Emeritus Professor Malcolm Ross
BA (Hons) (Bristol), Postgrad Cert Ed (Bristol), Cert TSL (Massey), MLitt (Ed) (Bristol), PhD (ANU), FAHA
Emeritus Professor, School of Culture, History & Language
ANU College of Asia and the Pacific
Areas of expertise
- Linguistic Structures (Incl. Grammar, Phonology, Lexicon, Semantics) 200408
- Pacific Languages 200320
- Comparative Language Studies 200322
- Language In Time And Space (Incl. Historical Linguistics, Dialectology) 200406
- South East Asian Languages (Excl. Indonesian) 200314
- Pacific History (Excl. New Zealand And Maori) 210313
- Language In Culture And Society (Sociolinguistics) 200405
Research interests
Austronesian and Papuan languages, theory of language change, contact-induced language change, historical change in grammatical constructions.
Biography
For the last few years my main involvements have been in the Oceanic Lexicon Project (a project of the Department of Linguistics) and in various aspects of Formosan (Taiwan) and Papuan (New Guinea) historical linguistics.
Career highlights
Principal of Goroka Teachers' College (UPNG) (1980-82); Visiting Professor, Dept of Southeast Asian Studies, University of Frankfurt (1993, 1998-99); Guest Scientist, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig (2002, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014); Visiting Professor, Academia Sinica, Taipei (2003, 2008–2009), Visiting Professor, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, and National Taiwan University, Taipei (2008–2009), Hermann and Klara H. Collitz Professor at the 2009 Summer Institute of the Linguistic Society of America at the University of California at Berkeley; Visiting Scholar, Laboratoire “Langues et civilisations à tradition orale” (LACITO) UMR 7107 du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Villejuif, Paris, France.
Researcher's projects
See https://sites.google.com/site/malcolmdrosshistoricallinguist/current-research.
Publications
- Ross, M 2017, 'Languages of the New Guinea region', in Raymond Hickey (ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Areal Linguistics, Cambridge University Press, Cornwall, United Kingdom, pp. 758-820pp.
- Ross, M 2017, 'Linguistic evidence for prehistory: Oceanic examples', Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, vol. Special Publication, no. 1, pp. 67-101 pp..
- Osmond, M & Ross, M 2016, 'The human body', in M. Ross, A. Pawley & M. Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Vol.5: People: Body and mind, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 75-207.
- Ross, M & Osmond, M 2016, 'Bodily conditions and activities', in M. Ross, A. Pawley & M. Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Vol.5: People: Body and mind, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 209-333.
- Ross, M & Osmond, M 2016, 'Cognition', in M. Ross, A. Pawley & M. Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Vol.5: People: Body and mind, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 535-566.
- Ross, M, Pawley, A & Osmond, M 2016, 'Introduction', in M. Ross, A. Pawley & M. Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Vol.5: People: Body and mind, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 1-36pp.
- Ross, M & Osmond, M 2016, 'Describing people: stature, temperament, emotion and evaluation', in M. Ross, A. Pawley & M. Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Vol.5: People: Body and mind, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 567-600.
- Ross, M, Pawley, A & Osmond, M, eds, 2016, The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, vol.5: People: Body and mind, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
- Ross, M 2015, 'Reconstructing proto austronesian verb classes', Language and Linguistics, vol. 16, no. 3, pp. 279-345.
- Ross, M 2015, 'Some Proto Austronesian coronals reexamined', in Elizabeth Zeitoun, Stacy F. Teng & Joy J. Wu (ed.), New Advances in Formosan Linguistics, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, Australia.
- Ross, M 2015, 'The Lihir Language, a member of the Austronesian language family', in Simon Ziegler and Don Niles (ed.), Grammar of the Lihir Language of New Ireland, Papua New Guinea, Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, Boroko, Papua New Guinea, pp. xxv-xxxii.
- Ross, M 2015, 'Revising the reconstruction of early Austronesian personal pronouns', in Malcolm Ross and I Wayan Arka (ed.), Language change in Austronesian languages.Papers from 12-ICAL, Volume 3, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, Australia, pp. 109-122.
- Ross, Malcolm & Arka, I Wayan, eds, 2015, Language change in Austronesian languages.Papers from 12-ICAL, Volume 3, Asia-Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, Australia.
- Koch, H, Mailhammer, R, Blust, R et al 2014, 'Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics: A view from Asia, Australia and the Pacific', Diachronica, vol. 31, no. 2, pp. 267-278.
- Ross, M 2014, 'Reconstructing the history of languages in northwest New Britain: Inheritance and contact', Journal of Historical Linguistics, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 84-132.
- Ross, M 2014, 'Affixes in Language Change: Copying, Inheritance and Accommodation', Language Dynamics and Change, vol. 4, no. 2, pp. 271-284.
- Ross, M 2014, 'Oceanic Languages', in Luanna H Meyer (ed.), Oxford Bibliographies Online, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
- Ross, M 2013, 'The argument indexing of Early Austronesian verbs: a reconstructional myth?', International Conference on Historical Linguistics ICHL 2013, ed. Dag T.T. Haug, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, pp. 257-279.
- Ross, M 2013, 'Diagnosing Contact Processes from their Outcomes: The Importance of Life Stages', Journal of Language Contact, vol. 6, pp. 5-47.
- Ross, M 2012, 'In defense of Nuclear Austronesian (and against Tsouic)', English Language and Linguistics, vol. 13, no. 6, pp. 1253-1330.
- Ross, M 2011, 'Proto-Oceanic kw', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 50, no. 1, pp. 25-49.
- Ross, M, Pawley, A & Osmond, M 2011, 'Introduction: The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society Volume 4. Animals', in Malcolm Ross, Andrew Pawley and Meredith Osmond (ed.), The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Volume 4: Animals, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia, pp. 1-24.
- Ross, M, Pawley, A & Osmond, M, eds, 2011, The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: the culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society 4: Animals, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia.
- Bellwood, P., G. Chambers, M. Ross and H.C. Hung 2011, 'Are 'Cultures' Inherited? Multidisciplinary Perspectives on the Origins and Migrations of Austronesian-Speaking Peoples Prior to 1000 BC', in Benjamin W. Roberts and Marc Vander Linden (ed.), Investigating Archaeological Cultures: Material Culture, Variability, and Transmission, Springer, New York, pp. 321-354.
- Ross, M 2010, 'Lexical history in the Northwest Solomonic languages: evidence for two waves of Oceanic settlement in Bougainville and the northwest Solomons', in John Bowden, Nikolaus P Himmelmann and Malcolm Ross (ed.), A journey through Austronesian and Papuan linguistic and cultural space: Papers in honour of Andrew Pawley, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, ACT, pp. 245-270.
- Teng, S & Ross, M 2010, 'Is Puyuma a Primary Branch of Austronesian? A Reply to Sagart', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 49, no. 2 2010, pp. 543-558.
- Ross, M 2010, 'A Preliminary Analysis of East Kewa Tone', in Kenneth A. McElhanon and Ger Reesink (ed.), A Mosaic of Languages and Cultures: studies celebrating the career of Karl J. Franklin, SIL International, Texas, USA, pp. 294-309.
- Ross, M 2009, 'Proto Austronesian verbal morphology: A reappraisal', in Alexander Adelaar and Andrew Pawley (ed.), Austronesian Historical Linguistics and Culture History: A festschrift for Robert Blust, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia, pp. 295-326.
- Ross, M 2009, 'Takia vocabulary'.
- Ross, M 2009, 'Loanwords in Takia, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea', in Martin Haspelmath and Uri Tadmor (ed.), Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, Germany, pp. 747-770.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Introducing Proto Oceanic plant names', 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. 25-51.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Nut and fruit trees', 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. 311-353.
- 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.
- Blench, R, Ross, M & Sanchez-Mazas, A 2008, 'Methodological issues: linking genetic, linguistic and archaeological evidence', in Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, Roger Blench, Malcolm D. Ross, Ilia Peiros and Marie Lin (ed.), Past Human Migrations in East Asia: Matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Great Britain, pp. 3-19.
- Ross, M 2008, 'The integrity of the Austronesian language family: from Taiwan to Oceania', in Alicia Sanchez-Mazas, Roger Blench, Malcolm D. Ross, Ilia Peiros and Marie Lin (ed.), Past Human Migrations in East Asia: Matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Great Britain, pp. 161-181.
- Ross, M, Pawley, A & Osmond, M, eds, 2008, The lexicon of Proto Oceanic The culture and environment of ancestral oceanic society 3: Plants, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
- Ross, M 2008, 'A History of Metatypy in the Bel Languages', Journal of Language Contact, vol. 2, pp. 149-164.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Other cultivated 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. 389-426.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Concluding notes', 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. 427-436.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Wild plants of the mangrove swamp', 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. 173-184.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Wild plants of primary lowland tropical rain forest', 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. 185-236.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Wild plants of secondary lowland rain forest and grassland', 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. 237-254.
- Ross, M, Sanchez-Mazas, A, Blench, R et al, eds, 2008, Past Human Migrations in East Asia: Matching archaeology, linguistics and genetics, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, Great Britain.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Wild plants of the coastal strand', 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. 129-172.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Staple foods: root crops, bananas, breadfruit and sago', 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. 255-292.
- Ross, M 2008, 'Green vegetables and figs', 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. 293-310.
- Ross, M 2007, 'Two kinds of locative construction in Oceanic languages: A robust distinction', in Jeff Siegel, John Lynch and Diana Eades (ed.), Language Description, History and Development: Linguistic indulgence in memory of Terry Crowley, John Benjamins Publishing Company, Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Philadelphia, USA, pp. 281-295.
- Ross, M 2007, 'Calquing and Metatypy', Journal of Language Contact, vol. THEMA, no. 1, pp. 116-143.
- Ross, M & Naess, A 2007, 'An Oceanic Origin for Aiwoo, the Language of the Reef Islands?', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 46, no. 2, pp. 456-498.
- Dunn, M & Ross, M 2007, 'Is Kazukuru Really Non-Austronesian?', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 210-231.
- Ross, M 2006, 'Formosan Languages', in Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 587-590.
- Ross, M 2006, 'Metatypy', in Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 95-99.
- Ross, M 2006, 'Malayo-Polynesian Languages', in Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 457-462.
- Ross, M 2006, 'Language Families and Linguistic Diversity', in Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics (2nd ed), Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 499 - 507.
- Ross, M 2005, 'The Morphology of Some Oceanic Plant Names', in Claudia Gross, Harriet D. Lyons, Dorothy A Counts (ed.), A Polymath Anthropologist: Essays in Honour of Ann Chowning, University of Auckland, Auckland, pp. 197-204.
- Ross, M & Teng, F 2005, 'Formosan Languages and Linguistic Typology', Language and Linguistics, vol. 6, no. 4, pp. 739-781.
- Ross, M & Teng, F 2005, 'Clause Constructions in Nanwang Puyuma', Concentric: Studies in Linguistics, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 119-158.
- Ross, M 2005, 'Pronouns as a preliminary diagnostic for grouping Papuan languages', in Andrew Pawley, Robert Attenborough, Jack Golson and Robin Hide (ed.), Papuan pasts: Cultural, linguistic and biological histories of Papuan-speaking peoples, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia, pp. 15-66.
- Arka, I Wayan & Ross, M 2005, 'Introduction [The many faces of Austronesian voice systems: some new empirical studies]', in I Wayan Arka and Malcolm Ross (ed.), The many faces of Austronesian voice systems: some new empirical studies, Pacific Linguistics, RPAS, Australian National University, Canberra, pp. 1-15.
- Pawley, A & Ross, M 2004, 'The Pre-history of Oceanic languages: A Current View', in Peter Bellwood (ed.), The Austronesians: Historical and Comparative Perspectives, ANU ePress, Australia, pp. 43-80.
- Ross, M 2004, 'Notes on the Prehistory and Internal Subgrouping of Malayic', in John Bowden and Nikolaus Himmelmann (ed.), Papers in Austronesian subgrouping and dialectology, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, ACT, pp. 97-109.
- Ross, M 2004, 'Demonstratives, local nouns and directionals in Oceanic languages: a diachronic perspective', in Gunter Senft (ed.), Deixis and demonstratives in Oceanic Languages, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 175 - 204.
- Ross, M 2004, 'Aspects of deixis in Takia', in Gunter Senft (ed.), Deixis and demonstratives in Oceanic Languages, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 15 - 36.
- Ross, M 2004, 'The Morphosyntactic Typology of Oceanic Languages', Language and Linguistics, vol. 5, no. 2, pp. 491-541.
- Ross, M 2004, 'The Grammaticization of Directional Verbs in Oceanic Languages', in Isabelle Bril and Francoise Ozanne-Rivierre (ed.), Complex Predicates in Oceanic Languages: Studies in the Dynamics of Binding and Boundness, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin, pp. 297-329.
- Ross, M 2004, 'Typologie morpho-syntaxique del langues oceaniennes', in Elizabeth Zeitoun (ed.), Faits De Langues, Ophrys, Paris, pp. 71-86.
- Bowden, F & Ross, M 2003, 'Review essay: Trilingual dictionary of Lamaholot', The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol. 4, no. 1,2, pp. 143-149.
- Ross, M 2003, 'Diagnosing prehistoric language contact', in Raymond Hickey (ed.), Motives for language change, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 174-198.
- Ross, M, Pawley, A & Osmond, M 2003, The lexicon of Proto Oceanic: The culture and environment of ancestral Oceanic society, Vol.2 The physical environment, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra Australia.
- Lynch, J, Ross, M & Crowley, T 2002, The Oceanic languages, Curzon Press, Richmond.
- Ross, M 2002, 'Final words: research themes in the history and typology of western Austronesian languages', in Fay Wouk and Malcolm Ross (ed.), The history and typology of Western Austronesian voice systems, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 451-474.
- Ross, M 2002, 'The history and transitivity of Western Austronesian voice and voice-marking', in Fay Wouk and Malcolm Ross (ed.), The history and typology of Western Austronesian voice systems, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 17-62.
- Ross, M 2002, 'Those things happen only in little planes', in R Gerard Ward and Susan Serjeantson (ed.), .. and then the engines stopped: flying in Papua New Guinea, Pandanus Books, Canberra, pp. 41-43.
- Wouk, F & Ross, M, eds, 2002, The history and typology of Western Austronesian voice systems, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
- Evans, B & Ross, M 2001, 'The history of Proto Oceanic ma-', Oceanic Linguistics, vol. 40, no. 2, pp. 269-290.
- Ross, M 2001, 'Is there an East Papuan phylum? Evidence from pronouns', in A. Pawley, M. Ross and D. Tryon (ed.), The Boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian Linguistics in Honour of Tom Dutton, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 301-321.
- Pawley, A, Ross, M & Tryon, D, eds, 2001, The boy from Bundaberg: Studies in Melanesian linguistics in honour of Tom Dutton, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra.
- Ross, M 2001, 'Proto Oceanic i, qi and -ki', in Joel Bradshaw and Kenneth L. Rehg (ed.), Issues in Austronesian morphology: a focusschrift for Byron W. Bender, Pacific Linguistics, Canberra, pp. 259-278.
- Ross, M 2001, 'Contact-induced change in Oceanic languages in North-west Melanesia', in Aikenvald, A. Dixon, R.M.W. (ed.), Areal Diffusion and Genetic Inheritance-Problems in Comparative Linguistics, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 134-166.
