Dr Bethwyn Evans
Areas of expertise
- Language In Culture And Society (Sociolinguistics) 200405
- Language In Time And Space (Incl. Historical Linguistics, Dialectology) 200406
- Linguistic Structures (Incl. Grammar, Phonology, Lexicon, Semantics) 200408
- Pacific Languages 200320
Research interests
Historical and contact linguistics, Austronesian and Papuan languages of Melanesia, language documentation and description, linguistic typology
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.
Publications
- Bowern, C & Evans, B 2015, 'Editor's introduction: Foundations of the new historical linguistics', in Claire Bowern and Bethwyn Evans (ed.), The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK and New York, USA, pp. 1-42.
- Bowern, C & Evans, B, eds, 2015, The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, Routledge Taylor & Francis Group, Abingdon, UK and New York, USA.
- Duggan, A, Evans, B, Friedlaender, F et al 2014, 'Maternal History of Oceania from Complete mtDNA Genomes: Contrasting Ancient Diversity with Recent Homogenization Due to the Austronesian Expansion', American Journal of Human Genetics, vol. 94, no. 5, pp. 721-733.
- Evans, B & Palmer, B 2011, 'Contact-Induced Change in Southern Bougainville', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 50, no. 2, pp. 483-523.
- Evans, B 2010, 'Proto Oceanic *akin[i]: reconstructing change in progress', in John Bowden, Nikolaus P Himmelmann & Malcolm Ross (ed.), A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space: Papers in honour of Andrew Pawley, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, ACT, pp. 179-196.
- Evans, B 2009, 'Beyond pronouns: further evidence for South Bougainville', in Bethwyn Evans (ed.), Discovering history through language: papers in honour of Malcolm Ross, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia, pp. 73-101.
- Evans, B 2009, 'From Aspect/Mood Marker to Discourse Particle: Reconstructing Syntactic and Semantic Change', in Maj-Britt Modegaard Hansen and Jacqueline Visconti (ed.), Current trends in diachronic semantics and pragmatics, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Bingley, UK, pp. 165-187.
- Evans, B 2008, 'Subject Agreement in Marovo: Diachronic Explanations of Synchronic Conditions', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 47, no. 2, pp. 383-408.
- Evans, B 2008, 'Third person plural as a morphological zero: object marking in Marovo', in Claire Bowern, Bethwyn Evans & Luisa Miceli (ed.), Morphology and Language History: In honour of Harold Koch, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, pp. 281-298.
- Evans, B 2008, 'Ethnobotanical classification', in Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley and Meredith Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The culture and environment of ancestral oceanic society, Vol 3 Plants, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 55-87.
- Evans, B 2008, 'Parts of plants', in Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley and Meredith Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The culture and environment of ancestral oceanic society, Vol 3 Plants, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 85-127.
- Ross, M & Evans, B 2008, 'The coconut palm', in Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley and Meredith Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The culture and environment of ancestral oceanic society, Vol 3 Plants, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 355-387.
- Evans, B & Merlan, F 2004, 'Stop contrasts in languages of Arnhem Land: From the perspective of Jawoyn, Southern Arnhem land', Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 185-224.
- Evans, B 2003, A study of valency-changing devices in Proto Oceanic, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
- Evans, B & Ross, M 2001, 'The history of Proto Oceanic *ma-', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 269-290.