Hosted by the Sydney Centre for Language Research, Professor Randy LaPolla gave a presentation on ‘The Creation of Meaning’ on 21 May 2021.

Professor LaPolla is Professor of Linguistics with an appointment in Chinese in the School of Humanities at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He was at La Trobe University in Australia for many years and has held posts at the City University of Hong Kong and Academia Sinica in Taiwan. He was trained at the University of California in Berkeley, where his highly distinguished dissertation committee consisted of James Matisoff, Robert Van Valin, and Johanna Nichols. Professor LaPolla continues to work in a range of domains of Sino-Tibetan linguistics, linguistic typology, historical linguistics, pragmatics, and anthropological linguistics.

Among Randy LaPolla’s notable publications are his Grammar of Qiang (a Sino-Tibetan language of Sichuan Province), his Rawang-English-Burmese Dictionary, his Cambridge textbook on Syntax (co-authored with Robert Van Valin), his reference blockbuster on Sino-Tibetan languages (co-edited with Graham Thurgood), and his 2015 book Language Structure and Environment (co-edited with Rik DeBusser).

This episode of the SCLR podcast features Novi Djenar, Chair of the Department of Indonesian Studies at the University of Sydney. Dr Djenar speaks with Nick Enfield, SCLR Director, about how social relationships are formed in Indonesian and Southeast Asian languages.

This topic is the subject of her forthcoming book, 'Signs of Deference, Signs of Demeanour: Interlocutor Reference and Self-Other Relations in Southeast Asian Speech Communities', co-edited with Jack Sidnell from the University of Toronto.

Dr Lila San Roque from the University of Sydney speaks with Professor Nick Enfield, SCLR Director about her research into the language of the senses.

Dr Mark Post is a Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Sydney. In this episode of the SCLR Podcast, he speaks with Professor Nick Enfield about his research and work with Greater Mainland South East Asian and Himalayan languages.

Is it possible to detect new trends in substance use from language on social media? How is language data used in medical science?

Dr Jacques Raubenheimer is a Senior Research Fellow in the Discipline of Biomedical Informatics and Digital Health at the University of Sydney, and a member of the Translational Australian Clinical Toxicology (TACT) group.

Please note that at the time of recording, as part of TACT, Dr Raubenheimer was part of the Discipline of Pharmacology. TACT has since moved to the Discipline of Biomedical Informatics and Digital Health.

Associate Professor Nina Rubino is part of the Department of Italian Studies at The University of Sydney, and a member of the Sydney Centre for Language Research. She speaks to Nick Enfield about the Italian language and identity in Sydney, discussing how language and identity in migrant communities have been maintained or shifted over generations.

Dr Alexandra Grey is a Postdoctoral Fellow at The University of Sydney Law School, and founded and runs the Interdisciplinary Law and Linguistic Researcher's Network.

She spoke with Professor Nick Enfield of the SCLR about the relationship between law and linguistics, discussing language choice in language governance and the concept of compelled speech.

Dr Nick Riemer is a senior lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and the Department of English at the University of Sydney. He is the coordinator of the History and Philosophy of Linguistics node of the Sydney Centre for Language Research.

Dr Riemer spoke to Professor Nick Enfield, Director of the Sydney Centre for Language Research, about the nature and development of linguistics and grammar.

Professor Jaky Troy is Director of Indigenous Research within the Office of Deputy Vice-Chancellor Research at the University of Sydney.

Professor Troy spoke to Professor Nick Enfield, Director of the Sydney Centre for Language Research, about the background and implications of her book, 'The Sydney Language' (1993).