Creole languages are the products of a radical reinvention of linguistic, cultural and political systems, and in that sense, creoles based on European words hold the key to understanding the extent of European colonial and postcolonial influence in the world. Creolisation studies bring together conceptual semantics with migration studies, ethnolinguistic diversity studies, and the history of sociopolitical relations. If properly understood, creolised words can lead us to a deeper understanding of the basic human capacity for “reinvention”.
Speaker
Carsten Levisen teaches linguistics at Aarhus University, Denmark. He is the author of Cultural Semantics and Social Cognition (De Gruyter Mouton, 2012), and a postdoctoral researcher in the Cognitive Creolistics research group, funded by the Velux Foundation. His research and teaching includes Scandinavian languages, World Englishes, ethnolinguistics, and most recently, the creolisation of languages, cultures and societies. His main interest lies in the cultural semantics of sociality constructs, ethnopsychological constructs, and cognitive values.
» Dr Levisen's profile at Aahus University
RSVP
Please, RSVP for this event to europe@anu.edu.au by Monday 27 May 2013.