In this dissertation, matching, entropy, holes and expansions come together. The first chapter is an introduction to ergodic theory and dynamical systems.

Publication of Johann Natterer's (1787-1843) word lists of Amazonian languages.

Ancient Greek is well-known for displaying relatively free word order. This dissertation examines word order variation in the Koine Greek of the New Testament Greek in a variety of domains: declarative clauses, questions and relative clauses. In particular, I examine the way in which word order corresponds…

On Wednesday 24 January 2018 Margaret Kuiper defended her doctoral thesis ‘Het woord en de daad’ (The word and the deed). Her supervisors are Professor E.R. Muller and Professor T.A.H. Doreleijers. Co-supervisor is Dr J.A. van Wilsem.

How does task context affect children’s word productions?

Why does the past elicit this intense activity in the present? What does the past mean for the present, and what does it do to it? A WAR OF WORDS will engage this complex of Chinese claims to Manchu-Korean ancient history, South Korean reactions, public discourse and cultural expression in both states,…

This thesis investigates the processing of words written in Japanese kanji and Chinese hànzì, i.e. logographic scripts.

The Data Science Research Programme at Leiden University combines data science with PhD projects in a wide range of disciplines. The programme has been running for over two years, and is producing the first astonishing results. A number of PhD candidates talk about their experiences and research bel…

This dissertation investigates the grammar of Makhuwa-Enahara, a Bantu language spoken in the north of Mozambique. The information structure is an influential factor in this language, determining the word order and the use of special conjugations known as conjoint and disjoint verb forms.

This project aims to study the Aesopian fable from 1500 to the present day in its complex relationship between text, illustration and education, adopting a broad, transnational perspective.

Organizations often announce their protest activities prior to their implementation to mobilize awareness, recruit supporters, and receive media attention. We are interested in the effectiveness of protest announcements—that is, under what conditions governments make concessions to avoid having an announced…

This book investigates the effects of brain lesions in the left hemisphere, specifically Broca's area, on the production and perception of vowels, of word tones and of the linguistic use of sentence melody.

In this study Lilie Roosman describes the effects of prominence and boundary marking on the temporal and melodic structures of two regional languages of Indonesia, viz. Toba Batak, a stress language, and her native language Betawi Malay, a non-stress language.

In African societies today, growing inequality and continued exclusion due to ethnicity, gender, religion, disability or sexual orientation give rise to both contestation and cooperation for social change. How does the written or spoken word lead to collaboration and contestation in areas of social…

This thesis seeks to examine the emergence of Persian novels and short stories during the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988).

Saeedeh Shahnahpur defended her thesis on 13 September 2016.

This collection includes six short policy-focused contributions exploring how legislation and policy on counter cyber terrorism unfold at the national level in the United States, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, France, and at the regional level of the European Union.

On Wednesday 24 January 2018 Margaret Kuiper, a forensic psychologist, will defend her doctoral thesis ‘Het woord en de daad’ (The word and the deed). The defence will start at 16.15 hrs, at the Academy Building of Leiden University. Her supervisors are Professor E.R. Muller and Professor T.A.H. Doreleijers.…

A flake of limestone (ostracon) inscribed with an ancient Egyptian word list of the fifteenth century BC turns out to be the world’s oldest known abecedary. The words have been arranged according to their initial sounds, and the order followed here is one that is still known today. This discovery has…

Besides being a linguist, George Saad is also a photography fanatic. He shares his most beautiful and telling pictures, shot during his field research in Eastern Indonesia.

Dear friends of the NVIC

Dear friends of the NVIC,

Dr Amany Soliman joined the NVIC as a postdoctoral research fellow in October 2017. She is a lecturer of modern history and international relations at the Mediterranean Studies Institute at the Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University. For her PhD thesis, she examined the nationalist movements in Spain,…

Dear friends of the institute,

The Etymology Calendar for 2020, which was compiled by five linguistics students from Leiden University, has now hit the shops. After the resounding success of the first Etymology Calendar last year, this year’s version is being published by big-name publishing house Brill.

Promotor: R. Tijdeman, Co-promotor: C. Kraaikamp

Arriving at a new workplace has never been as easy as it was in the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo. I’m very grateful for the nice colleagues who helped me in the first few days to settle down in Egypt and start to work in the office. Although I spent the last 3 years on site as a field archaeologist…

Dear friends of the NVIC,

Dear friends of the NVIC,

Ann Bessemans, who received her PhD degree from the Academy of Creative and Performing Arts Leiden University in 2012, has set a world record for the biggest number of words on a postage stamp.

This week Dr. Lara Weiss (of the National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden), who together with Dr Christian Greco (of the Museo Egizio in Turin) heads the project "The Walking Dead: The Making of a Cultural Geography in Saqqara", was visited by the NVIC team. During the visit she introduced them to the…

Dear friends of the NVIC,

On Sunday September 2, the Museu Nacional of Brazil was destroyed by fire. It is estimated that 90 percent of the collection is lost. National Geographic interviewed Brazilian heritage expert Mariana de Campos Françozo about the disaster.

Many Humanities scholars keep a blog of their own. This summer, we’re putting these in the spotlight. For this week’s interview, we sat down with Annemarie van Sandwijk, editor in chief of the Leiden Islam Blog.

Migraine can’t be diagnosed with a blood test, scan or physical examination. Language therefore plays a crucial role in its diagnosis. Neurologist Joost Haan has researched the relationship between language and migraine, and looked at how migraine is described in fiction. His PhD defence is on 22 Oc…

On May 23rd, Ernanda succesfully defended her doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Ernanda on this great result.

Lecture, Studium Generale

In this dissertation, the types of context Dutch speakers need to interpret the poly-interpretable word ergens ‘somewhere/anywhere’ are studied.

This dissertation provides a thorough review of the words belonging to the oldest layer of Germanic loanwords in Proto-Slavic and answers the question of how these words were adapted to the Proto-Slavic accentual system.

This book is the first grammar on Ternate Malay, a local variety of Malay spoken on the island of Ternate, North-Moluccas, Indonesia.

Arts and Culture, Book launch

All languages use melody in speech, primarily via rises and falls of the pitch of voice. Such pitch variation is pervasive, offering a wide spectrum of nuance to sentences – an additional layer of meaning. For example, saying “yes” with a rising pitch implies a question (rather than an affirmation).…

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The Nietzsche-Wörterbuch (NWB) has evolved into a long-term, multi-volume work on a global scale with around 30 contributors from a range of disciplines located all over the world

Lecture

Conference

What is the cost of visual complexity? This dissertation sets out to determine the effect of the complexity of word formation on the legibility of Arabic and the role that vocalization plays in reading.

Oxford University Press has published a revised and expanded edition of The Morphology of Dutch (first edition published in 2002).

This project employs a systematic experimental approach to examine the interaction of these two hitherto independent lines of research (tone sandhi and focus realization) in six dialects of Chinese, which lie on a continuum between dialects with dense tonal distributions and sparser distributions. In…