Jane Simpson majored in Chinese and English literature at ANU, followed by honours in Middle English and an MA in Linguistics (1977).  She spent 10 months in Moscow as an ANU exchange scholar (1977-78).  She has carried out fieldwork on Indigenous Australian languages since 1979, and received a PhD in linguistics from MIT in 1983 for a study of Warlpiri in the Lexical-Functional Grammar framework.  She was a Sloan postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University. She then worked in Central Australia on Warumungu language and language maintenance, and helped set up a language centre in Tennant Creek. She also carried out consultancies (e.g. Aboriginal Legal Aid, Aboriginal Sacred Sites Protection Authority), and worked on the Warumungu land claims.  In 1987-89 with David Nash she worked as lexicography fellow at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, helping set up a digital archive of Aboriginal language material, which became ASEDA.  In 1989 she became a lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Sydney. In 2005, with Mary Laughren and David Nash, she shared the Linguistics Society of America Summer Institute Inaugural Ken Hale Chair.  In 2011 she moved to ANU as the inaugural chair of Indigenous linguistics and head of the School of Language Studies (2011-2014).  In 2014 the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language was established, and she acted as Deputy Director until the Centre came to a natural end in 2022. She retired in 2022 and became Professor Emerita at ANU.

• Working with Nick Evans and others on the ARC Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language
• Working with Michael Christie (CDU) and Brian Devlin (CDU)  on the Living Archive of Aboriginal Languages
• Working with Gillian Wigglesworth (University of Melbourne) and others on ACLA, a project on child language acquisition in Aboriginal communities in Central and Northern Australia.
• Working with Robert Amery and MaryAnne Gale (University of Adelaide) on the indigenous languages spoken around Adelaide.
• Working with  Samantha Disbray (University of Queensland) on Warumungu, a language spoken around Tennant Creek.
• Working with Mary Laughren (University of Queensland) and David Nash (ANU) on the Warlpiri Dictionary
• Working with Denise Angelo and Carmel O'Shannessy (ANU), Susan Poetsch (University of Sydney) and Sally Dixon (UNE) on language ecologies
• Working with Roy Barker, Martin Thomas, Alison Mount and Samantha Bennett (ANU) and Barton Staggs (AIATSIS) on Muruwari recordings
• Working with Robert Mailhammer (WSU), Mark Harvey (University of Newcastle), Mike Proctor, Mitch Browne and Clara Stockigt (Macquarie University) on the concept of word in Central Australian languages
• Syntax, especially Lexical-Functional Grammar, and semantics
• Working with colleagues on digital archiving, and on establishing PARADISEC, an archive of Pacific and regional language and endangered culture material, directed by Linda Barwick with Nick Thieberger.
• Language maintenance.

As a retired professor, I cannot be the main supervisor of students.  However, I am happy to be on the panels of Indigenous Australians and people from the Pacific and South East Asia wanting to describe their own languages, as well as people wanting to work on syntax and/or semantics.

Lesley Woods  Ngiyampaa Language

James Gray Pintupi Luritja language

Haoyi Li Art and language in Arnhem Land

Anneke Myers Indigenous languages in Hansard

Robert Amery         1998. Warrabarna Kaurna, University of Adelaide. (primary supervisor Peter Mühlhäusler) 

Joe Blythe              2009    Doing referring in Murriny Patha conversation. Sydney: University of Sydney PhD. [co-supervisor with Linda Barwick and Michael Walsh] 

Lea Brown              2001  A grammar of Nias Selatan (primary supervisor Bill Foley) 

Winnie Chor           2010 Grammaticalization of directional particles in Cantonese [co-supervisor with Derek Herforth, Chinese] 

Christopher Cleirigh  1999  The genesis of phonic texture: a selectionist model of Systemic Phonology and Universal Darwinism. (co-supervisor  Christian Matthiessen)

Bronwyn Dyson        2004 Developmental style in second language processing: A study of inter-learner variation in the acquisition of English as a Second language University of Western Sydney (primary supervisor Stuart Campbell)[

Johnson Haan        2002 A grammar of Adang (primary supervisor Bill Foley) 

Arlene Harvey         1997    Equivalence and depersonalisation in definitions: an exploration of lexico-grammatical and rhetorical patterns in English technical discourse  University of Sydney (co-supervisor Christian Matthiessen)

Jason Johnston       1996    Systematic homonymy and the structure of morphological categories: some lessons from paradigm geometry.  University of Sydney (primary supervisor,  co-supervisor Avery Andrews,  Australian National University) [lawyer, lecturer in linguistics, University of Sydney 2015]

Barbara Jones        2003    A Grammar of Wangkajunga : A Language of the Great Sandy Desert of North Western Australia. (primary supervisor, co-supervisor with Michael Walsh)

Chong Han             2010    Informing while amusing: metaphor in Chinese online entertainment news. Sydney: University of Sydney PhD. (co-supervisor with Derek Herforth, Chinese)

Sally Jane Dixon. 2017. Alyawarr children's variable present temporal reference expression in two, closely-related languages of Central Australia.  [Lecturer, UNE, 2021]

Aishah Khojah        2014 Saudi second language learners'  receptive and productive skills in English figurative language, Department of Linguistics, University of Sydney. [co-supervisor with Bronwen Dyson]

Sydney Kingstone (2019)  Mapping Australian English: reported, recognised and perceived regional variation (co-supervisor with Evan Kidd, Psychology)

Caroline Lipovsky        2005     Negotiating solidarity: a social-linguistic approach to job interviews (primary supervisor, co-supervisors Alice Caffarel, French Department, and James Martin) 

Alison Mackey        1995    Stepping up the pace.  University of Sydney (co-supervisor Patsy Lightbown). 

John Mansfield. 2014. Polysynthetic sociolinguistics: The language and culture of Murrinh Patha youth.  PhD dissertation. Linguistics, SLLL, Australian National University [DECRA and University of Melbourne staff member, 2018]

Ikuko Nakane          2003 Silence in Japanese-Australian Classroom Interaction: perceptions and performance. (primary supervisor Ingrid Piller) 

Adam Blaxter Paliwala.    2012.    Creole/Superstrate Code-Switching : Analysing the Dynamic Relationship between Tok Pisin and English in Papua New Guinea [University of Sydney, co-supervisor with Linda Barwick and Michael Walsh] 

Susan Poetsch      2021-2 Arrernte children’s language at Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa)

Carmel O'Shannessy 2006  Language contact and child bilingual acquisition: learning a mixed language and Warlpiri in northern Australia (co-supervisor with Melissa Bowerman and Penny Brown, MPI Nijmegen).   

Nicholas Riemer     1999    A study of semantic extension of percussion/impact verbs in English and Warlpiri (primary supervisor, co-supervisor Michael Walsh) 

Yoshiko Sheard      1995 Phrase structure in Japanese.  Australian National University (primary supervisor Avery Andrews)

Takahiro Teranishi 2003    Concept formation through iconicity: basic shapes and their related metaphorical extensions in English and Japanese. (co-supervisor Hugh Clarke) 

†Reiko Tomatsu         2006 A computational analysis of literary style: comparison of Kawabata Yasunari and Mishima Yukio (primary supervisor Hugh Clarke, Japanese Studies) (1959 - 2014)

Myfany Turpin             2005    Form and meaning of Akwelye: a Kaytetye women’s song series from Central Australia (co-supervisor with Linda Barwick)

Marie-Elaine van Egmond         2012.  Enindhilyakwa phonology, morphosyntax and genetic position.  (University of Sydney, co-supervisor with Brett Baker)

Xueqing [Norah] Zhong    2019  A dictionary of Yugur, an endangered language of China  

completed MPhil theses

I Wayan Arka          1994         Morpholexical aspects of the -kan causative in Indonesian. (co-supervisor with William Foley)

Grete Dalmi            1995         Hungarian infinitival constructions.   (co-supervisor William Foley)

Philippa Horton      2000         Determiners and Complementizers in Cook Islands Maori

Mark Richards         1994         Developing language teaching materials for Mangarrayi

Completed MA thesis

Chul-Hwa Chung    2011         Agreement in Kuo