This series focuses on historical and comparative grammatical studies in Austronesian linguistics, as well as theory-free language description.
Discussions on formal theoretical approaches (e.g., generative syntax) are not the main emphasis.
Date: Thursday, March 26, 2026
Time: 21:00 – 22:00 JST (Tokyo)
→ For Europe: 13:00 – 14:00 CET (France, etc.) – note that DST starts March 29, so no change yet for this date.
→ UTC/GMT: 12:00 – 13:00 (fixed reference)
Speaker: Alexandre François
Title: EvoSem, a tool for assessing semantic diversification
Abstract:
The study of sound change shows us how a given phoneme can evolve in many ways, some expected, others more original. But what about meaning? “EvoSem” is a database that compares cognate sets across language families, assessing their internal polysemy. It can detect and measure the most common paths of semantic change in the lexicon, and identify the more original ones. We will see how the Austronesian family – among others – has been contributing to this project on semantic typology.
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For any queries:
austronesianafterdark at gmail dot com
afterdark@choco.la
(Dr. Yuko Ayu Kitada)