Dr S. van Putten (Saskia)

My area of expertise is the interface of lexicon, grammar and meaning across the languages of the world. I have worked on topics such as how people talk about motion, sensory perception and the landscape across languages. Another area of interest is information structure: how people shape their utterances in order to take into account the knowledge state of the listener. My main focus is on African languages, especially Avatime (Niger-Congo), spoken in Ghana, where I have also carried out a language documentation project. I’m currently interested in the language of pain, across languages as well as in medical communication.

• Grammar and Cognition