Alexandre François
Biographic Data
| ID | 3780753 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Alexandre François |
| GIVEN NAMES | Alexandre |
| FAMILY NAME | François |
| SIGNATURE | FRANCOIS A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1947-0806 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1999 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
La mémoire orale du peuple de Kuwae, île mythique du Vanuatu
Lexical tectonics: Mapping structural change in patterns of lexification
Whether it is based on philological data or on reconstruction, historical linguistics formulates etymological hypotheses that entail changes both in form and in meaning. Semantic change can be understood as a change in “patterns of lexification”, i. e., correspondences between forms and senses. Thus a polysemous word, which once lexified senses s1–s2–s3, evolves so it later encodes s2–s3–s4. Meanings that used to be colexified are now dislexified…
Study of the influence of water and oxygen on the morphology and chemistry of pyritized lignite: Implications for the development of a preventive drying protocol
The economy of word classes in Hiw, Vanuatu: Grammatically flexible, lexically rigid
The issue of lexical flexibility is best tackled as the articulation of two separate mappings: one that assigns lexical items to word classes; another one that associates these word classes with the syntactic functions they can access. A language may endow its lexemes with more or less multicategoriality, and its word classes with more or less multifunctionality: these are two distinct facets of lexical flexibility, which should be assessed separ…
Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics: A view from Asia, Australia and the Pacific
International audience
Descriptive Linguistics
International audience
In memoriam Darrell T. TRYON
Parmi les linguistes specialises dans les langues du Pacifique, le professeur Darrell T. TRYON (1942–2013) occupait une place a part, du fait de la diversite de ses terrains de recherche et de sa capacite a tisser des liens au-dela de son domaine. Nombreux sont donc ceux qui ont ete pris de court par sa soudaine disparition, le 15 mai dernier. Ne en Nouvelle-Zelande, Darrell T. TRYON avait fait ses etudes a l’Universite de Canterbury (Christchurc…
Ditransitive Alignment and Referential Hierarchies in Araki
Since More recent studies (Siewierska 1998; Araki, a highly endangered Oceanic language of Vanuatu, not only shows DOM with its transitive verbs, but is also sensitive to referential properties of arguments in its handling of ditransitive alignment. On a hierarchy defined by the features [local] (i.e. speech-act participant) and [human], the higher-ranking participant receives the status of object, while the other one is demoted to a peripheral r…
The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages
The Torres and Banks Islands, two small archipelagos of northern Vanuatu, are home to 9400 inhabitants and to 17 distinct languages. With an average of 550 speakers per language, this region constitutes an extreme case of the linguistic fragmentation which is typically observed throughout Melanesia. This study presents the linguistic diversity of that area, examines its social underpinnings and outlines its historical dynamics. These islands form…
Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment
Complex segments consisting of two phases are potentially ambivalent as to which phase determines their phonemic status – e.g. whether / / is a stop or a nasal. This theoretical problem is addressed here with respect to a typologically unusual phoneme in Hiw, an endangered Oceanic language of Vanuatu. This complex segment, / /, combines a velar voiced stop and a velar lateral approximant. Similar phonemes, in the few languages which have them, ha…
Pragmatic demotion and clause dependency: On two atypical subordinating strategies in Lo-Toga and Hiw (Torres, Vanuatu)
Despite the wealth of subordinators in Hiw and Lo-Toga (Oceanic, north Vanuatu), two of their Tense-Aspect-Mood categories – the Subjunctive and the Background Perfect – can do without them, and encode clause dependency by themselves. A pragmatic hypothesis is proposed to account for this clause-linking faculty. The Subjunctive differs from other irrealis categories insofar as it lacks any specific illocutionary force; the Background Perfect labe…
Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages
Building upon the model of Semantic Maps (Haspelmath 2003), which typologists have designed mainly for grammatical semantics, this chapter discusses methodological issues for a model in lexical typology. By breaking up polysemous lexemes of various languages into their semantic “atoms” or senses, one defines an etic grid against which cross-linguistic comparison can be undertaken. Languages differ as to which senses they colexify , i.e., lexify i…
Of Men, Hills, and Winds: Space Directionals in Mwotlap
In Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu, the principal device for referring to space is a paradigm of six directionals. Organized in pairs, these morphemes define three ways to draw a vector in space: by reference to a salient participant (hither-thither); by reference to an asymmetry perceptible within the immediate, local setting (up-down; in-out); or by reference to a fixed, absolute system of four horizontal quadrants (also lexified as up-…
Dérivation léxicale et variations d'actance: Petits arrangements avec la syntaxe
teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destine au dpt et la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publis ou non, manant des tablissements d'enseignement et de recherche franais ou trangers, des laboratoires publics ou privs
Mouvements et clonages de voyelles en motlav
In his first account of motlav grammar, Codrington (1885), followed by Kasarhérou (1962), described the phonological rule of «vowel shifting»: a number of prefixes change their vowel into that of the following lexeme, e.g. na-+ vôy > nô-vôy. We first show that this rule only accounts for half of the lexicon, namely CV- roots, whereas for CCV- roots no change occurs, leaving an unvarying vowel instead. After discussing a diachronic hypothesis in o…
The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages
The Torres and Banks Islands, two small archipelagos of northern Vanuatu, are home to 9400 inhabitants and to 17 distinct languages. With an average of 550 speakers per language, this region constitutes an extreme case of the linguistic fragmentation which is typically observed throughout Melanesia. This study presents the linguistic diversity of that area, examines its social underpinnings and outlines its historical dynamics. These islands form…
Mouvements et clonages de voyelles en motlav
In his first account of motlav grammar, Codrington (1885), followed by Kasarhérou (1962), described the phonological rule of «vowel shifting»: a number of prefixes change their vowel into that of the following lexeme, e.g. na-+ vôy > nô-vôy. We first show that this rule only accounts for half of the lexicon, namely CV- roots, whereas for CCV- roots no change occurs, leaving an unvarying vowel instead. After discussing a diachronic hypothesis in o…
Dérivation léxicale et variations d'actance: Petits arrangements avec la syntaxe
teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destine au dpt et la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publis ou non, manant des tablissements d'enseignement et de recherche franais ou trangers, des laboratoires publics ou privs
Of Men, Hills, and Winds: Space Directionals in Mwotlap
In Mwotlap, an Oceanic language of Vanuatu, the principal device for referring to space is a paradigm of six directionals. Organized in pairs, these morphemes define three ways to draw a vector in space: by reference to a salient participant (hither-thither); by reference to an asymmetry perceptible within the immediate, local setting (up-down; in-out); or by reference to a fixed, absolute system of four horizontal quadrants (also lexified as up-…
Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages
Building upon the model of Semantic Maps (Haspelmath 2003), which typologists have designed mainly for grammatical semantics, this chapter discusses methodological issues for a model in lexical typology. By breaking up polysemous lexemes of various languages into their semantic “atoms” or senses, one defines an etic grid against which cross-linguistic comparison can be undertaken. Languages differ as to which senses they colexify , i.e., lexify i…
Phonotactics and the prestopped velar lateral of Hiw: Resolving the ambiguity of a complex segment
Complex segments consisting of two phases are potentially ambivalent as to which phase determines their phonemic status – e.g. whether / / is a stop or a nasal. This theoretical problem is addressed here with respect to a typologically unusual phoneme in Hiw, an endangered Oceanic language of Vanuatu. This complex segment, / /, combines a velar voiced stop and a velar lateral approximant. Similar phonemes, in the few languages which have them, ha…
Pragmatic demotion and clause dependency: On two atypical subordinating strategies in Lo-Toga and Hiw (Torres, Vanuatu)
Despite the wealth of subordinators in Hiw and Lo-Toga (Oceanic, north Vanuatu), two of their Tense-Aspect-Mood categories – the Subjunctive and the Background Perfect – can do without them, and encode clause dependency by themselves. A pragmatic hypothesis is proposed to account for this clause-linking faculty. The Subjunctive differs from other irrealis categories insofar as it lacks any specific illocutionary force; the Background Perfect labe…
Ditransitive Alignment and Referential Hierarchies in Araki
Since More recent studies (Siewierska 1998; Araki, a highly endangered Oceanic language of Vanuatu, not only shows DOM with its transitive verbs, but is also sensitive to referential properties of arguments in its handling of ditransitive alignment. On a hierarchy defined by the features [local] (i.e. speech-act participant) and [human], the higher-ranking participant receives the status of object, while the other one is demoted to a peripheral r…
The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages
The Torres and Banks Islands, two small archipelagos of northern Vanuatu, are home to 9400 inhabitants and to 17 distinct languages. With an average of 550 speakers per language, this region constitutes an extreme case of the linguistic fragmentation which is typically observed throughout Melanesia. This study presents the linguistic diversity of that area, examines its social underpinnings and outlines its historical dynamics. These islands form…
Descriptive Linguistics
International audience
In memoriam Darrell T. TRYON
Parmi les linguistes specialises dans les langues du Pacifique, le professeur Darrell T. TRYON (1942–2013) occupait une place a part, du fait de la diversite de ses terrains de recherche et de sa capacite a tisser des liens au-dela de son domaine. Nombreux sont donc ceux qui ont ete pris de court par sa soudaine disparition, le 15 mai dernier. Ne en Nouvelle-Zelande, Darrell T. TRYON avait fait ses etudes a l’Universite de Canterbury (Christchurc…
Research priorities in historical-comparative linguistics: A view from Asia, Australia and the Pacific
International audience
The economy of word classes in Hiw, Vanuatu: Grammatically flexible, lexically rigid
The issue of lexical flexibility is best tackled as the articulation of two separate mappings: one that assigns lexical items to word classes; another one that associates these word classes with the syntactic functions they can access. A language may endow its lexemes with more or less multicategoriality, and its word classes with more or less multifunctionality: these are two distinct facets of lexical flexibility, which should be assessed separ…
Study of the influence of water and oxygen on the morphology and chemistry of pyritized lignite: Implications for the development of a preventive drying protocol
Lexical tectonics: Mapping structural change in patterns of lexification
Whether it is based on philological data or on reconstruction, historical linguistics formulates etymological hypotheses that entail changes both in form and in meaning. Semantic change can be understood as a change in “patterns of lexification”, i. e., correspondences between forms and senses. Thus a polysemous word, which once lexified senses s1–s2–s3, evolves so it later encodes s2–s3–s4. Meanings that used to be colexified are now dislexified…
La mémoire orale du peuple de Kuwae, île mythique du Vanuatu
Philosophy (11 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (7 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (7 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Anthropology (3 works) · Artificial Intelligence (3 works) · Humanities (3 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (3 works)