Functional and Cognitive linguistics: Grammar and Typology

FunC

Our research group conducts research in the field of cognitive-functional linguistics. Our work has a strong focus on grammar, seeking to understand the architecture of grammatical systems and their underlying semantic motivation. This is done from different perspectives, including synchronic usage, cross-linguistic comparison and typology, and language change. Various methodologies are used, including corpus research, sample-based typology, and field-work.

• Grammar: Our research specializes in several domains of grammar, each approached as meaning-generating grammatical subsystems. These include the noun phrase; case marking; tense, aspect and modality; clause-combining and complementation; and the interface between grammatical structure and information structure.
• Typology: The research on grammar informs and is informed by typological research, which in turn interacts with ongoing language documentation work in Australia.
• Diachrony: The work on grammatical systems also links to work on diachrony, which focuses on grammaticalization and (inter)subjectification processes, as well as mechanisms of language change, historical pragmatics and language contact.