, Gabrielle, Kashima, Eri, Kasuga, Yuki, Kawakami, Carine, Kimoto, Yukinori, Knuchel, Dominique, Kogura, Norikazu, Kurabe, Keita, Mansfield, John, Narrog, Heiko, Pratiwi, Desak Putu Eka, van Putten, Saskia, Senge, Chikako, Tykhostup, Olena, Haig, Geoffrey, Schnell, Stefan, and Seifart, Frank. 2021. "Language vs individuals in cross-linguistic corpus typology". In Doing Corpus-Based Typology With Spoken Language Corpora, 179-232. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press.

Janet Fletcher
- Title: Associate Professor
- Program: Processing (and Shape)
- Institution: The University of Melbourne
Janet Fletcher is Professor of Phonetics in the School of Languages and Linguistics. She has held previous appointments at the University of Edinburgh, the Ohio State University, and Macquarie University. Her research interests include phonetic theory, laboratory phonology, prosodic phonology, articulatory and acoustic modelling of prosodic effects in various languages. She is currently working on phonetic variation, and prosody, and intonation in Indigenous Australian languages and has commenced projects on selected languages of Oceania. She is a member of the Research Unit for Indigenous Language in the School of Languages and Linguistics.
Recent Publications
An Investigation of the /el/–/æl/ Merger in Australian English: A Pilot Study on Production and Perception in South-West Victoria
Bibliography
Deborah Loakes, Joshua Clothier, John Hajek, and Janet Fletcher. October 2, 2014. "An Investigation of the /el/–/æl/ Merger in Australian English: A Pilot Study on Production and Perception in South-West Victoria." Australian Journal of Linguistics. 34 (4): 436-452. doi: 10.1080/07268602.2014.929078.
Phrase-level and edge marking in Drehu
Bibliography
Catalina Torres, and Janet Fletcher. 2022. "Phrase-level and edge marking in Drehu." Glossa. 7 (1) doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/glossa.5845.
The Autosegmental-Metrical Theory of Intonational Phonology
Bibliography
Arvaniti, Amalia, Fletcher, Janet, Gussenhoven, Carlos, and Chen, Aoju. 2021. "The Autosegmental-Metrical Theory of Intonational Phonology". In The Oxford Handbook of Language Prosody, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nafsan
Bibliography
Rosey Billington, Nick Thieberger, and Janet Fletcher. 2021. "Nafsan." Journal of the International Phonetic Association. 1-21. doi: 10.1017/S0025100321000177.
The alignment of F0 tonal targets under changes in speech rate in Drehu
Bibliography
Catalina Torres, and Janet Fletcher. 2020. "The alignment of F0 tonal targets under changes in speech rate in Drehu." The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 147 (4): 2947. doi: 10.1121/10.0001006.

Caroline Jones
- Title: Professor
- Program: Learning/Technologies
- Institution: The MARCS Institute, Western Sydney University
Caroline Jones' research focuses on how we can increase the success and sustainability of Aboriginal language revitalization initiatives, how we can improve early language assessment and intervention, and what strategies support communication with elderly people. She is also interested in ways of making research more efficient and more accessible or participatory with new technology and is Deputy Leader of the CoEDL Future Technologies Thread.
Recent Publications
A short-form version of the Australian English communicative development inventory
Bibliography
Caroline Jones, Marina Kalashnikova, Chantelle Khamchuang, Catherine Best, Erin Bowcock, Anne Dwyer, Hollie Hammond, Caroline Hendy, Kate Jones, Catherine Kaplun, Lynn Kemp, Christa Lam-Cassettari, Weicong Li, Karen Mattock, Suzan Odemis, and Karen Short. 2021. "A short-form version of the Australian English communicative development inventory." International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 1-11. doi: 10.1080/17549507.2021.1981446.
Matjarr Djuyal: How Using Gesture in Teaching Gathang Helps Preschoolers Learn Nouns.
Bibliography
Anjilkurri Rhonda Radley, Caroline Jones, Jose Hanham, and Mark Richards. 2021. "Matjarr Djuyal: How Using Gesture in Teaching Gathang Helps Preschoolers Learn Nouns.." Languages. 6 (2): 1-14. doi: 10.3390/languages6020103.
The Hearing and Talking Scale (HATS): development and validation with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in urban and remote settings in Australia
Bibliography
Teresa Y. Ching, Michelle Saetre-Turner, Samantha Harkus, Louise Martin, Meagan Ward, Vivienne Marnane, Caroline Jones, Eugenie Collyer, Chantelle Khamchuang, and Kelvin Kong. 2020. "The Hearing and Talking Scale (HATS): development and validation with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in urban and remote settings in Australia." Deafness And Education International. 22 (4): 305-324. doi: 10.1080/14643154.2020.1830241.
Developing a parent vocabulary checklist for young Indigenous children growing up multilingual in the Katherine region of Australia’s Northern Territory
Bibliography
Caroline Jones, Eugenie Collyer, Jaidine Fejo, Chantelle Khamchuang, Anita Painter, Lee Rosas, Karen Mattock, Alicia Dunajcik, Paola Escudero, and Anne Dwyer. 2020. "Developing a parent vocabulary checklist for young Indigenous children growing up multilingual in the Katherine region of Australia’s Northern Territory." International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 22 (5): 583-590. doi: 10.1080/17549507.2020.1718209.
Indigenous Linguistic & Cultural Heritage Ethics Policy
Bibliography
Nick Thieberger, and Caroline Jones. 2019. Indigenous Linguistic & Cultural Heritage Ethics Policy. ACT : ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language.

Felicity Meakins
- Title: Professor
- Program: Shape (and Evolution)
- Institution: The University of Queensland
Felicity Meakins specialises in the documentation of Australian languages in the Victoria River District in northern Australia and the effect of English on Indigenous languages. She has worked as a community linguist and academic, facilitating language revitalisation programs, consulting on Native Title claims and conducting research into Indigenous languages. This work has provided the basis for Case-Marking in Contact (Benjamins, 2011), Bilinarra, Gurindji and Malngin Plants and Animals (NT-LRM, 2012), Gurindji to English Dictionary (Batchelor Press, 2013), Bilinarra to English Dictionary (Batchelor Press, 2013), A Grammar of Bilinarra (with Rachel Nordlinger, Mouton, 2014), Kawarla: How to Make a Coolamon (Batchelor Press, 2015), Loss and Renewal: Australian Languages Since Colonisation (edited with Carmel O'Shannessy, Mouton, 2016) and Yijarni: True Stories from Gurindji Country (edited with Erika Charola, Aboriginal Studies Press, 2016).
Recent Publications
Language change in multidimensional space: New methods for modelling linguistic coherence
Bibliography
Xia Hua, Felicity Meakins, Cassandra Algy, and Lindell Bromham. 2022. "Language change in multidimensional space: New methods for modelling linguistic coherence." Language Dynamics and Change. 12: 78-123. doi: https://doi.org/10.1163/22105832-bja10015.
Empiricism or imperialism: The science of Creole Exceptionalism
Bibliography
Felicity Meakins. 2022. "Empiricism or imperialism: The science of Creole Exceptionalism." Journal of Pidgin and Creole languages. 37 (1): 189-203. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1075/jpcl.00092.mea.
Intergenerational changes in Gurindji Kriol: Comparing apparent-time & real-time data
Bibliography
B Sloan, Felicity Meakins, and Cassandra Algy. 2022. "Intergenerational changes in Gurindji Kriol: Comparing apparent-time & real-time data." Asia-Pacific Language Variation. 8 (1): 1-31. doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.21001.slo.
Language change in multidimensional space: New methods for modelling linguistic coherence
Bibliography
Xia Hua, Felicity Meakins, Cassandra Algy, and Lindell Bromham. 2021. "Language change in multidimensional space: New methods for modelling linguistic coherence." Language Dynamics and Change. 1-46.
Global predictors of language endangerment and the future of linguistic diversity
Bibliography
Lindell Bromham, Russell Dinnage, Hedvig Skirgard, Andrew Ritchie, Marcel Cardillo, Felicity Meakins, Simon Greenhill, and Xia Hua. 2021. "Global predictors of language endangerment and the future of linguistic diversity." Nature, Ecology & Evolution.

Rachel Nordlinger
- Title: Professor
- Program: Shape (and Learning)
- Institution: The University of Melbourne
Rachel Nordlinger is the Director of the
Recent Publications
Linguistic diversity in first language acquisition research: Moving beyond the challenges
Bibliography
Barbara Kelly, William Forshaw, Rachel Nordlinger, and Gillian Wigglesworth. October 1, 2015. "Linguistic diversity in first language acquisition research: Moving beyond the challenges." First Language. 35 (4-5): 286-304. doi: 10.1177/0142723715602350.
The Acquisition of Polysynthetic Languages
Bibliography
Barbara Kelly, Gillian Wigglesworth, Rachel Nordlinger, and Joseph Blythe. February 1, 2014. "The Acquisition of Polysynthetic Languages." Language and Linguistics Compass. 8 (2): 51-64. doi: 10.1111/lnc3.12062.
Australia Loves Language Puzzles: The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO)
Bibliography
Dominique Estival, Cathy Bow, John Henderson, Barbara Kelly, Mary Laughren, Elisabeth Mayer, Diego Mollá, Colette Mrowa-Hopkins, Rachel Nordlinger, Verna Rieschild, Andrea Schalley, Alexander Stanley, and Jill Vaughan. December 1, 2014. "Australia Loves Language Puzzles: The Australian Computational and Linguistics Olympiad (OzCLO)." Language and Linguistics Compass. 8 (12): 659-670. doi: 10.1111/lnc3.12096.
Category Clustering and Morphological Learning
Bibliography
John Mansfield, Carmen Saldana, Peter Hurst, Rachel Nordlinger, Sabine Stoll, Balthasar Bickel, and Andrew Perfors. 2022. "Category Clustering and Morphological Learning." Cognitive Science. 46 (2): e13107. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.13107.
Wambaya, Gudanji, Binbinka and Ngarnka Plants and Animals: Aboriginal biocultural knowledge from Gulf of Carpentaria and the Barkly Tablelands, north Australia
Bibliography
Molly Nurlanyma Grueman, Minnie Niyamarrama Nimara, Mavis Bangarinya Hogan, Powder Bangarinju O'Keefe, Peggy Yarrburrngalina Mawson, Katie Banduluka Baker, Pompey Jack Warnbiyaji, Lynette Nuranyma Hubbard, Gilbert Jackson Maanula, Jeffrey Heath, Rachel Nordlinger, and Glenn Wightman. 2021. Wambaya, Gudanji, Binbinka and Ngarnka Plants and Animals: Aboriginal biocultural knowledge from Gulf of Carpentaria and the Barkly Tablelands, north Australia. Tennant Creek : Department of Environment, Parks and Water Security & Papulu Apparr-kari Aboriginal Corporation.

Alan Rumsey
- Title: Emeritus Professor
- Program: Learning
- Institution: The Australian National University
Alan Rumsey is an Emeritus Professor of Anthropology in the School of Culture, History and Language, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU. His research fields are Highland New Guinea and Aboriginal Australia, with a focus on speech genres and relations among language, culture and intersubjectivity. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities, a past president of the Australian Anthropological Society and the co-convenor of the ANU Pacific Institute. He is currently involved in collaboration with CoEDL Affiliate Francesca Merlan on a major research project on ‘Children’s Language Learning and the Development of Intersubjectivity’, for which he was funded by an ARC Discovery Outstanding Researcher Award during 2013-16, and in collaboration with CoEDL Affiliate Lauren Reed on a study of a sign language in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea that is used in communication with deaf people.
Recent Publications
Reported Speech and Represented Speech
Bibliography
Rumsey, Alan. 2021. "Reported Speech and Represented Speech". In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell.
Language and Mind
Bibliography
Rumsey, Alan. 2021. "Language and Mind". In The International Encyclopedia of Linguistic Anthropology, 1-12. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley-Blackwell.
Peter Sutton and the sociocultural dynamics of Indigenous Australian multilingualism
Bibliography
Rumsey, Alan, Monaghan, Paul, and Walsh, Michael. 2020. "Peter Sutton and the sociocultural dynamics of Indigenous Australian multilingualism". In More than Mere Words: Essays on language and Linguistics in Honour of Peter Sutton, 149-166. Adelaide: Wakefield Press.
Sign Languages in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands
Bibliography
Reed, Lauren, and Rumsey, Alan. 2020. "Sign Languages in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands". In Sign language in Papua New Guinea: A Primary Sign Language from the Upper Lagaip Valley, Enga Province, 141-184. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Ku Waru Clause Chaining and the Acquisition of Complex Syntax
Bibliography
Alan Rumsey, Lauren Reed, and Francesca Merlan. 2020. "Ku Waru Clause Chaining and the Acquisition of Complex Syntax." Frontiers in Communication. 5: 19. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2020.00019.

Jane Simpson
- Title: Professor
- Program: Shape (and Learning)
- Institution: The Australian National University
Jane Simpson has carried out fieldwork on Indigenous Australian languages since 1979, and is Chair of Indigenous Linguistics at the ANU. Jane has worked collaboratively on numerous Indigenous language resources: the Warlpiri dictionary with Affiliate Mary Laughren; Ngaanyatjarra speech register corpus with postdoctoral fellow Inge Kral, and Affiliates Jenny Green and Lizzy Ellis; a Warumungu dictionary and corpus with postdoctoral fellow Samantha Disbray; and with Affiliates Rob Amery and Maryanne Gale on a Ngarrindjeri text corpus. She is also working with CI Gillian Wigglesworth on the language learning experience of Indigenous school children. As Chair of the CoEDL Education Sub-committee, she helps draw together HDR training and other education initiatives, which include the University Languages Portal of Australia.
Recent Publications
What women want: Teaching and learning pronouns in Ngarrindjeri
Bibliography
Mary-Anne Gale, Angela Giles, Jane Simpson, Rob Amery, and David Wilkins. 2021. "What women want: Teaching and learning pronouns in Ngarrindjeri." Australian Journal of Linguistics. 41 (4): 477-502. doi: 10.1080/07268602.2022.2027867.
Bound, free and in between: A review of pronouns in Ngarrindjeri in the world as it was
Bibliography
Mary-Anne Gale, Rob Amery, Jane Simpson, and David Wilkins. 2021. "Bound, free and in between: A review of pronouns in Ngarrindjeri in the world as it was." Australian Journal of Linguistics. 41 (3): 314-343. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/07268602.2021.1967875.
Language studies by women in Australia: 'A well-stored sewing basket'
Bibliography
Simpson, Jane, Ayres-Bennett, Wendy, and Sanson, Helena. 2021. "Language studies by women in Australia: 'A well-stored sewing basket'". In Women in the history of linguistics, 367-399. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Qualitative comparison in Warlpiri: semantic case, adposition and/or derivational affix?
Bibliography
Jane Simpson. 2021. "Qualitative comparison in Warlpiri: semantic case, adposition and/or derivational affix?". In Proceedings of the LFG'20 Conference On-Line, 349-362. Stanford, CA.
Qualitative comparison in Warlpiri: semantic case, adposition and/or derivational affix?
Bibliography
Jane Simpson. 2020. "Qualitative comparison in Warlpiri: semantic case, adposition and/or derivational affix?". In Proceedings of the LFG’20 Conference, 349-362. Stanford, CA.

Kim Sterelny
- Title: Professor
- Program: Evolution
- Institution: The Australian National University
Kim Sterelny's main research interests are Philosophy of Biology, Philosophy of Psychology and Philosophy of Mind. He is the author of The Representational Theory of Mind and the co-author of Language and Reality (with Michael Devitt) and Sex and Death: An Introduction to Philosophy of Biology (with Paul Griffiths). He is Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. In addition to philosophy, Kim spends his time eating curries, drinking red wine, bushwalking and bird watching. Kim has been a Visiting Professor at Simon Fraser University in Canada, and at Cal Tech and the University of Maryland, College Park, in the USA.
Recent Publications
Ethnography, Archaeology and The Late Pleistocene
Bibliography
Kim Sterelny. 2022. "Ethnography, Archaeology and The Late Pleistocene." Philosophy of Science. 1-39. doi: 10.1017/psa.2021.42.
Foragers and their tools: Risk, technology and complexity
Bibliography
Kim Sterelny. 2021. "Foragers and their tools: Risk, technology and complexity." Topics in cognitive science. 13 (4): 728-749. doi: 10.1111/tops.12559.
Kinship revisited
Bibliography
Nicholas Evans, Stephen Levinson, and Kim Sterelny. 2021. "Kinship revisited." Biological Theory. 16 (3): 123–126. doi: 10.1007/s13752-021-00384-9.
The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution
Bibliography
Kim Sterelny. 2021. The Pleistocene Social Contract: Culture and Cooperation in Human Evolution. New York : Oxford University Press.
From signal to symbol
Bibliography
Ronald Planer, and Kim Sterelny. 2021. From signal to symbol. Cambridge : MIT Press.

Nick Thieberger
- Title: Associate Professor
- Program: Shape/Archiving
- Institution: The University of Melbourne
Associate Professor Nicholas Thieberger has worked with speakers of Australian languages since the early 1980s. He established the Aboriginal language centre Wangka Maya in Port Hedland in the late 1980s, then worked at AIATSIS building the Aboriginal Studies Electronic Data Archive in the early 1990s. He wrote a grammar of South Efate, a language from central Vanuatu that was the first to link media to the analysis, allowing verification of examples used in analytical claims. In 2003 he helped establish PARADISEC, a digital archive of recorded ethnographic material and is now its Director. He is a co-founder of the Resource Network for Linguistic Diversity (RNLD) and in 2008 he established a linguistic archive at the University of Hawai’i. He is interested in developments in digital humanities methods and their potential to improve research practice and he is now developing methods for creation of reusable data sets from fieldwork on previously unrecorded languages. He is the Editor of the journal Language Documentation & Conservation. He is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at the University of Melbourne.
Recent Publications
Community-Led Documentation of Nafsan (Erakor, Vanuatu)
Bibliography
Krajinovic, Ana, Billington, Rosey, Emil, Lionel, Kaltappau, Gray, and Thieberger, Nick. 2022. "Community-Led Documentation of Nafsan (Erakor, Vanuatu)". In Human Language Technology. Challenges for Computer Science and Linguistics, 112–128.
When Your Data is My Grandparents Singing. Digitisation and Access for Cultural Records, the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC)
Bibliography
Nick Thieberger, and Amanda Harris. 2022. "When Your Data is My Grandparents Singing. Digitisation and Access for Cultural Records, the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC)." Data Science Journal. 21 (9): 1–7. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/dsj-2022-009.
The Language Documentation Quartet
Bibliography
Nick Thieberger, and Simon Musgrave. 2021. "The Language Documentation Quartet". In Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Computational Methods for Endangered Languages, 6-12. Online.
Un nouveau souffle numérique pour les corpus en langues océaniennes
Bibliography
Jacques Vernaudon, Nick Thieberger, Tamatoa Bambridge, and Takurua Parent. 2021. "Un nouveau souffle numérique pour les corpus en langues océaniennes." Journal de la Société des Océanistes. 153: 323-336. doi: https://doi.org/10.4000/jso.13165.
A Dictionary of Nafsan
Bibliography
Nick Thieberger, and Members of the Erakor Community. 2021. A Dictionary of Nafsan. Honolulu, Hawaii : University of Hawaii Press.

Catherine Travis
- Title: Professor
- Program: Evolution/Archiving
- Institution: The Australian National University
Catherine Travis is Professor of Modern European Languages in the School of Literature, Languages and Linguistics at the ANU. Her work addresses questions related to language evolution at a micro level; she applies quantitative methods to probe the impact of linguistic and social factors on language variation and change in the speech community. In the Centre of Excellence, she leads the Sydney Speaks project, a sociolinguistic study of Australian English, examining the speech of Sydney-siders of diverse social backgrounds, recorded at different times, and born over a 100-year period (from the 1890s to the 1990s). A second project, in collaboration with PI Rena Torres Cacoullos (Penn State University), examines outcomes of language contact in a long-standing Spanish-English bilingual community in New Mexico, USA. A co-authored book deriving from this work, Bilingualism in the Community: Code-switching and Grammars in Contact, has been published by Cambridge University Press.
Recent Publications
Ethnic variation in real time: Change in Australian English diphthongs
Bibliography
James Grama, Catherine Travis, and Simon Gonzalez. 2021. "Ethnic variation in real time: Change in Australian English diphthongs". In Studies in Language Variation (Papers from the Tenth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 10), 292-314. Amsterdam.
Alternating or mixing languages
Bibliography
Travis, Catherine, and Torres Cacoullos, Rena. 2021. "Alternating or mixing languages". In English and Spanish: World languages in Interaction, 287-311. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Categories and frequency: Cognition verbs in Spanish subject expression
Bibliography
Catherine Travis, and Rena Torres Cacoullos. 2021. "Categories and frequency: Cognition verbs in Spanish subject expression." Languages. 6 (3): 126. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/languages6030126.
Gender, mobility and contact: Stability and change in an Acehnese dialect
Bibliography
Catherine Travis, and Inas Ghina. 2021. "Gender, mobility and contact: Stability and change in an Acehnese dialect." Asia-Pacific Language Variation. 7 (2): 142-167. doi: https://doi.org/10.1075/aplv.20007.tra.
Comparing the performance of forced aligners used in sociophonetic research
Bibliography
Simon Gonzalez, James Grama, and Catherine Travis. 2020. "Comparing the performance of forced aligners used in sociophonetic research." Linguistics Vanguard. 6 (1) doi: 10.1515/lingvan-2019-0058.

Gillian Wigglesworth
- Title: Emeritus Professor
- Program: Learning
- Institution: The University of Melbourne
Gillian Wigglesworth’s expertise is in first and second language acquisition in monolingual, bilingual and multilingual settings. A major focus of her work is in remote Indigenous communities documenting children’s language learning at home and at school, together with CI Jane Simpson (Shape). She is collaborating with other Learning program members to ensure comparable data collection patterns in the acquisition projects taking place in Australia and Papua New Guinea. Her collaboration with CI Janet Wiles (Evolution) investigates the potential of using robots in remote communities for language development, and with Professor Katherine Demuth (Macquarie University, CI, Centre in Cognition and its Disorders) on assessing Indigenous children’s hearing to determine any relationship to phonological awareness development. She is a Deputy Director of the Research Unit for Indigenous Language and Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne.
Recent Publications
Linguistic diversity in first language acquisition research: Moving beyond the challenges
Bibliography
Barbara Kelly, William Forshaw, Rachel Nordlinger, and Gillian Wigglesworth. October 1, 2015. "Linguistic diversity in first language acquisition research: Moving beyond the challenges." First Language. 35 (4-5): 286-304. doi: 10.1177/0142723715602350.
The Acquisition of Polysynthetic Languages
Bibliography
Barbara Kelly, Gillian Wigglesworth, Rachel Nordlinger, and Joseph Blythe. February 1, 2014. "The Acquisition of Polysynthetic Languages." Language and Linguistics Compass. 8 (2): 51-64. doi: 10.1111/lnc3.12062.
Translating translanguaging into our classrooms: Possibilities and challenges
Bibliography
Rhonda Oliver, Gillian Wigglesworth, Denise Angelo, and Carly Steele. 2021. "Translating translanguaging into our classrooms: Possibilities and challenges." Language Teaching Research. 25 (1): 134-150. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/1362168820938822.
From “Civilising Missions” to Indigenous Language Reclamation: Language policy, language shift and maintenance in Australia and Norway
Bibliography
Lane, Pia, Wigglesworth, Gillian, Røyneland, Unn, and Blackwood, Robert. 2021. "From “Civilising Missions” to Indigenous Language Reclamation: Language policy, language shift and maintenance in Australia and Norway". In Multilingualism across the Lifespan, 124-143. New York: Routledge.
Beyond Success and Failure: Intergenerational Language Transmission from within Indigenous Families in Southern Chile
Bibliography
Espinoza, Marco, Wigglesworth, Gillian, Wright, Lyn, and Higgins, Christina. 2021. "Beyond Success and Failure: Intergenerational Language Transmission from within Indigenous Families in Southern Chile". In Diversifying family language policy, London: Bloomsbury.

Janet Wiles
- Title: Professor
- Program: Evolution/Technologies
- Institution: The University of Queensland
Janet Wiles’ research involves bio-inspired computation in complex systems, with applications in cognitive science and biorobotics. She completed a PhD in Computer Science at the University of Sydney, a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychology at the University of Queensland, and served as faculty in the Cognitive Science program for 12 years. In 2003 she formed the Complex and Intelligent Systems research group at the University of Queensland where she has been Professor since 2006. She currently coordinates the UQ node of CoEDL, where her research focuses on social robots and language.
Recent Publications
Using technology to enhance communication between people with dementia and their carers
Bibliography
Helen Chenery, Christina Atay, Alana Campbell, Erin Conway, Daniel Angus, and Janet Wiles. July 1, 2016. "Using technology to enhance communication between people with dementia and their carers." Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association. 12 (7): 279-280. doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2016.06.507.
An Automated Approach to Examining Conversational Dynamics between People with Dementia and Their Carers
Bibliography
Christina Atay, Erin Conway, Daniel Angus, Janet Wiles, Rosemary Baker, and Helen Chenery. December 10, 2015. "An Automated Approach to Examining Conversational Dynamics between People with Dementia and Their Carers." PLoS ONE. 10 (12): e0144327. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144327.
User-Friendly Automatic Transcription of Low-Resource Languages: Plugging ESPnet into Elpis
Bibliography
Oliver Adams, Benjamin Galliot, Guillaume Wisniewski, Nicholas Lambourne, Ben Foley, Rahasya Sanders-Dwyer, Janet Wiles, Alexis Michaud, Guillaume Séverine, Laurent Besacier, Christopher Cox, Katya Aplonova, Guillaume Jacques, and Nathan Hill. 2021. "User-Friendly Automatic Transcription of Low-Resource Languages: Plugging ESPnet into Elpis". In Proceedings of the 4th Workshop on Computational Methods for Endangered Languages, Online.
Can a robot teach me that? Children’s ability to imitate robots
Bibliography
Kristyn Sommer, Virginia Slaughter, Janet Wiles, Kathryn Owen, Andrea Chiba, Deborah Forster, Mohsen Malmir, and Mark Nielsen. 2021. "Can a robot teach me that? Children’s ability to imitate robots." Journal of Experimental Child Psychology. 203 (105040): 1-15. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2020.105040.
An Automated Approach to Examining Pausing in the Speech of People With Dementia
Bibliography
Rachel A. Sluis, Daniel Angus, Janet Wiles, Andrew Back, Ting Ting Gibson, Jacki Liddle, Peter Worthy, David Copland, and Anthony J. Angwin. 2020. "An Automated Approach to Examining Pausing in the Speech of People With Dementia." American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease & Other Dementias. 35: 1-8. doi: 10.1177/1533317520939773.