Högre seminarium: Niclas Burenhult, Lunds universitet

Seminarietitel: Sensory encoding in demonstratives: typology and a case study (Jahai, Austroasiatic, Malay Peninsula).

Seminarium

Datum:

torsdag 9 oktober 2025

Tid:

15.00 – 17.00

Plats:

C307, Södra huset

 

Abstract (engelska):

Demonstratives that encode sensory modalities, such as vision and hearing, are a family of distinctions reported infrequently in diverse languages and regions. Few such distinctions have been explored in depth, and little is known about their cross-linguistic differences and commonalities.

In this talk, I chalk out an incipient typology of such distinctions against a backdrop of data from Jahai. This Austroasiatic language in the Malay Peninsula has a rich set of demonstrative distinctions, one of which encodes non-visual apprehension of its referent. I conclude with a discussion of the relevance of such distinctions to our general understanding of demonstratives as well as sensory language.

Mer om Niclas Burenhult