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Dr Dwi Noverini Djenar

PhD (University of Melbourne), MA (La Trobe University), Dra (Gajah Mada University) (Cum Laude), Dip Ed (University of Melbourne)
Senior Lecturer
Room 645, Brennan MacCallum Building A18

+61 2 9036 9512

Novi Djenar joined The University of Sydney in 2009. Prior to this she was the co-ordinator of Indonesian at La Trobe University and the vice-convenor of the Indonesian community radio (Radio Kita) in Melbourne. Novi has published in the area of Indonesian grammar, the semantics of prepositions, person reference, and the stylistics of youth fiction. Her current research interests are in topics related semantic, pragmatic, and discourse approaches to linguistic style and identity, youth languages, and stylistic representations of adolescence in literature.

Research Areas

  • Youth language
  • Stylistics of adolescent fiction
  • Conversational narrative
  • Person-reference
  • Indonesian popular literature

Current Projects

  • Teen style and intersubjectivity in Indonesian adolescent fiction.
  • Use-based grammar of Indonesian, with Dr Umar Muslim (University of Indonesia), Mr Nazarudin (University of Indonesia), Dr Michael Ewing (University of Melbourne), and Dr Katharina Sukamto (Atma Jaya Catholic University).

Selected Publications

Sole-authored books

  • Djenar, D. N. 2007. Semantic, Pragmatic, and Discourse Perspectives of Preposition Use: A Study of Indonesian Locatives. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
  • Djenar, D. N. 2003. A Student’s Guide to Indonesian Grammar. Melbourne: Oxford University Press.

Revision of scholarly book

Book Chapters

  • Djenar, D. N. 2012. What’s in a name?: Referring to the president in the Indonesian media. In Keith Foulcher, Mikihiro Moriyama, and Manneke Budiman, eds. Words in Motion: Language and Discourse in Post-New Order Indonesia. Singapore: National University of Singapore Press. Link: http://www.nus.edu.sg/nuspress/subjects/politics/978-9971-69-633-7.html
  • Djenar, D.N. 2012. Deixis, point of view, and empathy. In Umar Bahren Siregar, P. Ari Subagyo, and Yassir Nasanius, eds. Dari Menapak Jejak Kata Sampai Menyigi Tata Bahasa: Persembahan untuk Prof. Dr. Bambang Kaswanti Purwo dalam Rangka Ulang Tahunnya yang ke-60, pp. 93-114. Jakarta: Pusat Kajian Bahasa dan Budaya, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya.

Journal articles

  • Djenar, D. N. 2012. Almost unbridled: Indonesian youth language and its critics. South East Asia Research 20(1): 35-51. DOI: 10.5367/sear.2012.0086
  • Djenar, Dwi Noverini. 2011. Sukarno sur Sukarno: L’art de parler de soi-même à la troisième personne, transl. Marie Le Sourd. Le Banian 12: 61-74.
  • Djenar, D.N. 2010. Reliable words: Third person pronouns in Indonesian news reports. Wacana Journal of the Humanities of Indonesia (Lexicon and Semantics), 12(2): 269-294.
  • Djenar, D. N. 2008. Which self? Pronominal choice, modernity, and self-categorizations. International Journal for the Sociology of Language 189: 31-54.
  • Djenar, D. N. 2008. On the development of a colloquial writing style: Examining the language of Indonesian teen literature. Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land-, en Volkenkunde (Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences of Southeast Asia and Oceania) 164(2/3): 238-268.
  • Djenar, D. N. 2007. Self-reference and its variation in Indonesian. Electronic Journal of Foreign Language Teaching Vol.4, Supp.1, pp. 23-40 (DEST accredited joint publication by Asian Studies Association of Australia and National University of Singapore. Link: http://e-flt.nus.edu.sg/v4sp12007/djenar.htm)
  • Djenar, D. N. 2006. Patterns and variation of address terms in colloquial Indonesian. Australian Review of Applied Linguistics 29(2): 22.1-22.16. Link:http://publications.epress.monash.edu/action/doSearch?target=article&journal=aral&searchText=dwi+noverini+djenar&filter=single
  • Djenar, D. N. 2006. On the multifunctionality of compound prepositions in Indonesian. Oceanic Linguistics 45(2): 339-363.
  • Djenar, D. N. 2001. Indonesian “Locative” pronouns: Deictic or anaphoric? Australian Journal of Linguistics 21(1): 49-71.

Book Review

  • Djenar, D.N. 2012. Dan McIntyre and Lesley Jeffries, Stylistics, Cambridge University Press. In Language and Literature (forthcoming).
  • Djenar, D. N. 2009. Ab Massier, The voice of the law in transition: Indonesian jurists and their languages, 1915-2000. In Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 165(1).

Working Paper

Edited Monograph

  • Djenar, D. N. 1994. Sukarno’s fire: Metaphor in political oration. Asian Studies Papers – Research Series 3. Melbourne: School of Asian Studies, La Trobe University.

Areas of Teaching and Research Supervision

Teaching Areas

  • All levels of Indonesian

Research Areas

  • Indonesian language
  • Youth in literature
  • Youth language and style
  • Narrative of place
  • Person reference

Recent conference activity

  • 'This and That in Indonesian.' Invited speaker. International Workshop on Deixis and Spatial Expressions in Indonesian Languages, National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), Osaka, 22-23 July 2011.
  • 'Dialect as Style and Authorial Identity in Indonesian Teen Literature.' International Conference on Dialect and Literature, University of Sheffield, 11-13 July 2011.
  • 'Indonesian teen literature, youth morality, and language ideology.' Plenary Speaker. Current Trends in Asia Symposium, Flinders University, 7-8 April 2011.
  • ‘Place and stigma in Indonesian conversation’, 2nd New Zealand Discourse Conference, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, 18 November 2009.
  • ‘Fiksi remaja sebagai potensi bahan pengajaran bahasa Indonesia informal bagi penutur asing (Youth fiction as potential teaching material of informal Indonesian to foreign speakers)’, Malay Language Pedagogy Conference, Seremban, Malaysia, 4 November 2009.
  • ‘Colloquializing narratives: Examining the language of Indonesian youth fiction’, Indonesian Council Open Conference, The University of Sydney, 15-17 July 2009.
  • ‘Narrative of place in Indonesian conversation’, 13th International Symposium of Malay/Indonesian Linguistics (ISMIL), Senggigi Lombok, Indonesia, 6-7 June 2009.

Other professional contributions

  • Member of the Editorial Board, journal Linguistik Indonesia (published by the Indonesian Linguistic Society)
  • Specialist Vetter, LOTE Indonesian First Language, Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority, Melbourne.
  • Member of the Language and Identity Research Network, Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences, the University of Sydney
  • Member of Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA), UK
  • Member of the Australian Linguistic Society
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