Languages of the Pacific
Find out about our strong tradition in Austronesian/Pacific research.
Almost one-quarter of the world's languages are spoken in the Pacific, making it linguistically the most complex region in the world. Our School has a strong tradition in Austronesian/Pacific research. Several of our staff members share a common concern with describing and helping to maintain and revitalise indigenous languages in this region.
Active research projects in this area
- The syntax of the agent emphatic construction in Polynesian languages
- A reappraisal of Austronesian higher-order phylogeny via a comparative look at morphosyntactic variation in higher-order languages
- Comparative morphosyntax of Philippine-type languages
- Comparative morphosyntax of Indonesian-type languages
- Language variation and change in western Austronesian
- Translanguaging to support Sāmoan language maintenance efforts
- Translanguaging to support te reo Māori language reclamation and maintenance efforts
- Heritage language policy of Pacific languages in Aotearoa
- Discourses of mobility amongst the Tongan diaspora in Aotearoa
- Phrasal prosody of heritage speakers of Sāmoan in Aotearoa
- Signalling of information structure in Sāmoan, with a particular interest in prosodic cues
Researchers able to supervise in this area
- Corinne Seals (heritage language policy; language(s) education; translanguaging; te reo Māori; Sāmoan; Tongan)
- Sasha Calhoun (prosody; phonology-syntax interface; Sāmoan; Māori; Polynesian languages)
- Victoria Chen (Austronesian comparative & diachronic morphosyntax; linguistic subgrouping)