Mily Crevels is a guest researcher at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics.

More information about Mily Crevels

Fields of interest

I am interested in linguistic typology, native languages of South America, field linguistics, areal linguistics, and language endangerment, among other things.

Research

Over the last decade, my research has focused on the documentation of highly endangered and moribund language isolates in the Bolivian Amazonian lowlands, which form part of the Guaporé-Mamoré region, one of the most linguistically diverse regions of the world.

Teaching activities

In 2013/2014 I am teaching the following courses: Morfologie (with Alwin Kloekhorst), Beschrijvende taalkunde 1 (Descriptive Linguistics 1), and Taalcontact en culturele identiteit (Language Contact and Cultural Identity) in the BA Linguistics; Linguistic Structures of Native America (with Eithne Carlin), and Issues in Language Endangerment in the Americas in the MA Linguistics. Furthermore, I co-organise (with Maarten Mous) the course Samples of Linguistic Structure I: Analysis (MPhil Linguistics).

Curriculum vitae

My doctoral dissertation (2000) was conducted under the supervision of Kees Hengeveld at the University of Amsterdam and concerns a typological study of concessive constructions in the languages of the world. During the past 15 years I have been employed as a (senior) researcher, first in Leiden (1998-2001) and then in Nijmegen (2001-today), where I have coordinated numerous projects, and supervised several Ph.D. students. In the context of Pieter Muysken’s Spinoza Program  Lexicon and Syntax I coordinated, conducted and directed descriptive linguistic fieldwork on a number of highly threatened or practically extinct languages in the Bolivian Amazon. 

I am co-founder of Brill's Studies in the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (BSILA) and have edited various books on the native languages of South America. 
Since August 2012, I have joined LUCL as universitair docent in the section Languages and Cultures of Native America (TCIA).

Key publications

Mily Crevels and Pieter Muysken (eds.) (2012).  Lenguas de Bolivia, vol. II Amazonía. La Paz: Plural editores. 

Mily Crevels (2012). Language endangerment in South America: The clock is ticking. In: Lyle Campbell and Verónica Grondona (eds.)  The Indigenous Languages of South America: A Comprehensive Guide [The World of Linguistics 2], 167-233. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. 

Mily Crevels (2011). Who did what to whom in Magdalena (Itonama).  International Journal of American Linguistics 77(4): 577-594. 

Mily Crevels (2010). Ditransitives in Itonama. In: Andrej L. Malchukov, Martin Haspelmath, and Bernard Comrie (eds.)  Studies in Ditransitive Constructions: A Comparative Hanbook, 678-709. Berlin/New York: De Gruyter Mouton. 

Mily Crevels and Hein van der Voort (2008). The Guaporé-Mamoré region as a linguistic area. In: Pieter Muysken (ed.)  From Linguistic Areas to Areal Linguistics [Studies in Language Companion Series 90], 151-179. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Publications