Dernière mise à jour : 24/04/2024

Matthias URBAN

  • CRCN, CNRS

☎ 

✉ [email protected]

  • Axes :
  • Diversité Linguistique et ses Sources


 PRÉSENTATION

  • My research revolves around human linguistic diversity: its manifestations and range, its genesis and history, and its cultural and non-linguistic underpinnings. These three foci combine in various ways, but I typically derive insights from comparative approaches.

    The range of topics I study is diversified, yet unified in their concern for linguistic diversity. Accordingly, my research transcends several traditional subdisciplines of linguistics (linguistic typology, historical linguistics, language contact studies, philology, quantitative linguistics), and is characterized by methodological pluralism rather than being narrowly restricted to one particular research tradition. Commonly I also establish novel methods or approaches to the research questions I pose.

    In terms of the types of data I work with, I likewise have found it most useful to explore the same or similar questions from different perspectives and on the basis of different types of data. Accordingly, I engage both in large-scale comparative work, often with a quantitative bent, based on standardized datasets as well as fine-grained analyses of phenomena in individual languages.
    .

 FORMATION ET PARCOURS PROFESSIONNEL

  • 2023–2024: Senior Researcher (Heisenberg Program, DFG), University of Tübingen
  • 2017–2023: PI Junior Research Group (Emmy Noether Program, DFG), University of Tübingen
  • 2013–2017: Postdoctoral Researcher, Leiden University
  • 2012–2013: Scientific Staff, Forschungszentrum Deutscher Sprachatlas, Philipps-Universität Marburg
  • 2012:           PhD Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig /
                        Leiden University. Advisor: Bernard Comrie
  • 2008:            MA Linguistics, University of Cologne. Advisor: Hans-Jürgen Sasse

 THÈMES DE RECHERCHE

  • General Linguistics
  • Andean Linguistics
  • Language Geography
  • Typology
  • Historical Linguistics

 RESPONSABILITÉ DE PROJETS

  • LANGUAGE REDUX: Language geography and the dynamics of linguistic and population prehistory, ERC Consolidator Grant

 DISTINCTIONS OU FINANCEMENTS

  • 2021 – :       Fellow of the Young Academy of Europe (YAE)
  • 2024–2029: ERC Consolidator Grant, ~ € 2.000.000
  • 2023–2024: Heisenberg Program (DFG), ~ € 500.000
  • 2013–2017: Emmy Noether Program (DFG), ~ € 1.300.000
  • 2019–2021: Daimler und Benz Stiftung, € 40.000
  • 2009–2011: Doctoral stipend, Max Planck Society for the Advancement of Science, € 43.200

 ENSEIGNEMENTS

  • 2022:           Lexical Typology, University of Pavia (24 hrs, MA level)
  • 2021/2022: Phonological and morphological analysis of Andean languages, University of                      Tübingen (28 hrs, advanced BA/MA level)
  • 2021/2022: Phonological and morphological analysis of Andean languages, University of                      Tübingen (28 hrs, advanced BA/MA level)
  • 2014:           Historical linguistics in the Colombian Andes, Leiden University (12 hrs, MA level)
  • 2012/2013:  Bedeutungswandel (Semantic change), Marburg University (28 hrs, BA level)
  • 2012/2013:  Historische Rekonstruktion (Historical reconstruction), Marburg University (28 hrs, MA                      level; co-taught with M. Cysouw)
  • 2012/2013: Einführung in die Sprachtypologie (Introduction to linguistic typology), Marburg                     University (28 hrs, BA level)

 AUTRES ACTIVITÉS INTERNATIONALES

  • EDITORSHIP
  • 2022– : Associate Editor, International Journal of American Linguistics
  • 2021– : Associate Editor, Journal of Historical Linguistics
  • FELLOWSHIPS AND INVITED STAYS ABROAD
  • 2023: Visiting Researcher (on invitation), University of Helsinki
  • 2022: Summer Fellow (by competitive application), Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and            Collection, Harvard University
  • 2022: Visiting Professor (on invitation), University of Pavia
  • ORGANISATION OF SCIENTIFIC MEETINGS
  • 2021: Mountain Linguistics. 54th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea.
  • 2021: Fifth Meeting of the Network for the Study of Andean Languages (RELA)
  • 2015: Las lenguas desaparecidas de la costa norte del Perú. Leaflet for distribution to the            interested public in Lambayeque, Peru
  • MEMBERSHIP IN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
  • 2018– : Asociación de Lingüística y Filología de América Latina (ALFAL)
  • 2015– : Network for the Study of Andean Languages (RELA)
  • 2008– : Gesellschaft für bedrohte Sprachen e.V. (GbS)
  • OUTREACH AND KNOWLEDGE DISSEMINATION (SELECTION)
  • 2021: Educast for the series Augenblicke für Forschung of the Daimler und Benz Foundation
  • 2021: Translation of an origin myth of the Peruvian North Coast to the extinct Mochica language         for an animated clip and installation on Native American origin myths at the Denver Art           Museum, USA
  • 2015: Las lenguas desaparecidas de la costa norte del Perú. Leaflet for distribution to the            interested public in Lambayeque, Peru
  • 2010: Representative of the Department of Linguistics of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary           Anthropology at Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften in Leipzig

 PRINCIPALES PUBLICATIONS ET CONFÉRENCES

  • Ouvrages

    • URBAN, M., 2023, "Linguistic stratigraphy: recovering traces of lost languages in the Central Andes", Cham, Springer, Springer Briefs in Linguistics

    • URBAN, M., 2019, "Lost languages of the Peruvian North Coast", Berlin, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut/Gebr. Mann, Estudios Indiana

    • URBAN, M., 2018, "Sprachlandschaften: Über die Rolle von Sprache in der Beziehung zwischen Mensch und Umwelt", Würzburg, Königshausen & Neumann

    • URBAN, M., 2008, "Deskriptivität als Subtyp lexikalischer Motivation – Eine quantitative Studie in Synchronie und Diachronie. ", Cologne, Institut für Linguistik, Universität zu Köln., Working Paper Nr. 54 (New Series).

  • Thèses et mémoires

    • URBAN, M., 2012, "Analyzability and semantic associations in referring expressions: a study in comparative lexicology", Dissertation, Leiden University Center for Linguistics, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology / Leiden University

  • Ouvrages édités

    • URBAN, M. (ed), 2024, "The Oxford Guide to the Languages of the Central Andes", Oxford, Oxford University Press

  • Chapitres dans les ouvrages

    • URBAN, M., 2014, "Semantic change and semantic reconstruction", in The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics, BOWERN, C. & EVANS, B. (eds), Abingdon/New York, Routledge, pp. 374-392

  • Articles de revues

    • URBAN, M., 2023, "Foggy connections, cloudy frontiers: On the (non-)adaptation of lexical structures. ", Frontiers in Psychology, 14, pp. 1115832

    • URBAN, M., 2023, "Agouti historiography: the problem of widespread lexical forms and deep linguistic history. ", Faits de Langues , 53:1, pp. 83-109

    • URBAN, M., AGUILAR PANCHI, E., LEE, S. & BRODETSKY, E., 2022, "CINWA (Database of Terminology for Cultivated Plants in Indigenous Languages of Northwestern South America): introducing a resource for research in ethnobiology, anthropology, historical linguistics, and interdisciplinary research on the Neolithic transition in South America.", Language Resources and Evaluation., 57, pp. 1787-1817

    • URBAN, M., 2021, "Mochica pronouns: their internal reconstruction and their significance for worldwide patterns of paradigmatic resemblances in pronominal shapes. ", International Journal of American Linguistics, 87:2, pp. 279-296

    • URBAN, M., 2021, "The foreign contribution to the lexicon of Northern Peruvian Quechua varieties: an exploratory study. ", Language Dynamics and Change, 11:1, pp. 77–129

    • URBAN, M., 2021, "Linguistic and cultural divisions in pre-Hispanic Northern Peru. ", Language Sciences, 85, pp. 101354

    • URBAN, M., 2021, "The geography and development of language isolates. ", Royal Society Open Science, 8:4, pp. 202232

    • URBAN, M., 2021, "Terminología marítima en el Lexicon, o Vocabulario de la lengua general del Perú de Domingo de Santo Tomás (1560) y posibles implicaciones para la historia de la familia lingüística quechua. ", Boletín de la Academia Peruana de la Lengua , 70, pp. 13-61

    • URBAN, M. & MORAN, S., 2021, "Altitude and the distributional typology of language structure: ejectives and beyond", PLOS ONE, 16:2, pp. e0245522

    • URBAN, M., 2020, "Mountain linguistics", Language and Linguistics Compass, 14:9, pp. e12393

    • URBAN, M. & BARBIERI, C., 2020, "North and South in the ancient Central Andes: contextualizing the archaeological record with evidence from linguistics and molecular anthropology", Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 60, pp. 101233

    • URBAN, M., 2019, "Is there a Central Andean linguistic area? A view from the perspective of the “minor” languages", Journal of Language Contact, 12:2, pp. 271-304

    • URBAN, M., 2011, "Asymmetries in overt marking and directionality in semantic change ", Journal of Historical Linguistics, 1:1, pp. 3-47

    • URBAN, M., 2011, "Conventional sound symbolism in terms for organs of speech: A cross-linguistic study ", Folia Linguistica, 45

  • Données en ligne

    • AGUILAR PANCHI, E., LEE, S., BRODETSKY, E. & URBAN, M., 2023, "Database of Cultivated plants and their names in the indigenous languages of South America. Version 0.9. ", Url