Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
My main research focus is historical and comparative linguistics and how language can be a window on the linguistic and non-linguistic past. I am particularly interested in the ways in which historical linguistics, in conjunction with archaeology and population genetics, can tell us about the past of particular ethnolinguistic groups, as well as about the general processes and mechanisms of linguistic and social change.
My current research builds on a project that I began as part of the Max Planck Research Group on Comparative Population Linguistics (led by Brigitte Pakendorf) at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, and explores the history of linguistic diversification and contact among Austronesian- and Papuan-speaking groups of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea. A major part of this project is the documentation and description of several languages of southern Bougainville, including Nasioi, Torau and Nagovisi.
Research interests
Historical and contact linguistics, Austronesian and Papuan languages of Melanesia, language documentation and description, linguistic typology
Qualifications
Expertise Areas
- Pacific Languages
- Language in Culture and Society (Sociolinguistics)
- Language in Time and Space (incl. Historical Linguistics, Dialectology)
- Linguistic Structures (incl. Grammar, Phonology, Lexicon, Semantics)
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Network (past 5 years)
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Modelling Pacific Creole Languages
Evans, N., Barth, D., Evans, B. & Thieberger, N. A.
Commonwealth Department of Defence, Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG)
28/02/22 → 30/06/25
Project: Research
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Where Does Grammar Come From The Cognitive Basis of Transitivity and Grammatical Relations
1/08/18 → 30/10/23
Project: Research
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Clan and kin among the Nagovisi of southern Bougainville, Papua New Guinea
Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP)
1/11/14 → 1/06/17
Project: Research
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ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language (CoEDL)
Evans, N., Angwin, A., Bishop, J., Christiansen, M., Corbett, G. G., Cutler, A., Escudero, P., Evans, B., Fletcher, J., Gray, R. D., Jones, C., Kidd, E., Levinson, S. C., Lieven, E., Matthews, S., Meakins, F., Meyerhoff, M., Ng, B. C., Nordlinger, R., Rowland, C., Rumsey, A., Simpson, J., Sterelny, K., Thieberger, N. A., Torres Cacoullos, R., Travis, C., Wigglesworth, G., Wiles, J. & Yip, V.
Australian National University (ANU), University of Western Sydney, University of Queensland (UQ), University of Melbourne, Australian Research Council (ARC)
15/08/14 → 31/12/22
Project: Research
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Editor's introduction: Foundations of the new historical linguistics
Bowern, C. & Evans, B., 2015, The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics. Claire Bowern and Bethwyn Evans (ed.). 1st ed. Abingdon, UK and New York, USA: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, p. 1-42Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics
Bowern, C. & Evans, B., 2015, 1st ed. Abingdon, UK and New York, USA: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.Research output: Book/Report › Book
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Maternal History of Oceania from Complete mtDNA Genomes: Contrasting Ancient Diversity with Recent Homogenization Due to the Austronesian Expansion
Duggan, A. T., Evans, B., Friedlaender, F. R., Friedlaender, J. S., Koki, G., Merriwether, D. A., Kayser, M. & Stoneking, M., 2014, In: American Journal of Human Genetics. 94, 5, p. 721-733Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Contact-Induced Change in Southern Bougainville
Evans, B. & Palmer, B., 2011, In: Oceanic Linguistics. 50, 2, p. 483-523Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Proto Oceanic *akin[i]: reconstructing change in progress
Evans, B., 2010, A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space: Papers in honour of Andrew Pawley. John Bowden, Nikolaus P Himmelmann & Malcolm Ross (ed.). 1st ed. Canberra, ACT: Pacific Linguistics, p. 179-196Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter