Nicholas Evans (linguist)

Nicholas Evans (born 1956) is an Australian linguist and a leading expert on endangered languages. He was born in Los Angeles, USA.[1]

Nicholas Evans
Born1956
Los Angeles, United States
NationalityAustralian
OccupationLinguist
Awards
Academic background
Alma materAustralian National University
Academic work
InstitutionsAustralian National University
Main interestsAustralian languages, Papuan languages, linguistic typology

Holding a Ph.D. in Linguistics from the Australian National University (ANU), he is Head of the Department of Linguistics and Distinguished Professor in the School of Culture, History and Language at the College of Asia and the Pacific at ANU. Formerly, he held a personal chair in the Department of Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at the University of Melbourne.

His research interests include Aboriginal Australian languages, Papuan languages, linguistic typology, historical and contact linguistics, semantics, and the mutual influence of language and culture. Recent focuses include the way in which diverse grammars underpin social cognition (with Alan Rumsey and others); ongoing fieldwork on various Aboriginal languages of Northern Australia (Dalabon, Iwaidja, Marrku, Bininj Gun-wok, Kayardild); Papuan languages (Nen, Idi), work on endangered song-language traditions of Western Arnhem Land (with Allan Marett, Linda Barwick and Murray Garde), and the development of coevolutionary approaches that integrate the dynamic interactions between language, culture and cognition. In addition to his linguistic research he has carried out more applied work in Australian Aboriginal communities in various capacities, including interpreting and preparing anthropologists' reports in Native Title claims, and writing about the new art being produced by artists from Bentinck Island.

Evans signed the Declaration on the Common Language of the Croats, Serbs, Bosniaks and Montenegrins in 2019.[2]

Awards and honours

In 2013, he was awarded an Australian Laureate Fellowship.[3]

Selected works
  • Evans, Nicholas (2011). Dying Words: Endangered Languages and What They Have to Tell Us, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-1-444-35961-9.
  • Evans, Nicholas; Martin-Chew, Louise; Memmott, Paul; Woomera Aboriginal Corporation. Mornington Island Arts & Craft (2008), The heart of everything: the art and artists of Mornington & Bentinck Islands, McCulloch & McCulloch Australian Art Books, ISBN 978-0-9804494-1-9[4]
  • Evans, Nicholas (2005). "Australian Languages Reconsidered: A Review of Dixon (2002)". Oceanic Linguistics 44 (1), pp. 242–286.
  • Evans, Nicholas (ed.) (2003). The non-Pama-Nyungan languages of northern Australia: comparative studies of the continent's most linguistically complex region. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. pp. x + 513.
  • Evans, Nicholas (2003). Bininj Gun-wok: a pan-dialectal grammar of Mayali, Kunwinjku and Kune. (2 volumes). Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Evans, Nicholas and Hans-Jürgen Sasse (eds) (2002). Problems of Polysynthesis. Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Studia Typologica, Neue Reihe.
  • Evans, Nicholas (1998). "Aborigines Speak a Primitive Language". In: Bauer, Laurie; Trudgill, Peter. Language Myths, Penguin Books, pp. 159–168. ISBN 978-0-141-93910-0.
  • McConvell, Patrick; Evans, Nicholas (eds) (1997). Archaeology and Linguistics: Aboriginal Australia in Global Perspective. Melbourne: Oxford University Press Australia. ISBN 0-19-553728-9.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  • Evans, Nicholas (1995). A Grammar of Kayardild. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

References
  1. Our Story: Asia and the Pacific: ANU, anu.edu.au. Retrieved 22 October 2017.
  2. Signatories of the Declaration on the Common Language, official website. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  3. "ARC project grant success". Australian National University. 11 July 2013. Archived from the original on 15 July 2013. Retrieved 22 January 2018.
  4. Note: Evans is quoted in Blak Roots, an exhibition catalogue.
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