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)
- 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)
- Contact languages (e.g., creoles, mixed languages, secret languages)
- Grammatical relations, word order, argument marking, and voice
- Metaphors, metonymies, and blending
- Numeral systems and numeral classifiers
- Recently extinct languages and how to approach them (e.g., the languages Alchuka, Bala, Kyakala, Longjia, Lujia)
- 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.
Theoretical background
I have a general background in Cognitive Lingusitics and Construction Grammar. However, I am also increasingly interested in different theoretical approaches, including functional and formal ones. I aim for an open exchange between theoretical frameworks.
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: an underdescribed Gur language spoken in Burkina Faso that I am investigating in collaboration with Mouwèrè Bognana (see here for a first talk)
- Eynu: a secret language in China that combines an Uyghur grammar with a lexicon from Persian and several other languages (see here for an overview)
- Kra: these are languages in Southwest China and Vietnam that belong to the Kra-Dai language family (see here for a preliminary bibliography and here for a recent talk)
- Germanic: especially Upper German varieties (Bavarian and Langobardic) as well as Gothic (see here for a first article)
- Hanunoo: an understudied Austronesian language and its script on Mindoro island in the Philippines
- Indo-Iranian: e.g., Bengali, Konkani, Nepali, and Sarikoli as well as the Siddhaṃ script (see here for a paper)
- Japonic: Japanese and Ryūkyūan languages
- Koreanic: Korean and Jejueo spoken in Jeju island as well as the contact relationship with the Manchu language
- Loloish: in this branch of Trans-Himalayan I am especially interested in the underdescribed languages Pholo, Yiluo 伊罗, and Bo 僰 as well as Dafang Yi 彝 and its relationship with the Longjia language
- Oromo: this is a Cushitic language of Ethiopia that I investigated together with Wakweya Olani Gobena (see here for a recent paper)
- Quechuan: a language family in South America that I started to investigate together with Raúl Bendezú Araujo (see here for a recent talk)
- Sinitic: a major branch of Trans-Himalayan that probably includes the Ta-Li languages Caijia, Longjia, and Lujia in Southwest China that I investigate in collaboration with Yadi Hölzl (see here and here for two recent papers)
- Tungusic: this language family encompasses around twenty different languages (see here for a recent book)
- Tyrsenian: 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)
Homepage of Andreas Hölzl 