Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang

Akademische Ausbildung

• From November 2010:
  LAI, Berlin
  Doctoral Candidate
  Project’s title “An Ethnolinguistic Approach to the Interplay of Language and Thought: the Development of Negation in Huaraz Quechua (Ancash, Peru)”
  Supervisors: Prof. Dr.  Michael Dürr and Prof. Dr. Ingrid Kummels
• Oct 2006 – Oct 2009:
  University of Bologna
  M.A in Linguistics
  Thesis title “The middle voice in Ancash Quechua: the semantic functions of the suffix –ku”
  Supervisors: Prof.  Maurizio Gnerre and  Prof.  Nicola Grandi
  Key focus areas: Morpho-Syntax and Quechua language
• Oct 2002 – Dec 2006
  University of Bologna
  B.A in Literature and Philosophy
  Thesis title “The conversational markers: the functions of “magari”. A qualitative analysis of a corpus of spoken Messinesis”
  Supervisor: Prof. Stefania Stame
  Key focus area: Dialectology, Pragmatics and Field Research

Arbeitserfahrung im universitären Bereich

• Mar – Aug 2010
  Technische Universität, Berlin
  Teaching Assistant of Dr. Hernán Aguilar for the Quechua Language course
  Tasks: maintenance and development of the online learning platform for Quechua “Elemente der Morphologie am Beispiel der Quechua Sprache”.

Auslandsaufenthalte

• June – Oct 2011:
  Huaraz and Lima (Peru), Field research for the Doctoral Project
• June – Oct 2009:
  Ibero-American Institute, Berlin
  Writing of the Master thesis under the supervision of Dr. Peter Masson
• Sept 2008 – June 2009:
  University of California, Santa Barbara
  Overseas Foreign Exchange Scholarship
  Conceptualization of the Master thesis under the supervision of Prof. Marianne Mithun
• Oct 2007 – Jul 2008:
  Technische Universität, Berlin
  Erasmus Foreign Exchange Scholarship

Stipendien

• June – Oct 2011: Scholarship for the field research for the Doctoral Project (Institute for Latin America Studies - FU)
• Mar – Aug 2010: Leonardo internship scholarship from the University of Bologna (Technische Universität, Berlin)
• Jun  – Oct 2009: Scholarship from the University of Bologna in support of writing the Master thesis (Ibero- American Institute, Berlin)
• Sept 2008 – Jun 2009: Overseas Foreign Exchange Scholarship (University of California, Santa Barbara)
• Oct 2007 – Jul 2008: Erasmus EU Foreign Exchange Scholarship (Technische Universität, Berlin)

Forschungsschwerpunkte

Regionaler Schwerpunkt

• Peru,  primarily the Ancash region

Thematische Schwerpunkte

• Functional typology

• Morpho-Syntax and Anthropological Linguistics

• Middle voice

• Negation

• Quechua language

• Story tellings in Quechua

• Bilingual Education

• Learning material for bilingual children

Methodische Schwerpunkte

• Language analysis with Toolbox

• Creation of online learning platforms and language courses

Promotionsvorhaben

Arbeitstitel des Dissertationsvorhabens

An Ethnolinguistic Approach to the Interplay of Language and Thought: the Development of Negation in Huaraz Quechua (Ancash, Peru)

Abstract

My doctoral project focuses on negation in Huaraz Quechua, an indigenous language spoken in Peru by about 300,000 people, which belongs to the Quechua language family spoken in the Andes of South America.

So far the phenomenon of negation hasn’t received much attention in Quechua. The focus has been restricted to verbal negation, often described as a cooccurance of two negative morphemes: a negative particle mana and a negative suffix -tsu. But Quechua negation is much more complicated than this and the Spanish influence also plays a role. Spanish constructions have been integrated in the Huaraz Quechua syntax: in some cases replacing the Quechua negative morphemes, in other cases coexisting with them.
Moreover, verbal double negation is not obligatory: there are cases with a single negative morpheme, cases with three morphemes and also cases with three morphemes together with an inherently semantic negative verb. In addition, besides verbal negation, other ways of expressing negation, such as nominal negation, negative indefinites, negative coordination and subordination, negative questions and privative suffixes still have to be analyzed.
A recent linguistic theory, functional typology, gives emphasis to the constantly changing nature of language and focuses on its diachronical and interactional aspects. Functional typology emphasizes that not only language internal factors but factors concerning the communicative purposes of the speakers as well as interactions with other languages are liable to influence the field of negation. This approach seems particularly adequate for research of the situation in Peru’s Central Ancash Department where monolingual Quechua speakers live together with bilingual Quechua-Spanish speakers and monolingual Spanish speakers. The fact that the high prestige of the Spanish culture and language is strongly dominating in the Andean area is provoking a feeling of shame and inferiority between the monolingual Quechua speakers. For this reason, the Spanish influence at the discourse level has increased a lot in the last decades, producing interesting phenomena of code-switching.

The aim of my doctoral project is to depict the development of the phenomenon of negation in Huaraz Quechua in the last forty years, comparing Quechua texts from the 1970s and spontaneous speech collected during field research. The last forty years, indeed, have been one of particular linguistic change due to the change of language policies and rural-urban migration. With this diachronic approach, I will improve the knowledge of communicative processes in contexts of long terms interaction between Quechua and Spanish speakers which dominate in the Andean area. Furthermore, I will contribute to the understanding of the diverse ways of the expression of negation in languages and also improve knowledge of the Quechua grammar.

• Villari Cristina und Leonel A. Menacho López. 2012. “La voz media en el quechua de Huaylas: las funciones semánticas del sufijo -ku” In “Por los Senderos del Quechua”, Julca Félix und Gustavo Solís. Lima: CILA-UNMSM (to be published)

• “Chavin wamracunapa cuentucuna. Cuentos de los niños de Chavin” gesammelt bei Cristina Villari. 2012. Huaraz: AWI (to be published)

• “Chontayoq wamracunapa cuentucuna. Cuentos de los niños de Chontayoq” gesammelt bei Cristina Villari. 2012. Huaraz: AWI (to be published)

• M.A Thesis “The middle voice in Ancash Quechua: the semantic functions of the suffix –ku”

• B.A Thesis “The conversational markers: the functions of “magari”. A qualitative analysis of a corpus of spoken messinesis”

Vorträge

• 8th June 2012
  Pavia, Italy
  University of Pavia
  Title: ‘The role of the Spanish negative particle ni in Huaraz Quechua’
  Conference: “Italian linguists and indigenous languages of South America”

• 2nd June 2012
   Berlin
  Institute for Latin America Studies - Free University
  Title: ‘Bedrohte Sprache, lebendige Kulturen am Beispiel von Peru’
  Conference: Long Night of Science

• 27th Oct 2011
  Berlin
  Institute for Latin America Studies - Free University
  Title: ‘Una mirada a la política lingüística
  del Perú en los siglos XVI-XVII y en la actualidad’
  Conference:  “European-indigenous Trans/Mission: Translation Strategies in Colonial Latin America”

• 09th Sept 2011
  Lima, Peru
  Centro de Lingüística Aplicada (CILA) - San Marcos University
  Title: ‘La Educación Intercultural Bilingüe (EIB) en Ancash: una mirada de afuera’
  Conference: “La EIB en Ancash”

• 14th Jul 2011
  Huaraz,  Peru
  University UNASAM of Huaraz
  Title: ‘Los estudios andinos en Europa: ¿Por qué el Quechua?’
  Conference: “Jornadas Académicas Internacionales 2011: Comunicación, Educación y Cultura”

• 27th June 2010
  University “Orientale” of Naples
  Conference name: “Italian linguists and indigenous languages of South America”
  Speech topic: “The Toponomy of the Callejón de Huailas” (in collaboration with Dr. Hernán Aguilar)

• 26th June 2009
  University “Normale” of Pisa
  Conference name: “Italian linguists and indigenous languages of South America”
  Speech topic: “The Middle Voice in the Ancash Quechua: an Analysis of the Suffix –ku”