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Matthias URBAN

CNRS Researcher

[email protected]

Teams : DiLiS 

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.
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TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND

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MAIN PUBLICATIONS AND CONFERENCES
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URBAN, M., 2023, "Linguistic stratigraphy: recovering traces of lost languages in the Central Andes", Cham, Springer, Springer Briefs in Linguistics (Link)  (Cover)

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

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

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).

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 (Link)

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

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

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

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