English Philology faculty of the Adam Mickiewicz University and the City of Poznań invite for an open lecture, which will be given by Prof. Nicholas Evans, entitled "Straight talk, bent meanings: Semantics on the watershed". The lecture will take place on 16.09.2019 at 14:00 in lecture hall at the Faculty of Political Sciences and Journalism (ul. Uniwersytetu Poznańskiego 5).
Professor Nicholas Evans is Australian linguist and world famous expert in the field of languages in danger of extinction. His broad scientific interests include minority Australian and Papuan languages, language typology, historical linguistics, interpenetration of language and culture and language impact on human mind. Professor Evans serves as the head of several Australian projects focusing on diversity and typology of languages, used by indigenous people from Australia and Oceania. For many years his projects has included attempts of systematization of minority languages (in particular Aboriginal language such as Dalabon, Iwaidja, Marrku, Bininj Gun-wok or Kayardild) through describing their complicated grammatical systems and publishing first dictionaries. Therefore, he enables female and male representatives of those language communities to gain education.
Additionally, professor Evans is actively working for Aboriginal communities, e.g. as an interpreter or by documenting their artistic achievements. Professor Evans has, for many years, published in the most renowned magazines and scientific publications, such as /Behavioral and brain sciences, de Gruyter, John Benjamins Publishing Company, John Wiley & Sons, Australian Journal of Linguistics. One of professor Evans's most important publications is the book from 2011, entitled "Dying words: Endangered languages and what they have to tell us", which was deemed ground-breaking for this field by researchers of endangered languages.