ABOUT ME
As a cartographer by training I was always interested in spatial distributions of differences in the world. I was editor-in-chief of a map series presenting touristic and ethnic data.
After visualising variation, during my PhD I turned onto investigating the spatial factors underlying variation of dialectal data. One topic of my research is the investigation of correspondences of geographic distances and extralinguistic differences with linguistic differences (dialectometry). Another topic is the development of methods using GIScience and geostatistics to quantitatively describe language-internal gradual boundaries (quantitative dialectology). This is done on the one hand by quantitatively modeling linguistic concepts and on the other hand in a data-driven, automatic way to visually and quantitatively represent boundaries in the data, using DBSCAN clustering.
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I am also involved in the Language Contact Group at the University of Zurich, aiming to write a comprehensive volume on extralinguistic (geographic among others) factors that impact language contact.
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In the near future of my academic career I am planning to conduct comparative GIScience research on Swiss German and Japanese dialects with regards to the spatiotemporal evolution of variants.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
PUBLICATIONS
'Modeling transitions between syntactic variants in the dialect continuum'
Short paper presented at the 19th AGILE
International Conference on Geographic Information Science, 2015.06.14-17. Helsinki
'Measuring boundaries in the dialect continuum'
Short paper presented at the 18th AGILE
International Conference on Geographic Information Science, 2015.07.09-12. Lisbon
'Correlating morphosyntactic dialect variation with geographic distance: Local beats global'
Short paper presented at the 8th GIScience Conference, 2014.09.23-26. Vienna
Dialectometry
Investigating relations of linguistic differences to geographic features
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Quantifying boundaries
Using GIScience and geostatistics to quantitatively account for intralinguistic boundaries
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Language Contact
Quantifying the extralinguistic factors (expecially geographical ones) that affect language change
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Thematic mapping
Cartograms, interactive visualisations, mapping variation etc. Cartographer by training.
PRESENTATIONS
2016.06.27-28 Borderland Linguistics Conference, Bristol, UK - „Comparing Models of Transitions Between Syntactic Variants in the
Dialect Continuum”
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2016.06.14-17 19th AGILE (Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe) conference Helsinki, Finland – “Modeling Transitions between Syntactic Variants in the Dialect Continuum”
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2015.11.06 Linguistischer Nachmittag – Afternoon of Linguistics of the University of Zurich. Short popular presentation: „Are there really isoglosses? Possible methods to quantify boundaries of variants”
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2015.07.25 Podcast for ZüKL : „angesporchen – der Linguistik-Podcast”, recorded by Robert Schikowski and Juliane Schröter in July on the topic of syntactic distances „Dialektunterschiede und räumliche Distanz”
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2015.06.09-12. AGILE (Association of Geographic Information Laboratories for Europe) conference Lisbon, Portugal – “Measuring boundaries in the dialect continuum – Modeling variation and area formation in linguistic data”
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2015.04.17 Kyoto Germanistik Kolloquium, invited speaker – „Wirkungen der geographischen Faktoren auf die schweizerdeutsche syntaktische Variation“ Untertitel: „Zwei Fallstudien: Reisezeiten für die Vorhersage linguistische Distanzen und Quantifizierung der intralinguistische Grenzen“
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2015.01.30 and on every month (post-)doctoral Workshop on language contact, Zürich – debating and measuring notions of language contact with certainty of further such workshops
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2014.11.03 GEO 372 Vertiefung Geographische Informationswissenschaft, Lecture: „How to make a Poster?“
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2014.10.4 Linguistic (post-)doctoral workshop retreat, Bad Ragaz - „Correlating morphosyntactic dialect variation with geographic distance: Local beats global”
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2014.09.25 GIScience Conference, Technische Universität, Wien –
„Correlating morphosyntactic dialect variation with geographic distance: Local beats global”
2014.08.12 Methods in Dialectology XV Conference, University of Groningen – „Exploring global and local patterns of the correlation of geographic distances with morpho-syntactic variation in Swiss German dialects”
2014.06.19 8. Days of Swiss Linguistics, University of Zurich –
“Correlating geographic distances with morphosyntactic variation in Swiss German dialects”
2014.03.21 Maps and Grammar Workshop, German Department, University of Zurich, - “Quantifying effects of geographic factors on morpho-syntactic variation in Swiss German dialects“
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2014.01.09 Forum for Germanic Language Studies 11, Newnham College, Cambridge – “Correlating geographic distances with morpho-syntactic variation in Swiss German dialects”
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2013.11.08 Workshop Morphologie und Syntax deutscher Dialekte, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg (D), Deutsches Seminar – Germanistische Linguistik - „Correlation of Geography and Syntactic Distances in Swiss German Dialects”
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2013.10.08 PhD project proposal presentation, Geography Department, University of Zurich – „Quantitative modeling of linguistic and geographic influences on morphosyntactic area formation in Swiss German”
Before PhD