jhs@mail.usyd.edu.au

Username: jhs@mail.usyd.edu.au

Participant details

	Network Member	Jane Simpson
	Organisation/Institution	University of Sydney
	Department/Centre	Department of Linguistics
	Lab	PARADISEC
	Website	http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/linguistics/ling/people/Jane_Simpson.html
	Research area	Linguistics
	Research keywords	syntax, Australian languages, lexical semantics, lexicography, language maintenance

Research Interests

Jane Simpson is a descriptive linguist who works on Australian Indigenous languages and Australian English, and is interested in syntax (grammars of Australian Aboriginal languages and Lexical Functional Grammar), semantics (placenames in Aboriginal languages, hypocoristics in Australian English), lexicography (dictionary useability, dictionary interfaces, and multimedia presentations of dictionaries), comparison and reconstruction of languages spoken in the south and centre of Australia, ethnography (she worked on several Central Australian land claims) and language maintenance (she has a long-standing connection with Papulu Apparr-kari, the Tennant Creek Language Centre). She has an interest in digital archiving, from text collections (she helped establish the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Electronic Data Archive, which contains many dictionaries of Aboriginal languages) to digital audio (she helped colleagues establish PARADISEC, an archive of Pacific and regional language and endangered culture material). Recently she has begun work with a team on an ARC-funded four year project involving longitudinal case studies of eight to ten pre-school children in each of three Aboriginal communities, Warumungu in Tennant Creek, Gurindji at Kalkaringi, Walmajarri in the Fitzroy Crossing area, and comparisons with acquisition of Warlpiri at Lajamanu.

Representative Publications

Publications page: http://www.arts.usyd.edu.au/departs/linguistics/staff/jane_simpson.shtml