Dr Mark Post
People_

Dr Mark Post

BA Hons (Wesleyan), MA (Oregon), PhD (LaTrobe)
Senior Lecturer, Honours Coordinator: Discipline of Linguistics
Deputy Head of School (Humanities)
Dr Mark Post

My research aims to describe and explain the typologies of and relationships among Greater Mainland Southeast Asian and Himalayan languages. My descriptive work relies exclusively on primary field data, and I have interests in improving and extending ethnographic and linguistic fieldwork methodologies. I approach explanation primarily from a functional-diachronic perspective, viewing human language as a dynamic process whose contemporary grammatical “structures” are best understood as reified outcomes of earlier patterns of discourse and interaction.

  • Languages of Greater Mainland Southeast Asia: Austro-Tai languages, Sinitic languages, Trans-Himalayan/Tibeto-Burman languages (especially in the Eastern Himalaya) Austroasiatic languages, Asian language isolates
  • Descriptive and documentary linguistics: fieldwork methodologies and technologies, lexicography, grammatology, language maintenance and revitalisation
  • Anthropological and evolutionary linguistics: human culture and the contextual evolution of linguistic structures, historical morphosyntax, language contact and genealogical linguistics
  • Functional-typological linguistics: experimental phonetics and phonology, quantitative frequency-distributional analysis, morphological typology, part-of-speech theory

Teaching

Supervision

  • Phonological and/or grammatical descriptions of Asian minority languages, especially of Southeast Asia and the Himalayas
  • Functional and/or diachronic analyses of grammatical phenomena, especially in languages of Asia
  • Computer-assisted analysis of under-resourced Asian languages
  • Life member, Galo Language Development Committee (Arunachal Pradesh, India)
  • Association for Linguistic Typology
  • Australian Linguistic Society
  • North East Indian Linguistics Society
  • 2011 Recipient of the Association for Linguistic Typology’s Pāṇini Award
Project titleResearch student
Ethno-linguistic prehistory of productive strategies in the Eastern HimalayaChintan SHETH

Selected publications

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Publications

Books

  • Post, M. (2017). The Tangam Language: Grammar, Lexicon and Texts. Leiden: Brill. [More Information]
  • Liipir, G., Modi, Y., Post, M. (2016). A Tangam Community Dictionary. India: Mark W. Post.
  • Rwbaa, I., Post, M., Rwbaa, I., Xodu, M., 'Kenjum, B., Bomcak, R., Rwbaa, T., Aado, N., Keenaa, D. (2009). Galo-English Dictionary, with English-Galo Index. India: Galo Welfare Society. [More Information]

Edited Books

  • Post, M., Morey, S., Huber, T. (2022). Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya (Brill's Tibetan Studies Library 52). Leiden: Brill. [More Information]
  • Post, M., Morey, S., DeLancey, S. (2015). Language and Culture in Northeast India and Beyond: In Honor of Robbins Burling. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. [More Information]
  • Hyslop, G., Morey, S., Post, M. (2013). North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 5. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

Book Chapters

  • Modi, Y., Post, M. (2022). Applicatives in Macro-Tani languages (Trans-Himalayan, Eastern Himalaya): Forms, functions and historical origins (forthcoming). In Sara Paccharotti and Fernando Zuniga (Eds.), Applicative Morphology: Neglected Syntactic and Non-syntactic Functions. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Post, M., Morey, S., Huber, T. (2022). Ethnolinguistic prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya: Diversity and its sources. In Post, M. W., S. Morey and T. Huber (Eds.), Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya (Brill's Tibetan Studies Library 52), (pp. 1-24). Leiden: Brill. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2022). On Reconstructing Ethno-linguistic Prehistory: The Case of Tani. In Diana Lange, Jarmila Ptackova, Marion Wettstein and Mareike Wulff (Eds.), Crossing boundaries. Tibetan studies unlimited, (pp. 311-342). Czech Republic: Academia. [More Information]

Journals

  • Post, M. (2023). Classifiers in a language with articles: Recent evolution of a typologically unusual classifier system in the Tani languages of northeast India. Asian Languages and Linguistics, 3(2), 241-270. [More Information]
  • Post, M., Modi, Y. (2022). Subject autonomy marking in Macro-Tani and the typology of middle voice. Linguistics, 60(1), 215-238. [More Information]
  • Pichetpan, N., Post, M. (2021). Bare classifier phrases in Thai and other mainland Asian languages: Implications for classifier theory and typology. Linguistic Typology, 25(3), 461-506. [More Information]

Conferences

  • Post, M. (2011). Prosody and typological drift in Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman: Against "Indosphere" and "Sinosphere". ICAAL 4, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2008). Grammaticalization and the discourse distribution of serial verbs in Assamese. SEALS XIII, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2004). Assamese verb serialization in functional, areal-typological and diachronic perspective. Berkeley Linguistics Society, California: Berkeley Linguistics Society. [More Information]

Other

2023

  • Post, M. (2023). Classifiers in a language with articles: Recent evolution of a typologically unusual classifier system in the Tani languages of northeast India. Asian Languages and Linguistics, 3(2), 241-270. [More Information]

2022

  • Modi, Y., Post, M. (2022). Applicatives in Macro-Tani languages (Trans-Himalayan, Eastern Himalaya): Forms, functions and historical origins (forthcoming). In Sara Paccharotti and Fernando Zuniga (Eds.), Applicative Morphology: Neglected Syntactic and Non-syntactic Functions. Berlin: De Gruyter.
  • Post, M., Morey, S., Huber, T. (2022). Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya (Brill's Tibetan Studies Library 52). Leiden: Brill. [More Information]
  • Post, M., Morey, S., Huber, T. (2022). Ethnolinguistic prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya: Diversity and its sources. In Post, M. W., S. Morey and T. Huber (Eds.), Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya (Brill's Tibetan Studies Library 52), (pp. 1-24). Leiden: Brill. [More Information]

2021

  • Pichetpan, N., Post, M. (2021). Bare classifier phrases in Thai and other mainland Asian languages: Implications for classifier theory and typology. Linguistic Typology, 25(3), 461-506. [More Information]
  • Modi, Y., Post, M. (2021). The functional value of formal exuberance: Isomorphism and expressive intensification in Adi and Milang. In Jeffrey P. Williams (Eds.), Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia, (pp. 187-212). Abingdon: Routledge. [More Information]

2020

  • Post, M., Burling, S. (2020). In Memoriam Robbins Burling, 1926-2021. Himalayan Linguistics, 19(3), 46-56. [More Information]
  • Konnerth, L., Morey, S., Mulder, M., Post, M., Parker ᴠᴀɴ Dᴀᴍ, K. (2020). Languages and Peoples of the Eastern Himalayan Region and the North East Indian Linguistics Society: Taking stock. Himalayan Linguistics, 19(2), 1-8. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2020). The distribution, reconstruction and varied fates of topographical deixis in Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan): Implications for the reconstruction of an early Trans-Himalayan environment. Diachronica: international journal for historical linguistics, 37(3), 368-409. [More Information]

2019

  • Post, M. (2019). Topographical Deixis in Trans-Himalayan (Sino-Tibetan) Languages. Transactions of the Philological Society, 117(2), 234-255. [More Information]

2017

  • Post, M., Sun, J. (2017). Tani Languages. In Graham Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (Eds.), The Sino-Tibetan Languages 2nd Edition, (pp. 322-337). Oxon: Routledge. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2017). The Tangam Language: Grammar, Lexicon and Texts. Leiden: Brill. [More Information]
  • Post, M., Burling, R. (2017). The Tibeto-Burman languages of Northeastern India. In Graham Thurgood and Randy J. LaPolla (Eds.), The Sino-Tibetan Languages 2nd Edition, (pp. 213-242). Oxon: Routledge. [More Information]

2016

  • Liipir, G., Modi, Y., Post, M. (2016). A Tangam Community Dictionary. India: Mark W. Post.

2015

  • Post, M., Morey, S., DeLancey, S. (2015). Language and Culture in Northeast India and Beyond: In Honor of Robbins Burling. Canberra: Asia-Pacific Linguistics. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2015). Morphosyntactic Reconstruction in an Areal-Historical Context: A pre-historical relationship between North East India and Mainland Southeast Asia? In N. J. Enfield, Bernard Comrie (Eds.), Languages of Mainland Southeast Asia: The State of the Art, (pp. 205-261). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2015). Sino-Tibetan Negation and the Case of Galo: Explaining a Distributional Oddity in Diachronic Terms. Language and Linguistics, 16(3), 431-464. [More Information]

2014

  • Blench, R., Post, M. (2014). Rethinking Sino-Tibetan phylogeny from the perspective of North East Indian languages. In Thomas Owen-Smith and Nathan Hill (Eds.), Trans-Himalayan Linguistics, (pp. 71-104). Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH. [More Information]

2013

  • Post, M., Kanno, T. (2013). Apatani phonology and lexicon, with a special focus on tone. Himalayan Linguistics, 12(1), 17-75.
  • Hyslop, G., Morey, S., Post, M. (2013). North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 5. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2013). Person-sensitive TAME marking in Galo: Historical origins and functional motivation. In Tim Thornes, Erik Andvik, Gwendolyn Hyslop, Joana Jansen (Eds.), Functional-Historical Approaches to Explanation: In honor of Scott DeLancey, (pp. 107-130). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. [More Information]

2012

  • Doley, S., Post, M. (2012). Classifiers in Mising. In Gwendolyn Hyslop, Stephen Morey, Mark W. Post (Eds.), North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 4, (pp. 243-266). New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Hyslop, G., Morey, S., Post, M. (2012). North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 4. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2012). Oral literature in the Eastern Himalaya: Review of The Sun Rises: A Shaman's chant, ritual exchange and fertility in the apatanivallley, by Stuart Blackburn. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 35(1), 113-124.

2011

  • Post, M., Modi, Y. (2011). Language contact and the genetic position of Milang (Eastern Himalaya). Anthropological Linguistics, 53(3), 215-258. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2011). Nominalization and nominalization-based constructions in Galo. In Foong Ha Yap, Karen Grunow-Harsta and Janick Wrona (Eds.), Nominalization in Asian Languages (Typological Studies in Language), (pp. 255-288). Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. [More Information]
  • Hyslop, G., Morey, S., Post, M. (2011). North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 3. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

2010

  • Morey, S., Post, M. (2010). North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 2. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2010). Predicate derivations in the Tani languages: Root, suffix, both or neither? In Stephen Morey and Mark W. Post (Eds.), North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 2, (pp. 175-197). New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

2009

  • Rwbaa, I., Post, M., Rwbaa, I., Xodu, M., 'Kenjum, B., Bomcak, R., Rwbaa, T., Aado, N., Keenaa, D. (2009). Galo-English Dictionary, with English-Galo Index. India: Galo Welfare Society. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2009). The phonology and grammar of Galo "words": A case study in benign disunity. Studies in Language, 33(4), 933-974. [More Information]

2008

  • Post, M. (2008). Adjectives in Thai: Implications for a functionalist typology of word classes. Linguistic Typology, 12(3), 339-381. [More Information]
  • Post, M. (2008). Grammaticalization and the discourse distribution of serial verbs in Assamese. SEALS XIII, Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. [More Information]
  • Morey, S., Post, M. (2008). North East Indian Linguistics, Volume 1. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press. [More Information]

2007

  • Post, M. (2007). Grammaticalization and compounding in Thai and Chinese: A text-frequency approach. Studies in Language, 31(1), 117-175. [More Information]

2006

  • Post, M. (2006). Compounding and the structure of the Tani lexicon. Linguistics of the Tibeto-Burman Area, 29(1), 41-60. [More Information]

2004

  • Post, M. (2004). Assamese verb serialization in functional, areal-typological and diachronic perspective. Berkeley Linguistics Society, California: Berkeley Linguistics Society. [More Information]
  • Post, M., Guion, S., Payne, D. (2004). Phonetic correlates of tongue root vowel contrasts in Maa. Journal of Phonetics, 32, 517-542. [More Information]

Selected Grants

2023

  • Pseudo grains and adaptiveness in the Eastern Himalayas, Hyslop G, Post M, Modi Y, Australian Research Council (ARC)/Discovery Projects (DP)

2022

  • Center for Cultural Linguistic Diversity - Eastern Himalayas, Post M, Modi Y, Firebird Foundation for Anthropological Research/Research Grant