Prof. Dr. Birgit Hellwig
Current research projects
Documentation of children's speech: Qaqet Baining of Papua-Neuguinea (Volkswagenstiftung, Lichtenberg Programme)
This projects integrates perspectives from speech documentation, language acquisition (Psycholinguistics) and speech socialisation (Anthropology), to document the children's language under the Qaqet Bainin. More information here.
Split ergativity in Tima
Together with Gerrit Dimmendaal und Gertrud Schneider-Blum we research synchronic and diachronic aspects of split ergativity in Tima, a sudanese Niger-Kongo-language. More information here. The project is part of the DFG-funded Sonderforschungsbereich 1215 Prominence in Language.
Research
Research areas
- language documentation and language description
- language acquisition
- linguistic anthropology
- methods of field research and linguistic data
- semantics and grammar
- languages: Baining (Papua), Tschadisch (Afroasiatisch), Kordofanisch (Niger-Kongo), Nubisch (Nilo-Saharanisch)
Personal details
Academic career
| seit 2014 | Lichtenberg Professorin (Schwerpunkt Sprachdokumentation und Psycholinguistik) an der Universität zu Köln
Projekt: Documenting child language: The Qaqet Baining of Papua New Guinea |
| 2010–2014 | Senior Research Fellow am Centre for Research on Language Diversity, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Projekte zu Qaqet (Papuan, Papua New Guinea) und Tabaq (Nilo-Saharan, Sudan) |
| 2008–2010 | Juniorprofessorin für Sprachwissenschaft (Schwerpunkt Sprachdokumentation) an der Universität Erfurt |
| 2006–2008 | Postdoc am Research Centre for Linguistic Typology, La Trobe University, Melbourne
Projekt: Description of Katla (Kordofanian, Sudan) |
| 2003–2005 | Postdoc an der School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
Projekt: Documentation of Goemai, a West Chadic language of Central Nigeria |
| 2003 | PhD (Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft) am Max Planck Institut für Psycholinguistik und an der Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen: The grammatical coding of postural semantics in Goemai (a West Chadic language of Nigeria) |
| 1998 | M.A. (Afrikanistik) an der Universität Hamburg: Sprachwandel durch Sprachkontakt: Möglichkeiten der Rekonstruktion am Beispiel westtschadischer Sprachen |
Publications
Publications
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2019. Linguistic diversity, language documentation and psycholinguistics: The role of stimuli. In Aimée Lahaussois & Marine Vuillermet (eds.), Methodological tools for linguistic description and typology (Language Documentation and Conservation SP 16), 5-30.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2019. A grammar of Qaqet. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. (Mouton Grammar Library, 79)
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2019. Grammatical relations in Katla. In Alena Witzlack-Makarevich & Balthasar Bickel (eds.), Argument selectors: New perspectives on grammatical relations (Typological Studies in Language, 123), 511-531. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- Hellwig. Birgit. 2018. Verbal derivation in Katla: The comitative. In Gertrud Schneider-Blum, Birgit Hellwig & Gerrit Dimmendaal (eds.), Nuba Mountain language studies: New Insights, 209-232. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Schneider-Blum, Gertrud & Birgit Hellwig. 2018. Reference tracking in Tima and its interplay with split ergative marking. Studies in Language 42.4. 970-993.
- Schneider-Blum, Gertrud, Birgit Hellwig & Gerrit J. Dimmendaal (eds.). 2018. Nuba Mountain Language Studies: New Insights. (Grammatical Analyses of African Languages, 57). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2018. 'See this sitting one': Demonstratives and deictic classifiers in Goemai. In Stephen C. Levinson, Sarah Cutfield, Michael J. Dunn, Nick J. Enfield, Sérgio Meira & David Wilkins (eds.), Demonstratives in cross-linguistic perspective, 134-149. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2018. Sprachenvielfalt – Sprachentod. Rezensionsaufsatz zu Nicholas Evans, Wenn Sprachen sterben – und was wir mit ihnen verlieren. Sprachwissenschaft 43.3. 365-371.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2017. Verbal number in Goemai (West Chadic). Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 70.1. 7-27.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2017. Emotions in Goemai (Nigeria): Perspectives from a documentary corpus. In Anne Storch (ed.). Consensus and Dissent, 213-227. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2017. The "goe" in Goemai: The development of modifiers in a Chadic language. In Raija Kramer & Roland Kießling (eds.), Mechthildian approaches to Afrikanistik: Advances in language based research on Africa. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Hellwig, Birgit & Marija Tabain. 2015. Goemai. Journal of the International Phonetic Association 45. 81-104.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2014b. Goemai. In Carol Genetti (ed.), How languages work: An introduction to language and linguistics, 391-403. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Hellwig, Birgit & Gertrud Schneider-Blum. 2014a. Tabaq: In a state of flux. Dotawo 1. 63-81.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2013. Verbal morphology in Katla. In Thilo C. Schadeberg & Roger M. Blench (eds.), Nuba Mountain Language Studies, 237-250. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2012. Lexicalization of property concepts: Evidence for language contact on the southern Jos Plateau (Central Nigeria)? Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 33.1. 67-95.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2011a. A grammar of Goemai. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2011b. The semantics of copy pronouns in Goemai. In Gratien G. Atindogbé, Roger M. Blench & Anne Storch (eds.), Copy pronouns: Case studies from African languages, 55-69. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2011c. Lexical aspect classes in Goemai (West Chadic). In Doris Löhr & Ari Awagana (eds.), Topics in Chadic Linguistics VI, 85-100. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2010a. Meaning and translation in linguistic fieldwork. Studies in Language 34.4. 802-831.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2010b. Different types of data: A case study of Goemai demonstratives. Journal of West African Languages 37.1. 7-22.
- Hellwig, Birgit. & Tonya N. Stebbins. 2010. Principles and practicalities of corpus design in language retrieval: Issues in the digitization of the Beynon corpus of early twentieth century Sm’algyax materials. Language Documentation and Conservation 4. 34-59.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2009. The semantics of clause linking in Goemai. In Robert M.W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), The semantics of clause linking: A cross-linguistic typology, 318-335. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2007a. To sit face down: Location and position in Goemai. Linguistics 45.5/6. 893-916.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2007b. Postural categories and the classification of nominal concepts: A case study of Goemai. In Andrea C. Schalley & Dietmar Zaefferer (eds.), Ontolinguistics. How ontological status shapes the linguistic coding of concepts, 279-297. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2007c. Fieldwork among the Goemai of Nigeria: Discovering the grammar of property expressions. Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung 60.1. 67-80.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2006a. Field semantics and grammar-writing: Stimuli-based techniques and the study of locative verbs. In Felix K. Ameka, Alan Dench & Nick Evans (eds.), Catching language: The standing challenge of grammar writing, 321-358. Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2006b. Serial verb constructions in Goemai. In Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald & Robert M.W. Dixon (eds.), Serial verb constructions: A cross-linguistic typology, 88-107. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2006c. Complement clause type and complementation strategies in Goemai. In Robert M.W. Dixon & Alexandra Y. Aikhenvald (eds.), Complementation: A cross-linguistic typology, 104-223. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2006d. Semantics, Fieldwork methods. In Keith Brown (ed.), Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 11, 180-182. Oxford: Elsevier.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2004. A grammatical sketch of Goemai: Word classes. In Gábor Takács (ed.), Egyptian and Semito-Hamitic (Afro-Asiatic) studies, 296-341. Leiden/Boston: Brill.
- Hellwig, Birgit. 2003. The grammatical coding of postural semantics in Goemai (a West Chadic language of Nigeria). Nijmegen: Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics.
- Hellwig, Birgit & Joseph A. McIntyre. 2000. Hausa plural systems: A diachronic presentation. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 21.1. 1-43
Photo: Patric Fouad