Skip to main content

SLLL

  • Home
  • People
    • Executive
    • Academics
    • Professional staff
    • Visitors
    • Current HDR students
    • Graduated HDR students
    • Alumni
  • Events
    • Event series
    • Conferences
      • Past conferences
  • News
    • Media library
  • Students
    • Study with us
      • Undergraduate study
      • Graduate coursework
      • Higher degree by research
    • Current students
      • Honours
      • Student exchange
      • Language placement test
    • Overseas study tours
    • Language videos
    • Summer Scholars Program
  • Study options
  • Research
    • Research projects
      • Sydney Speaks Project
        • People
          • Members
          • Students
        • Dissemination
        • Corpora
    • Speech & Language Lab
  • Classics Museum
    • About
    • Classics Museum Catalogue
    • Museum Events
    • Curator-led Tours
    • Friends of the Museum
    • Volunteer Guides
    • Collections Management
    • Research
  • Contact us

Centres

  • Australian National Dictionary Centre
  • Centre for Australian Literary Cultures
  • Centre for Classical Studies
  • Centre for Early Modern Studies
  • Institute for Communication in Health Care

Australian National Dictionary Centre

Resources

Centre for Australian Literary Cultures

Centre for Research on Language Change

Institute for Communication in Health Care

SLLL

Partners

  • ARC Centre of Excellence in the Dynamics of Language
  • Linguistics at ANU

Networks

  • CuSPP
  • French Research Cluster
  • Translational Research in Indigenous Language Ecologies Collective
    • People
    • Projects
    • Selected Publications

Related Sites

  • ANU College of Arts & Social Sciences
  • Research School of Humanities and the Arts
  • Australian National Internships Program

Administrator

Breadcrumb

HomeNewsLaunch of Meaning, Life and Culture: In Conversation With Anna Wierzbicka
Launch of Meaning, Life and Culture: In conversation with Anna Wierzbicka
Tuesday 6 July 2021

On Monday 17 May, around fifty people gathered at the Menzies library for the launch of Meaning, Life and Culture: In conversation with Anna Wierzbicka. The volume is dedicated to SLLL’s Emeritus Professor Anna Wierzbicka who has been an integral part of ANU linguistics since 1973. Attendees ate cake and sipped tea while four well known ANU academics gave short speeches. James Fox (anthropology, CAP) told of gaining Russian linguist Roman Jakobson’s approval to join ANU because of Anna’s presence there. Elizabeth Minchin (classics, SLLL) traced Anna’s eventful life stories. Nicholas Evans (linguistics, CAP, CoEDL) described the volume as a large family’s lively conversation around the dinner table. Jane Simpson (linguistics, SLLL, CoEDL) highlighted Anna’s role in mentoring and encouraging women in linguistics. The editors also said a few words before Anna responded to the speakers emphasising her sources of inspirations, including her mentors in Poland and Russia and her Christian faith. We were also joined by seven of the volume’s contributors from ANU, Griffith University and University of Canberra—Avery Andrews, Cliff Goddard, Deborah Hill, Harold Koch, David Nash, Andy Pawley, and Kevin Windle. It was an occasion of great talks, warm words and delicious cake.

Meaning, Life and Culture: In conversation with Anna Wierzbicka spans 26 chapters, includes over 20 languages from around the world, and features topics from the grammar of action verbs to communicative style. The deep humanistic perspective, wide-ranging themes and interdisciplinary nature of Anna Wierzbicka’s research are reflected in the contributions. The common thread running through all chapters is the importance of meaning to the understanding of language and culture. The book is available through ANU Press either as online open access (i.e. for free!) or as hard copy on order.

Image Gallery

Launch of Meaning, Life and Culture: In conversation with Anna Wierzbicka