Department of Linguistics, RSPAS

The Department of Linguistics in the Research School for Pacific and Asian Studies is a major centre for research on the indigenous languages of the Pacific Islands and Island Southeast Asia. It offers a PhD by thesis only. The research program is multi-faceted. An emphasis on language description and fieldwork goes hand in hand with a strong engagement with theoretical issues in the study of discourse, grammar, lexicon and language change. Many of the theses completed in the Department have been analytical grammars of individual languages which at the same time address questions of general interest. The Department has been a leader in research on the history of the Austronesian and Papuan languages and in the study of Pacific pidgins.

More specific details may be found in the biographical notes on staff members, current research, completed PhD theses and current students.

Academic Links

Within RSPAS, Linguistics belongs to the Division of Society of Environment, together with the Departments of Anthropology, Human Geography and the Contemporary China Centre. Close ties are maintained with the Linguistics Department in the Faculty of Arts, ANU.

Graduate Program in Linguistics

The Linguistics Department in RSPAS is a research only department and thus offers no undergraduate teaching in linguistics. The department does, however, offer a PhD degree by research only. The Linguistics Department in RSPAS, together with the Linguistics Department in the Faculty of Arts supervise research students under the aegis of the Graduate Program in Linguistics.

Centre for Research on Language Change

Members of the department are active in the University's Centre for Research on Language Change. The Centre is a focus for all research in this field at the Australian National University, combining interests previously divided amongst the Department of Linguistics in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, the School of Language Studies in the Faculty of Arts, various centres in the Faculty of Asian Studies, and members of the Departments of Anthropology and of Archaeology and Natural History, RSPAS, and the Archaeology and Anthropology, Faculty of Arts.

The centre seeks to actively promote the formulation of cross-campus and inter-university projects and seek appropriate funding for them, support directly selected projects or aspects of them, organise seminars, lectures and conferences, publish appropriate works and publicise the interests and achievements of historical linguistics at the ANU.

Pacific Linguistics

The department has a long association with Pacific Linguistics publishing house , which has produced around 500 publications on Pacific and Southeast Asian languages and linguistics. The managing editors are Malcolm Ross, Darrell Tryon and John Bowden.