Alexandre François
Alexandre François | |
|---|---|
CNRS | |
| Main interests | Oceanic languages |
| Notable ideas | Colexification |
Alexandre François is a French
Research
Language description and documentation
François has done linguistic fieldwork in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.
In 2002, he published a grammatical description of Araki, a language spoken by a handful of speakers on an islet south of Espiritu Santo (Vanuatu).[1]
Most of his research focuses on the
In 2005, François took part in a scientific expedition to
In 2015, he coauthored with Jean-Michel Charpentier the Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia, an
In 2020, he was elected a member of the Academia Europaea.[8]
Documentation of languages and cultures in Melanesia
François recorded texts from the oral literature – myths, legends, folktales – in various language communities of Vanuatu and the Solomons.
He provided local communities with various books in their languages, in the perspective of promoting the use of vernacular languages in writing.[9]
Together with ethnomusicologist Monika Stern and anthropologist Éric Wittersheim, he ran a multidisciplinary project on traditional music and poetry in Vanuatu.[10] This led to the publication of Music of Vanuatu: Celebrations and Mysteries, a CD album of songs and dances recorded during social events in the field.[11]
Contribution to linguistic typology and theory
François coined the term "colexification".[12] This term captures the fact that certain concepts, which some languages distinguish in their lexicons, are encoded in the same way ("colexified") in other languages. Colexification is increasingly used in research about lexical typology.
Together with Siva Kalyan (ANU), he also developed Historical glottometry, a non-cladistic approach to language genealogy, inspired by the Wave model.[13]
Selected publications
- Charpentier, Jean-Michel; ISBN 978-3-11-026035-9.
- François, Alexandre (2002). Araki: A disappearing language of Vanuatu. Pacific Linguistics, 522. Canberra: Australian National University. ISBN 0-85883-493-6.
- François, Alexandre (2003), La sémantique du prédicat en mwotlap (Vanuatu), Collection Linguistique de la Société de Linguistique de Paris, Leuven-Paris: Peeters, ISBN 978-90-429-1271-7
- François, Alexandre (2009), "The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar", in Evans, Bethwyn (ed.), Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross, Pacific Linguistics 605, Canberra: Australian National University, pp. 103–126
- François, Alexandre (2008), "Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages", in Vanhove, Martine (ed.), From Polysemy to Semantic change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations, Studies in Language Companion Series, vol. 106, Amsterdam, New York: Benjamins, pp. 163–215,
- François, Alexandre (2012), "The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages", International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2012 (214): 85–110, S2CID 145208588
- François, Alexandre (2014), "Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification", in Bowern, Claire; Evans, Bethwyn (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, London: Routledge, pp. 161–189, ISBN 978-0-41552-789-7.
- François, Alexandre (2019), Online Mwotlap–English–French dictionary (work in progress), Paris
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - François, Alexandre; Stern, Monika (2013), Musiques du Vanuatu: Fêtes et Mystères – Music of Vanuatu: Celebrations and Mysteries (CD album, released with liner notes and ebook), label Inédit, vol. W260147, Paris: Maison des Cultures du Monde
- Kalyan, Siva; François, Alexandre (2018), "Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry", in Kikusawa, Ritsuko; Reid, Laurie (eds.), Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages, Senri Ethnological Studies, 98, Ōsaka: National Museum of Ethnology, pp. 59–89.
Notes
- ^ François (2002).
- ^ François (2003); François (2019).
- ^ François (2012).
- ^ Bremner, Charles (13 May 2005), "Sea hero's fate revealed after 217 years", The Times.
- ^ Traufetter, Gerald (15 June 2012), Climate Change or Tectonic Shifts? The Mystery of the Sinking South Pacific Islands. Part 2: A Language's Lone Survivor, Der Spiegel
- ^ François (2009).
- ^ Charpentier & François (2015).
- ^ "Alexandre François". Academia Europaea. Retrieved 2020-10-08.
- ^ "Building up vernacular literacy" with free access to literacy materials.
- ^ The Poet's Salary (2009), award-winning documentary by Éric Wittersheim, about François' and Stern's fieldwork in northern Vanuatu.
- ^ François & Stern (2013).
- ^ François (2008).
- ^ François (2014), Kalyan & François (2018).
External links
- A linguist in Melanesia, personal website.
- Professional page (Lattice-CNRS).
- Professional page (Linguistics, ANU).
- Access to François' fieldwork archives on 23 languages of Island Melanesia.
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