PERSONAL INFO

Date of birth: July 29, 1974

•   Educational History
  
  1998-2002      Leiden University, Ph.D. thesis “A grammar of Makwe”
                         (courses taught: Swahili Literature & Swahili Linguistics)
  1994-1997      Ghent University, M.A. in African Languages and Cultures, M.A. thesis “Taalverschuiving
                         bij Zaïrese migranten in Brussel”
  1992-1994      Free University of Brussels (VUB), Bachelor in Arts Sciences and Archeology
  1986-1991      Brussels, Maria Boodschap Lyceum
   
•   Professional History
  
  2007-2011         Post-doctoral researcher at the Royal Museum for Central Africa on the
                            Interuniversity Attraction 
                            Pole “Grammaticalization and (Inter)Subjectification”
  2007-present    Co-Editor Africana Linguistica
  2009-present    Co-Editor Swahili Forum
  2010-present    Swahili lecturer, Leiden University
                           (Swahili Language Acquisition & Swahili Language and Culture)
  2004-2007        Post-doctoral researcher at Leiden University on “Xangaci. A Maka or Swahili language of 
                           Mozambique. Grammar, texts and wordlist” with a grant from the Hans Rausing Endangered 
                           Languages Project at SOAS, London.
  2006                 Lecturer, Leiden University
                           (Applied Linguistics, Analysis of African Language Structures)
  2003-2004        Lecturer, Leiden University
                           (Applied Linguistics, Analysis of African Language Structures, Swahili Linguistics, Linguistic
                           Fieldwork (Kinyarwanda & Ngumba))
  2003                 Swahili lecturer, Volksuniversiteit Den Haag & Volksuniversiteit Leiden
   

CURRENT PROJECT

Grammaticalisation and (Inter)subjectification

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Bantu languages (description, comparison), descriptive linguistics (Makwe, Shangaci), Swahili language and culture, grammaticalisation processes mostly in the areas of mood (imperative, prohibitive), modality and negation (Jespersen Cycles).
 

PUBLICATIONS

 
Papers in scientific journals.

(forthcoming) (with Johan van der Auwera & Frens Vossen) Le cycle de Jespersen à trois ou quatre négations.

(forthcoming) (with Daniël van Olmen). An explanation of the prohibitive in Hunde, Havu and Shi.

(forthcoming) (with Johan van der Auwera) Jespersen cycles in Bantu: double and triple negation. Submitted to Journal of African Languages and Linguistics.

(forthcoming) (with Daniël van Olmen). Describing and explaining the variation in Bantu imperatives and prohibitives. Submitted to Studies in Languages.

(forthcoming) Review of Malin Petzell. 2008. The Kagulu Language of Tanzania. Grammar, Text and Vocabulary. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics.

(forthcoming) (with Johan van der Auwera) Irrealis in positive imperatives and prohibitives. Accepted for publication in Language Sciences.

(2010) (with Michael Tshibanda Kasombo en Johan van der Auwera) Jespersen cycles in Kanincin: double, triple and maybe even quadruple negation. Africana Linguistica XVI: 155-183.

(2010) (met Jenneke van der Wal) ‘Go’ on a rare grammaticalisation path to focus. Linguistics in the Netherlands 2010. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

(2008) The expression of modality in Shangaci. Africana Linguistica XIV: 3-37.

(2005) Review of Odile-Racine Issa. 2002. Description du Kikae, parler swahili du sud de Zanzibar, suivie de cinq contes. Leuven/Paris/Sterling: Editions Peeters. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 26: 95-99. (0,429)

Books 

(2008) A grammar of Makwe. München: Lincom.
 

DISSERTATIONS

 
(2004)  A grammar of Makwe. PhD Thesis (Leiden University)
(1997) Taalvesrchuiving bij Zaïrese migranten in Brussel. MA Dissertation (Ghent University)
 

TALKS AT SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCES

(2011) (with Jenneke Van der Wal) What lexical semantics tells us about grammaticalisation paths of 'go'-verbs in Bantu. Selected for presentation at the 20th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Osaka, July.

(2011) Waziri kafa. Southern Perfective or short Narrative? A reconsideration. 24th Swahili Colloquium, Bayreuth, June.

(2011) (with Jacky Maniacky) ko as a negative marker in Bantu languages, where, how and where from? Fourth International Conference on Bantu languages (B4ntu), Berlin, April.

(2011) (met Johan van der Auwera) The Jespersen cycles in Bantu. Moi University, Eldoret, Kenia, February. (invited)

(2010) (with Daniël van Olmen) Describing the variation in Bantu Imperatives and Prohibitives. International workshop on Speech Acts, Bayreuth, December. (invited)

(2010) (with Jenneke van der Wal) ‘Go’ to focus. A rare grammaticalization pathway. International Conference on Grammaticalization and (Inter)Subjectification, Brussels, November.

(2010) Two times ‘go’ in Xangaci. Semantics or pragmatics. Rethinking Synonymy: semantic sameness and similarity in languages and their description, Helsinki, October.

(2010) Textual uses of movement forms in Xangaci. 40th Conference on African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden, August.

(2010) From ‘habitually going’ to ‘maybe going’: the case of huenda. 23rd Swahili Colloquium, Bayreuth, May.

(2010) (with Frens Vossen and Johan van der Auwera) The Jespersen cycle with three and four negations, BKL Taaldag, Brussels, May.

(2010) (with Frens Vossen and Johan van der Auwera) Le cycle de Jespersen à trois et quatre négations, A Contrario - De l’antonymie à la réfutation, Caen, March.

(2010) (with Jenneke van der Wal) ‘Go’ on a rare grammaticalisation path to predication focus, TiNdag, Utrecht, February.

(2009) (with Koen Bostoen) Interaction between 'do' and 'say' and the origine of quotative markers in Bantu, 42nd Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea, Lisbon, September.

(2009) (with Daniël van Olmen) Explaining the synchronic variation in Bantu Prohibitives, WOCAL6, Koln, August.

(2009) (with Johan Van der Auwera) Jespersen Cycles in Bantu Languages, Association for Linguistic Typology 8th Biennal Meeting (ALT8), University of California, Berkeley, July.

(2009) Idiomatic uses of the Subjunctive in Swahili: Homonymy with an ofd Perfect of simply Subjunctive?, 22nd Swahili Colloquium, Bayreuth, May.

(2009) (with Michael Kasombo and Johan van der Auwera) Double and Triple Negation in Kanincin, 3th International Conference on Bantu Languages, Tervuren, March.

(2009) (with Jacky Maniacky) Multilingualism in Subsaharan Africa. Sometimes more than 250 languages to manage! EG, Luxemburg / Brussels, February.

(2009) (with Ezra Chambal) Changana Ideophones as predicative lexemes, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, February.

(2008) (with Johan van der Auwera) The prohibitive as double irrealis, in the world, in Bantu and in Omotic, IAP Business Meeting, Brussels, November.

(2008) (with Johan van der Auwera) The prohibitive as double irrealis, in the world and in Omotic, at Omotic Utterance Type, Mood and Attitude Markers and Linguistic Typology, Leiden, October. (invited)

(2008) The Subjunctive in Swahili. Some idiomatic uses reconsidered, CALL, Leiden, August.

(2008) Prohibitive constructions in Bantu, New Reflections on Grammaticalization 4, Leuven, July.

(2008) Subjunctive in Swahili. A work in Progress Report, Swahili Colloquium, Bayreuth, May.

(2008) The grammaticalization of focus in Shangaci, ACAL, Georgia: Athens, April.

(2008) More evidence or evidentiality in Bantu languages, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren, Februari.

(2006) From contrastive vowel length to penultimate lengthening in Xangaci, Bantu Grammar: Description and Theory, SOAS, London, April.

(2006) An introduction to Xangaci, a Swahili-language of Mozambique, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. (invited)

(2004) Initiation rites and secret riddles in Makwe, Leiden.

(2003) The phonological phrase and focus in Makwe, Bantu Grammar: Description and Theory, Leiden.

(2002) Imbrication in Makwe, Workshop on the phonology of verbal derivation, Leiden, November.

(2002) Conjoint and Disjoint tenses in Makwe, Institut für Afrikanistik der Universität Köln, (invited)

(2001) Locatives in Makwe, Royal Museum for Central Africa, Tervuren. (invited)

(2001) Locative inversion in Makwe, Friday Afternoon Lectures, Leiden.

(1999) Rice vocabulary in Makwe, 29th Colloquium on African Languages and Linguistics, Leiden, August.

(1998) Negatie en woordvolgorde in het Bete, Capita Selecta Afrikaanse Taalkunde, Leiden.

LANGUAGES

(in approximate descending order of competence)
Dutch (native speaker), English, French, Swahili, Portuguese, German, Italian, Makwe and Xangaci.