Jessica Cleary-Kemp
Graduate Student

Language documentation and description, Oceanic and Papuan languages, linguistic typology and universals, demonstratives and reference tracking in discourse
Languages: Saliba, hopefully soon Papitalai
2006, BA Hons. Monash University

Contact information

Email: jessck@berkeley.edu

Personal statement

I am co-organizer of Fieldworkers' Forum (Fforum), in which we are currently having a lot of fun hitting each other and throwing apples to try and elicit pluractional constructions from dismayed consultants. I am also working as a GSR for Alice Gaby on the "who did the what now?" project, looking at reference tracking in Pormpuraaw English (spoken in the remote north-east of Australia).

Selected publications

2007. Universal uses of demonstratives: evidence from four Malayo-Polynesian languages. Oceanic Linguistics 46: 325-347.

2007. Functions of the NP markers ne and wa in Saliba, an Oceanic language of PNG. Paper presented at the 2007 Australian Linguistic Society conference, Adelaide University.

2006. Givenness, definiteness, and specificity in a language without articles: The use of NP markers in Saliba, an Oceanic language of Papua New Guinea. Honours thesis, Monash University.