since April 2007:  Professor of Linguistics, Department of Linguistics and English Language, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, University of Manchester

2004–2007: Professor of Linguistics at the University of Graz, Austria

2003–2004: Lecturer in Language Documentation and Description; Linguistics; School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), London, UK

2002–2003: Postdoctoral Fellow in Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany

1999–2001: Postdoctoral Fellow in Linguistics at the University of Bochum, Germany

2000: PhD in Linguistics, University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands (Distinction)

1999: Grantee of the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders Studies (AIATSIS), 3 months

1995–1998: PhD Fellowship with the Language and Cognition group at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

1992–1994: Research Associate, University of Bielefeld, Germany

1992: MA in Linguistics, Phonetics and Musicology, University of Cologne, Germany (Distinction) 

Between 1993 and present, I have spent approximately 40 months doing fieldwork on Jaminjung, Ngaliwurru, Ngarinyman and Kriol in Northern Australia.

I am a member of the editorial boards of the journals Sprachtypologie und Universalienforschung (STUF) and of the book series "Oxford Studies in Typology and Linguistic Theory" (Oxford University Press).

General research interests:

– Linguistic typology, particularly in the areas of complex predication, overt classification of verbs/events, secondary predication, spatial language, parts of speech, modality, differential argument marking, and information structure

– Construction-based approaches to grammatical analysis

– Syntax of spoken language

– Lexical semantics, in particular the interface between morphosyntax, argument structure and lexical semantics of verbs

– Language contact phenomena, including lexical and grammatical borrowing and creole languages

– Issues in documentary and descriptive linguistics

Areal specialisation (own fieldwork):

Australian languages, in particular Western Mirndi (Jaminjung, Ngaliwurru and Nungali), Ngumpin (Ngarinyman), and Northern Australian (“Roper River”) Kriol.

Externally funded Projects:

“Discourse and prosody across language family boundaries: two corpus-based case studies on contact-induced syntactic and prosodic convergence in the encoding of information structure” (2011-2014). Documentation of Endangered Languages Programme (DoBeS), Volkswagen Foundation (www.mpi.nl/dobes). Cooperation partner of Dr Claudia Wegener, PI (U Bielefeld), Dr Candide Simard (SOAS) and Dr. Felicity Meakins (U Queensland).

“The interrelation of Tense, Aspect and Modality with Evidentiality in Australian Aboriginal languages” (TAMEAL) (2009-2012). Funded by a EU mobility programme (7th Framework, Marie Curie Actions). Cooperation with Dr Patrick Caudal (PI), Dr Martina Faller (UoM) and other colleagues in Leuven (B), Paris (F), Perth (AUS) and Melbourne (AUS).

"Jaminjungan and Eastern Ngumpin: A documentation of the linguistic and cultural knowledge of speakers in a multilingual setting in the Victoria River District, N. Australia." (2005–2008; ext to 2011). Documentation of Endangered Languages Programme (DoBeS), Volkswagen Foundation (www.mpi.nl/dobes). PI; Team members include Dr Patrick McConvell (ANU), Candide Simard, Felicity Meakins, Erika Charola, Dorothea Hoffmann (all UoM during project period), Kristina Henschke (U Graz).

“The painter's eye, the painter's voice: Language, art and landscape in the Gija world.” (2009–2012). Funded by the Endangered Languages Documentation Programme (ELDP). PI; main investigator: Frances Kofod.