Prof. Dr. Walter Bisang

Research Interests
Comparative Linguistic Theory; Grammaticalization; Linguistic Contact, Systems of Classification of Grammatical Systems, particularly Numeral Classification; Verbalization; Argumentation; Semantic / Syntactical Interfacing, East and South-East Asian languages

Academic Background
Walter Bisang has been Professor of General and Comparative Linguistics at the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz since 1992 and researches worldwide structural variety in human language. From 1999 to 2008, he was Spokesperson for the Special Research Branch 295 ‘Kulturelle und Sprachliche Kontakte’ (Cultural and Linguistic Contact’) and since 2009 he has been Spokesperson for SoCuM. Walter Bisang was Guest Professor in Bangkok (Chulaalongkorn University), Ile Ife (Nigeria), Melbourne (La Trobe University) and Paris (CRLAO). From 1996 to 2010, he released the series ‘Trends in Linguistics’ with H.H. Hock and W. Winter, published by Mouton de Gruyter. Walter Bisang is on the SFB-Grant committee of the DFG.

Publications (Top 5)

2012

(with Xuping Li:) Classifiers in Sinitic languages: From individuation to definiteness-marking. In: Lingua 122. P. 335-355.

2011

Grammaticalization and typology. In: Heiko Narrog, Bernd Heine (eds.): Handbook of grammaticalization. Oxford: Oxford University Press. P. 105-117.

2011

(with Matthias Gerner:) Social deixis classifiers in Weining Ahmao. In: Jan Wohlgemuth and Michael Cysouw (eds.): Rara & Rarissima: Documenting the fringes of linguistic diversity, (EALT, Empirical approaches to linguistic typology, 46). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. P. 75-94.

2010

Areal language typology. In: Peter Auer and Jürgen E. Schmidt (eds.): Language and space. An international handbook of linguistic variation. Vol. 1: Theories and methods. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. P. 419-440.

2007

Some general thoughts about linguistic typology and dialogue linguistics. In: Marion Grein and Edda Weigand (eds.): Dialogue and culture. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. P. 53-72.