PhD Semitic Languages (Hebrew and Arabic) (Madrid), PhD African Languages (Stellenbosch)
Lecturer
Lecturing specialisation
Semitic and Afro-Asiatic languages, Ugaritic, Biblical Hebrew, Biblical Aramaic, Arabic, and Middle Egyptian; cognitive linguistics
Research specialisation
Linguistics: Afro-Asiatic (Semitic, Egyptian, Chadic, Berber), Niger-Congo (Mande, Bantu, Nguni), Nilotic (Maa), Khoe (Eastern Kalahari), Indo-European (Germanic, Romance, Slavic, Greek), and Turkic (Turkish); Cognitive linguistics, grammaticalization theory, fuzzy and construction grammar; Typology, semantic maps, diachronic-comparative linguistics, language complexity, language contact (mixed languages and pidgins), sociolinguistics, endangered/minority languages, language documentation, language multimodality; Semantics, pragmatics, morphosyntax, syntax; Tense-Aspect-Mood, multiverb (serial verb) constructions, ideophones, interjections, onomatopoeias, connectives, performatives
Cognitive science: cognitive deception/dissonance and categorization
Modelling: evolutionary-biological adaptive models, complexity theory, chaos theory, game theory, thermodynamics, fuzziology, and system theory
Philosophy: ontology, universals, and categories
Current research projects
Niger-Congo languages: Ideophones in isiXhosa Interjections in isiXhosa (with M. Dlali, Stellenbosch University); The semantic locative inversion in isiXhosa (with M. Visser, Stellenbosch University); A reconstruction of the Proto-Nguni TAM system (with J. Wills, University of Zimbabwe / Catholic University of Ukraine); African perspectives on language – decolonizing linguistics categories in Africa
Nilotic languages: Interjections in Arusha (Maasai); The argumenthood of dative applicative elements in Arusha (Maasai) (with M. Karani, University of Dar es Salaam)
Khoisan languages: The TAM verbal system of Tjwao (with A. Phiri, Stellenbosch University); Interjections in Tjwao (with A-M. Fehn, Max Plank Institute in Jena, and A. Phiri, Stellenbosch University) ; Ideophones in Tjwao (with A-M. Fehn, Max Plank Institute in Jena, and A. Phiri, Stellenbosch University); Onomatopoeias in Tjwao (with A-M. Fehn, Max Plank Institute in Jena, and A. Phiri, Stellenbosch University)
Afro-Asiatic languages: Serial verb constructions in Ugaritic (with J.P. Vita, Spanish National Research Council in Madrid); Interjections in Ugaritic Serial verb constructions in Biblical Aramaic
Indo-European languages: The synchrony and diachrony of performatives in Polish Multi verb constructions in Polish (with M. Gębka-Wolak, University of Turuń); Reference Grammar of Wymysorys (with T. Król, Polish Academy of Science); Wymysorys – a Germanic-Slavic mixed language? (a PhD dissertation at the University of Iceland); The complexity of endangered minority languages (with J. Olko, University of Warsaw)
Philosophy: The ontological status of linguistic categories (a PhD proposal)
Academic service/Community interaction
Direction of international research groups/projects:
Documenting oral literature of Arusa (Maasai) (2019). Participating institutions: Stellenbosch University and University of Dar es Salaam (Tanzania).
The other grammar of Eastern Kalahari Khoe – the documentation and analysis of interjections, onomatopoeias, and ideophones in Tjwao (2019-2021). Funded by Khoisan Fund of the Department of African Languages (Stellenbosch University).
Participation in international research groups/projects:
Bureaucracy and administrative procedures in the Syrian kingdom of Ugarit (14th to 12th centuries B.C.) (2016-2019), directed by J-P. Vita (The Spanish National Research Council, Madrid, Spain) and funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2015- 67357-P).
Language as a cure: linguistic vitality as a tool for psychological well-being, health and economic sustainability (2017-2020), directed by dr. J. Olko and dr. M. Bilewicz (University of Warsaw) and funded by
Foundation for Polish Science (TEAM Grant). Collaborating institutions: Max Plank Institute in Jena, University of Groningen, Jagiellonian University, University of California.
Open data intermediaries and economic ownership rights (2017-2018), directed by F. van Schalkwyk (Stellenbosch University / African Minds) and funded by Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (Digital Impact Grants).
Multiverb constructions in Polish (2019), directed by Prof. M. Gębka-Wolak (Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń, Poland).
Selected publications