Prof. Dr. John Michael Peterson
Room number LS10 425
Tel.: (+49) (0)431-880 2414
Fax: (+49) (0)431-880 7405
Office hours: Monday, 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m. or by appointment
Email: jpeterson@isfas.uni-kiel.de

Institute for Scandinavian Studies, Frisian and General Linguistics
Department of General Linguistics
Christian-Albrechts-Universität  zu Kiel
Olshausenstraße 40
D-24098 Kiel
Germany

Research

• historical linguistics
• descriptive linguistics
• language typology
• sociolinguistics
• linguistic theory
• Special interests: grammatical relations; parts of speech; grammatical voice (especially the middle voice); finiteness; spoken / written language; language contact; multilingualism; language and migration; Role and Reference Grammar (RRG); Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG)
• The languages of South Asia, especially Munda (Kharia, Santali, Mundari) and Indo-Aryan (Sadri, Konkani, Nepali, Pali, Sanskrit)
• Maltese (Neo-Arabic)

Education

• Schule Scituate High School, Scituate, Massachusetts, USA. June, 1981
• Exchange student - American Field Service (AFS) in Governador Valadares, Minas Gerais, Brazil. February, 1981 - January, 1982
• B.A. Connecticut College, New London, Connecticut, USA. Major: German, Minor: physics. May, 1986
• Fulbright Scholar  at the “Nordfriesischen Wörterbuchstelle”, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. October, 1986 - July, 1987
• Magister. Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. December, 1993. Major: Indology, Minors: General linguistics, Indo-European linguistics
• Ph.D.  Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel. January 1997. Major: General linguistics, Minors: Indology, Indo -European linguistics
• Habilitation. Universität Osnabrück. February, 2007

Academic experience

• February, 1994-September, 1994
  Acting assistant professor (Vertretung der Assistentenstelle) , Indology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
   
• October, 1994-July, 1997
  Doctoral position, Indology, Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
   
• October, 1997-September, 1998
  Temporary assistant professor (Assistent mit Abschluss), General linguistics, Universität Zürich
   
• November, 1997-September, 1998
  Research assistant (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter), Project of the Swiss National Foundation (Schweizerischen Nationalfonds) "Arealtypology of South Asia" General linguistics, Universität Zürich
   
• October, 1998-September, 2000
  Research assistant (wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter) in the project of the German Research Foundation (DFG) "Allgemein-vergleichende Grammatik (AVG, “Cross-linguistic grammar”)", Department of German, Theoretical linguistics, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München
   
• October, 2000-September, 2006
  Temporary assistant professor (wissenschaftlicher Assistent, C1) , General linguistics, Typology and empirical linguistics, Universität Osnabrück
   
• October, 2006-September, 2008
  Visiting professor (Verwaltung der Stelle eines Universitätsprofessors, W2) for "German as a Second Language and General Linguistics", Universität Osnabrück
   
• October, 2008-March, 2009
  Visiting professor (Verwaltung der Stelle eines Universitätsprofessors, W2) for "Applied Linguistics in German", Universität Osnabrück
   
• April, 2009 - August, 2011
  Visiting professor (Vertretung der Stelle eines Universitätsprofessors, W2) for "General Linguistics, especially Typology and Linguistic Variation", Universität Leipzig
   
• Since October, 2011
  Full Professor of General Linguistics, University of Kiel, Germany

Other academic activites

• "General Editor" (with Anju Saxena, Uppsala) of the new series Brill's Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages
  
  http://www.brill.nl/bssal
   
• "Regional Editor Europe" for the Annual Review of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, Mouton de Gruyter. (Title until 2007: Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics) Chief editor: Rajendra Singh, Université de Montréal, Canada.
  
  http://www.degruyter.de/cont/fb/sp/detail.cfm?id=IS-9783110208290-1
   
• Corresponding member (Korrespondierendes Mitglied), Institute for Migration Research and Intercultural Studies (Institut für Migrationsforschung und interkulturelle Studien, IMIS), Universität Osnabrück.
  
  http://www.imis.uni-osnabrueck.de/
• Project: Literacy Acquisition in Schools in the Context of Migration and Multilingualism (LAS), funded by the Volkswagen Foundation
  
  http://www.imis.uni-osnabrueck.de/FORSCHUNG/LAS.htm
• Internet bibliography Bibliography of Endangered and Seldom Studied South Asian Languages.
  
  http://www.SouthAsiaBibliography.de

Publications (selection)

2011

 A Grammar of Kharia. A South Munda Language. Leiden: Brill. (Brill’s Studies in South and Southwest Asian Languages; 1)

Kharia Texts. Glossed, translated and annotated. Language Description Heritage - Open Access Library.


““Words” in Kharia - Phonological, morpho-syntactic, and “orthographical” aspects.” Geoffrey L.J. Haig, Nicole Nau, Stefan Schnell & Claudia Wegener (eds.), Documenting Endangered Languages. Achievements and Perspectives. Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter Mouton (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs, 240). 89-119.


“Aspects of Kharia grammar: A Role and Reference Grammar approach.” In Rajendra Singh & Ghanshyam Sharma (eds.), Annual Review of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. 2011. Berlin / Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. (Trends in Linguistics, Studies and Monographs, 241). 81-124.

(with Savita Kiran) "Sadani / Sadri." In: Новые индоарийскиеязыки . Ред. кол. Л.И. Куликов, Т.И. Оранская, А.Ю. Русаков. - "Языки мира", т. 16, Российская Академия Наук, Институт Языкознания. Москва: Academia. 367-379. (English version - XML- or PDF-format)

"Konkani." In: Новые индоарийскиеязыки . Ред. кол. Л.И. Куликов, Т.И. Оранская, А.Ю.Русаков. - "Языки мира", т. 16, Российская Академия Наук, Институт Языкознания. Москва: Academia. 616-637. (English version)
 

2010

• “A Sadri-English / English-Sadri lexicon” (Prelimiary version: August 24, 2010, ca. 1,200 entries - updated regularly)
  http://www.southasiabibliography.de/Bibliography/Indo-European/Sadri/Sadri_Dictionary/sadri_dictionary.html
• 
  “A Kharia-English / English-Kharia lexicon” (Preliminary version: August 24, 2010, ca. 2,000 entries - updated regularly)
  http://www.southasiabibliography.de/Bibliography/Austroasiatic/Munda/Kharia/Kharia_dictionary/kharia_dictionary.html
• 
  "Language contact in Jharkhand. Linguistic convergence between Munda and Indo-Aryan in eastern central India." Himalayan Linguistics 9.2: 56-86.

2009

""Pseudo-Verbs" - an analysis of non-verbal (co-)predication in Maltese." Bernard Comrie, Ray Fabri, Manwel  Mifsud, Thomas Stolz & Martine Vanhove (Hrsg.), Introducing Maltese Linguistics. Proceedings of the 1st International conference on Maltese Linguistics (Bremen/Germany, 18-20 October, 2007). (Studies in Language Companion Series 113). Amsterdam / Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 181-204.

"A Kharia-English Lexicon." Himalayan Linguistics Archive 5. i-xv, 1-212.

(mit Utz Maas) "Reduplication in Kharia." Morphology 19/2: 207-237.

2008

"Kharia". Gregory D.S. Anderson (Hrsg.), The Munda Languages. London: Routledge. 434-507.

"Die Sprachen Jharkhands. Ein Beispiel für die sprachliche Vielfalt Südasiens und was wir daraus lernen können". Südasien. 28/3: 88-91.

2007

"Languages without nouns and verbs? An alternative to lexical classes in Kharia." Colin Masica (ed.). Old and New Perspectives on South Asian Languages: Grammar and Semantics. Papers growing out of the Fifth International Conference on South Asian Linguistics (ICOSAL-5), held at Moscow, Russia in July 2003. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. 274 -303.

 

2006

Review: George Cardona & Dhanesh Jain (Hrsg.). 2003. The Indo-Aryan Languages. London / New York: Routledge (Routledge Language Family Series). (xx, 1062 pages). Language 82/4. 891-4.

Kharia. A South Munda Language. (Habilitationsschrift)
Bd. I: Grammatical Analysis. v, 375 S.
Bd. II: Kharia Texts. Glossed, Translated and Annotated. v, 181 S.
Bd. III: Kharia-English Lexicon. ii, 304 S.

 

2005

"There's a grain of truth in every "myth", or, Why the discussion of lexical classes in Mundari isn't quite over yet." Kommentar zu Nicholas Evans & Toshiki Osada: "Mundari: the myth of a language without word classes." Linguistic Typology 9:391-405.

 

2003

"Morphological and Semantic Finiteness in Kharia: A first look". Michael Bommes, Doris Tophinke & Christina Noack (eds.), Sprache und Form. Eine Festschrift für Utz Maas. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag. 63-73.

 

2002

"The Nepali Converbs: A holistic approach". Rajendra Singh (chief editor). Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics, 2002. Dehli: Sage Publications. 93-133.

 

2001

"Pali". Jane Gary and Carl Rubino (eds.). Facts about the World's Languages: An Encyclopedia of the World's Major Languages, Past and Present. New York / Dublin: New England Publishing Associates. 534-538.

 

2000

"Evidentials, Inferentials and Mirativity in Nepali". Balthasar Bickel (ed.). Person and evidence in Himalayan languages. Special Edition of Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area. 23/2:13-37.

"Grammatische Relationen in Pali und die Entstehung von Ergativität im Indoarischen". Historische Sprachforschung, 112/2:227-63.

 

1999

"The Nepali Subordinated Verb". Yogendra P. Yadava and Warren W. Glover (eds.). Topics in Nepalese Linguistics. Kathmandu: Royal Nepal Academy. 337-70.

 

1998

Grammatical Relations in Pali and the Emergence of Ergativity in Indo-Aryan. München: LINCOM Europa (LINCOM Studies in Indo-European Linguistics, 1 / LINCOM Studies in Asian Linguistics, 6).

Submitted, accepted or in circulation as a manuscript:

• "Parts of Speech in Kharia A formal account." Jan Rijkhoff & Eva van Lier (Hrsg.), Flexible word classes: a typological study of underspecified parts-of-speech. 30pp.
   
• "The "totality" morpheme -may in Kharia." To appear in: Ram Dayal Munda (ed.), Felicitation Volume for Noman Zide. 18pp.
   
• "Active, middle and stative in Kharia (South Munda) - A prototypical perspective." 41pp.

Primary advisor for the following theses / dissertations

Bachelor theses

2011

Hanne Köhn. Suffixaufnahme und ihre implikationelle Bedeutung für weitere NP-interne Kongruenz. (Leipzig)

Maria Lüer. Kroatisch-Deutsches Codeswitching aus struktureller Sicht. (Leipzig)

Sara Mitschke.Deutsch-sorbisches Codeswitching aus struktureller Sicht. (Leipzig)

Lisa Tschoban. Das "Türkendeutsche". Eine soziolinguistische und typologische Untersuchung. (Leipzig)

Anne Wienholz. Sprachrevitalisierung am Beispiel ausgewählter Sprachen Australiens und Neuseelands. (Leipzig)

Saskia Wunder. Sprachkontakt und Sprachverschiebung am Beispiel des Irish English. (Leipzig)

2010

Josephine Föhr & Julia Bischoffberger. Eine Grammatik des Niedersorbischen. (Leipzig)

Tina Gregor. Codeswitching zwischen Obersorbisch und Deutsch aus struktureller Sicht. (Leipzig)

Luisa Oswald. Sprachkontaktphänomene in der Tschadseeregion: Strukturentlehnung in der Verbalmorphologie des Kanuri vor dem geschichtlichen Hintergrund der Region. (Leipzig)

Susann Schildhauer. Spanisch-Englisch Codeswitching in den USA und ihre Rolle in den Medien. (Leipzig)

2009

Lydia Schleinitz. Deutsch-Polnisches Codeswitching. (Leipzig)

2008

Carolin Dryhaus. Codeswitching aus struktureller Sicht - Am Beispiel des deutsch-polnischen Codeswitchings. (Osnabrück)

Ines Nording. Codeswitching: Theorie und Praxis. (zum Codeswitching zwischen Hochdeutsch und Niederdeutsch) (Osnabrück)

Sarah Südkamp. Gesprochenes und geschriebenes Deutsch. (Osnabrück)

Master’s theses

2011

Nadine Kerber. Die Anwendung der Prinzipien der Graphematik bei der Fehleranalyse schriftlicher Texte von Kindern mit und ohne Migrationshintergrund. (Osnabrück)

2010

Juliane Böttger. Finiteness in selected Munda languages. (Leipzig)

V. Ozan Gülle. Cypriot Turkish from a Language Contact Perspective. (Leipzig)

Andre Schuchardt. Wortarten im Akkadischen. (Leipzig)

2009

Alexander Elsbecker. Eine strukturelle Darstellung des Papiamentu im Rahmen der Role and Reference Grammar (RRG). (Osnabrück)

Mingjing Wang. Codeswitching aus struktureller Sicht: Kantonesisch und Mandarin. (Osnabrück)

2008

Lei Sui. Schriftsprache / gesprochene Sprache: Deutsch und Chinesisch im Vergleich. Osnabrück

2006

Simone Borcherding. Die Sprache von Politikern in der Wahl in Nordrhein-Westfalen im Jahre 2005. (Osnabrück)

2005

Mina Ghoulam. Der Genuserwerb des Deutschen bei ausländischen Schülern türkischer und marokkanischer Herkunft in Deutschland. (Osnabrück)

2004

Vivien Göken. Der Applikativ im Santali im Rahmen der Lexical-Functional Grammar (LFG). (Osnabrück)

Ph.D thesis

Anja Boneß. The Structure of intonation units as basic grammar for literacy acquisition. (Osnabrück)