Prof. Dr. Frans Hinskens

Vergangene FRIAS Aufenthalte

• Juni 2012

CV

After my training at the universities of Utrecht (Dutch language and literature) and Amsterdam (UvA – linguistics), I taught sociolinguistics and phonology at the university of Nijmegen (at the then dept of linguistics and dialectology), where I also defended my PhD in 1993. Two and a half postdoc research fellowships as well as a visiting associate professorship at the Ohio State University’s dept of linguistics later, I was appointed as a full professor of Dutch (‘Niederlandistik’) at the university of Leipzig. Fall 2002 I returned to the Netherlands for a position as senior researcher of variation linguistics at the Meertens Instituut (KNAW) in Amsterdam and as a professor of language variation and change (in the linguistics department) at the VU University Amsterdam.
My main research interest is language change, more in particular processes of sound change, which I try to approach from the perspectives of historical linguistics, dialectology, sociolinguistics, creole linguistics and phonological theory. Most of the research projects that I am or have been involved in focus on (both domestic and exotic) non-standard varieties of Dutch.

Publikationen (Auswahl):

Monographien und Herausgeberschaften

• with P. Auer & P. Kerswill, eds, 2005, Dialect change. The convergence and divergence of dialects in contemporary societies. Cambridge UK (Cambridge University Press). With an extensive introduction
• with R. van Hout & L. Wetzels eds., 1997, Variation, change and phonological theory. Amsterdam / Philadelphia (Benjamins). With an extensive introduction
• 1996, Dialect levelling in Limburg. Structural and sociolinguistic aspects. Tübingen (Niemeyer).

Proceedings

• 2006, Language Variation – European Perspectives. Selected papers from the Third International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 3), Amsterdam, June 2005. Amsterdam/Philadelphia (Benjamins, Studies in Language Variation 1). With an introduction
• with K. van Dalen-Oskam, eds, 2007, Kwantitatieve benaderingen in de taal- en letterkunde. Special issue of Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse Taal- en Letterkunde, vol. 123 nr. 1. With an extensive introduction

Artikel

• 2011, ‘Emerging Moroccan and Turkish varieties of Dutch: ethnolects or ethnic styles?’ In F. Kern & M. Selting (eds), Ethnic Styles of Speaking in European Metropolitan Areas. Amsterdam/Philadelphia (Benjamins), 103-131
• 2011, 'Lexicon, phonology and phonetics. Or: Rule-based and usage-based approaches to phonological variation'. In: P. Siemund (ed.). Linguistic Universals and Language Variation. Berlijn (Mouton de Gruyter), 416-456
• 2009, '"The erosion of a variable process. The case of n-deletion in Ripuarian and Limburg dialects of Dutch"'. In: F. Kügler & C. Féry & R. van de Vijver (eds). Variation and Gradience in Phonetics and Phonology. Berlin (Mouton de Gruyter), 311-350

FRIAS-Projekt

Usage based and rule based accounts of phonological variation and change in dialects and ethnolects

Several years ago I became interested in the relationship between formal (lexical phonology, non-linear phonology, OT) and cognitivist (in casu usage-based models, Exemplar Theory) approaches to phonology and phonological variation. The approaches are involved in what I consider as the major present-day paradigm discussion in the study of language.
I have tried to design quantitative sociolinguistic investigations of phonological variation and change in which both types of approach are simultaneously embedded, with the aim of testing and mutually weighting their relative explanatory capacities. At FRIAS I hope to discuss these and similar questions so as to deepen the insights in their possible mutual relationships and (more generally) the roles they may play in the actuation and embedding of sound change.