LSA 2009

Peter Austin is Marit Rausing Chair in Field Linguistics and Director of the Endangered Languages Academic Programme at SOAS. He previously held positions at University of Frankfurt, University of Melbourne, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics Nijmegen, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, University of Hong Kong, and Stanford University. Peter's research interests cover descriptive, theoretical and applied linguistics. He has extensive fieldwork experience on Australian Aboriginal languages, and since 1995 has been carrying out research on Sasak and Samawa (or Sumbawan), Austronesian languages spoken on Lombok and Sumbawa islands, eastern Indonesia. His theoretical research is mainly on syntax and focuses on Lexical Functional Grammar, morpho-syntactic typology, theory and practice of language documentation, computer-aided lexicography and endangered languages. He has also published on historical and comparative linguistics and Aboriginal history and biography.