Comparative Linguistics
My main academic interest is qualitative research in Panchronic or General Comparative Linguistics as defined in my habilitation thesis written at the University of Potsdam. This includes, among others, the following subfields:
- Areal linguistics and language contact
- Historical comparative lingusitics (see here for an introduction in German)
- Typology-based language description
- Linguistic typology (see here for an introduction in German)
Fields of research
My doctoral dissertation was about an (areal) typology of questions. But there are many more topics I am interested in, e.g.
- Aspects of morphosyntax (e.g., negation, possession, relative clauses)
- Construction Grammar and its application to non-European languages
- Contact languages (e.g., semicreoles, mixed languages, secret languages)
- Grammatical relations (e.g., word order, argument marking, voice)
- Metaphors, metonymies, and blending
- Numeral systems and numeral classifiers
- Recently extinct languages and how to approach them
- Writing systems (e.g., in East Asia, Europe)
Currently, I am working with Prof. Martin Salzmann on the project Relatively (un)limited concerning the typology and morphosyntax of relative clauses. Here, we will be focusing on a revision of the accessibility hierarchy, on word order correlations, and on the properties of relative-correlative constructions.
Languages and language families
My focus lies on the linguistic diversity of Asia and here especially on Tungusic and Sinitic languages. However, I am interested in many more languages from around the world:
- Bwamu: This is an underdescribed Gur language spoken in Burkina Faso that I am investigating in collaboration with Mouwèrè Bognana. We are currently working on a sketch of the previously undescribed Houndé variety.
- Eynu: This is a secret and mixed language in China that combines an Uyghur grammar with a lexicon from Persian and several other languages. I have worked on this language for my habilitation talk and have also written a draft on the noun phrase structure.
- Kra: The Kra languages in Southwest China and Vietnam form one branch of the Kra-Dai language family. I have done some preliminary fieldwork on Gelao and am currently working with unpblished field notes by Zhang Jimin and others that are in my possession. My interest here lies in the preservation of features that might allow a confirmation of the Austro-Tai hypothesis.
- Germanic: Here I am especially interested in the Upper German varieties (mainly my native Bavarian and the extinct Langobardic) as well as the extinct Gothic language. I am also interested in loanwords from these languages in surrounding languages like Italian.
- Hanunoo: This is an understudied Austronesian language spoken on Mindoro island in the Philippines. I am especially interested in the writing system used by the speakers as well as in understanding the poorly described grammar.
- Indo-Iranian: In this major branch of the Indo-European, my current interests especially concern Bengali, Marathi, Konkani, and Nepali on the Indo-Aryan side as well as Sarikoli and the Persian elements in Eynu on the Iranian side. I also have an interest in the Siddhaṃ script that spread from India to East Asia and continues to be in use in Japan.
- Japonic: This language family consists of Japanese dialects and the Ryūkyūan languages. I am especially interested in the history of the language family that originates in what today is Korea.
- Koreanic: This family includes Korean dialects as well as Jejueo spoken in Jeju island. Here I am mainly interested in the contact relationship with Japonic on the one hand and the Manchuric languages on the other.
- Loloish: In this branch of Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) I am especially interested in the underdescribed languages Pholo, Yiluo 伊罗, and Bo 僰 (for which I have unpublished field notes) as well as the Dafang variety of Yi 彝 and its relationship with the Longjia language.
- Oromo: This is a Cushitic language of Ethiopia that I investigated together with my colleague Wakweya Olani Gobena.
- Quechuan: A language family in South America that I started to investigate together with Raúl Bendezú Araujo. Here I am interested in the contact-relationship with Aymara that in many ways mirrors the relationship between Turkic, Mongolic, and Tungusic.
- Sinitic: This is a major branch of Trans-Himalayan that probably also includes the Ta-Li languages Caijia, Longjia, and Lujia in Southwest China that I investigate in collaboration with Yadi Hölzl. Here I am interested in both the synchronic description as well as the diachronic development from older stages of the subfamily.
- Tungusic: This language family encompasses around twenty different languages on which I have published a large number of papers. My main focus was always on the Manchuric branch, but I am interested in the entire language family, both synchronically and diachronically.
- Tyrsenian: This is an extinct language family of Europe that includes Etruscan, Lemnian, and Rhaetian.
Anthropology
I see linguistics as part of a more general endeavour to understand our human nature and (pre)history. As such, I am also interested in other fields of research, such as:
- Archaeology, history, and human evolution
- Comparative mythology or religion
- Ecology and human-environment interactions (e.g., rivers, trees)
- Ethnology and the cultures of East Asia and the world
- Psychology (e.g., curiosity, exploratory behavior)
