Alice Gaby

My research explores the relationship between human languages and the way we experience the world around us. It asks 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 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.