linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
specialising in the description and study of the indigenous languages of
Melanesia
Melanesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It extends from Indonesia's New Guinea in the west to Fiji in the east, and includes the Arafura Sea.
The region includes the four independent countries of Fiji, Va ...
. He belongs t ''Lattice'' a research centre of the
CNRS
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science agency in Europe.
In 2016, it employed 31,637 ...
and
École Normale Supérieure
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
dedicated to linguistics.
Research
Language description and documentation
François has done linguistic fieldwork in
Vanuatu
Vanuatu ( or ; ), officially the Republic of Vanuatu (french: link=no, République de Vanuatu; bi, Ripablik blong Vanuatu), is an island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is east of no ...
and the
Solomon Islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
.
In 2002, he published a grammatical description of
Araki
Araki may refer to:
People
* Araki (surname) (荒木)
* Hirohiko Araki (荒木 飛呂彦), a Japanese manga artist, fashion designer and illustrator
* Nobuyoshi Araki (荒木 経惟), a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist also known by t ...
, a language spoken by a handful of speakers on an islet south of
Espiritu Santo
Espiritu Santo (, ; ) is the largest island in the nation of Vanuatu, with an area of and a population of around 40,000 according to the 2009 census.
Geography
The island belongs to the archipelago of the New Hebrides in the Pacific region o ...
Torres Torres may refer to:
People
*Torres (surname), a Spanish and Portuguese surname
* Torres (musician), singer-songwriter Mackenzie Scott
** ''Torres'' (album), 2013 self-titled album by Torres
Places Americas
*Torres, Colorado, an unincorporated c ...
and Banks Islands, an area where sixteen out of seventeen languages are still spoken: Hiw, Lo-Toga,
Lehali
Lehali (previously known as ''Teqel'') is an Oceanic language spoken by about 200 people, on the west coast of Ureparapara Island in Vanuatu.Löyöp, Mwotlap,
Volow
Volow (formerly known as ''Valuwa'' or ''Valuga'') is an Oceanic language variety which used to be spoken in the area of Aplow, in the eastern part of the island of Motalava, in Vanuatu.
Name
The name ''Volow'' is originally a placename: it c ...
(extinct),
Lemerig
Lemerig is an Oceanic language spoken on Vanua Lava, in Vanuatu.
Lemerig is no longer actively spoken. The 2 remaining speakers live on the northern coast of the island. The language has receded in favour of its neighbours Mwotlap and Vera' ...
Koro Koro may refer to:
Geography
*Koro Island, a Fijian island
* Koro Sea, in the Pacific Ocean
* Koro, Ivory Coast
*Koro, Mali
* Koro, Wisconsin, United States, an unincorporated community
Languages
*Koro language (India), an endangered language spo ...
Mwerlap
Mwerlap is an Oceanic language spoken in the south of the Banks Islands in Vanuatu.
Its 1,100 speakers live mostly in Merelava and Merig, but a fair proportion have also settled the east coast of Gaua island.François (2012: 97). Besides, a num ...
- all descended from the Proto-Torres–Banks language, which was also reconstructed by him. After describing Mwotlap, the language with most speakers in that area, he has published articles comparing the languages of the area more generally – both from a
synchronic
Synchronic may refer to:
* ''Synchronic'' (film), a 2019 American science fiction film starring Jamie Dornan and Anthony Mackie
* Synchronic analysis, the analysis of a language at a specific point of time
*Synchronicity
Synchronicity (german: ...
and
historical
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbrella term comprising past events as well ...
perspectives. He has described the sociolinguistic profile of this area as one of "egalitarian
multilingualism
Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...
".
In 2005, François took part in a scientific expedition to Vanikoro (
Solomon islands
Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capita ...
), whose objective was to understand the wreckage of the French navigator La Pérouse in 1788. As a member of a multidisciplinary team, he recorded the oral tradition of the Melanesian and Polynesian populations of this island, concerning popular representations of this historical event. On that occasion, he also documented the three languages spoken on Vanikoro – Teanu,
Lovono
Lovono (''Vano'', ''Alavano'', ''Alavana'') is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands. As of 2012, it is only spoken by four speakers;Tanema
Tanema (Tetawo, Tetau) is a nearly extinct language of the island of Vanikoro, in the easternmost province of the Solomon Islands.
Vitality
As of 2012, Tanema is only spoken by one speaker, Lainol Nalo.endangered
An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and inva ...
.
In 2015, he coauthored with Jean-Michel Charpentier the ''Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia'', an
atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
showcasing the internal linguistic diversity of
French Polynesia
)Territorial motto: ( en, "Great Tahiti of the Golden Haze")
, anthem =
, song_type = Regional anthem
, song = " Ia Ora 'O Tahiti Nui"
, image_map = French Polynesia on the globe (French Polynesia centered).svg
, map_alt = Location of Frenc ...
Documentation of languages and cultures in Melanesia
François recorded texts from the
oral literature
Oral literature, orature or folk literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written, though much oral literature has been transcribed. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used vary ...
– myths, legends, folktales – in various language communities of Vanuatu and the Solomons.
He provided local communities with various books in their languages, in the perspective of promoting the use of vernacular languages in writing.
Together with
ethnomusicologist
Ethnomusicology is the study of music from the cultural and social aspects of the people who make it. It encompasses distinct theoretical and methodical approaches that emphasize cultural, social, material, cognitive, biological, and other dim ...
Monika Stern and anthropologist Éric Wittersheim, he ran a multidisciplinary project on traditional
music
Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect ...
and poetry in Vanuatu. This led to the publication of ''Music of Vanuatu: Celebrations and Mysteries'', a CD album of songs and dances recorded during social events in the field.
Contribution to linguistic typology and theory
François coined the term "
colexification Colexification, together with its associated verb colexify, are terms used in semantics and lexical typology. It refers to the case when a language expresses different meanings using the same word.
Definition
Colexification describes the case when ...
". This term captures the fact that certain concepts, which some languages distinguish in their lexicons, are encoded in the same way ("colexified") in other languages. Colexification i increasingly used in research about lexical typology.
Together with Siva Kalyan (ANU), he also developed
Historical glottometry Historical Glottometry is a method used in historical linguistics. It is a quantitative, non-cladistic approach to language subgrouping.
The aim of Historical Glottometry (HG) is to address the limitations of the tree model when applied to dialect ...
Wave model
In historical linguistics, the wave model or wave theory (German ''Wellentheorie'') is a model of language change in which a new language feature (innovation) or a new combination of language features spreads from its region of origin, affecting ...
ANU
Anu ( akk, , from wikt:𒀭#Sumerian, 𒀭 ''an'' “Sky”, “Heaven”) or Anum, originally An ( sux, ), was the sky father, divine personification of the sky, king of the gods, and ancestor of many of the list of Mesopotamian deities, dei ...