It’s been a whirlwind the last few months, and I haven’t posted about several things I wanted to. Here’s one.
Last month I was an invited speaker at the 3rd Semantics of Asian, African, and Austronesian Languages (TripleA3). Felicitous alliteration. (What about America, you ask? Please see SULA, together with which TripleA largely covers the map of non-European languages.)
I gave a talk on evidentials in Okinawan, in particular focusing on how evidentially marked and unmarked forms compete pragmatically. The slides from my presentation are available here.
[Note: I nicked the Ryukyuan maps from Thomas Pellard, whose stuff you should totally check out if you’re interested in Ryukyuan.]
[Shameless plug: I will be presenting more about this line of research at the upcoming NELS!]
It was my first time attending TripleA, and it was excellent. It was held in a castle. It was totally invigorating to be with so many top-notch semanticists doing fieldwork on such a variety of languages. There were a wide range of languages represented, and the presentations were good and thought-provoking. And did I mention it was held in a castle?
Thanks to Vera Hohaus for the excellent organizing. Before the conference proper began, we got to go on a punting boat. I tried my hand at it, and it’s not easy. Here’s a video to give you an idea: