Prof. Dr. Uta Reinöhl
Office Hours (during the semester): Monday from 12 to 14 (no appointment needed); not on 13.01.; on 20.01. starting from 13:00
Research Focus
- Grammaticalisation Theory
- Historical Syntax
- Non-configurationality
- Serial Verbs
- Tonal Phonology
- Languages: Indo-Aryan, Indo-European, South Asian Sprachbund, Tibeto-Burman (Mishmi)
seit 05/2020 | Holder of the Chair of General Linguistics, Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg |
10/2019 – 04/2020 | Acting Professor of General Linguistics, LMU Munich |
seit 02/2019 | Head of an Emmy Noether Junior Research Group (DFG) at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz on the topic: “Non-hierarchicality in grammar. Construction formation without word class distinction across categories and languages.” |
08/2017 – 01/2019 | Return to the position as Assistant in General Linguistics, Institute of Linguistics, University of Cologne |
10/2015 – 06/2017 | Research stay at the ANU Canberra with a Feodor Lynen Postdoctoral Fellowship (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation) |
27/03/2014 – 01/2019 | Research assistant in General Linguistics, University of Cologne (Assistant position) |
12/2013 | PhD defense on the topic: Grammaticalization and the Rise of Phrase Structure – On the Emergence of Postpositional Constructions in Indo-Aryan (Supervisors: Prof. Nikolaus Himmelmann and Prof. Hans Henrich Hock) |
04/2013 – 03/2014 | Research assistant in General Linguistics, University of Cologne (covering assistant position) |
07/2011 – 12/2011 | DAAD Research Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi |
02/2011 – 07/2013 | PhD Scholarship recipient from the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes) |
10/2010 – 10/2013 | Fellow of the a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School for the Humanities Cologne |
04/2010 – 07/2011 | PhD studies at the University of Cologne |
04/2010 – 07/2011 | Research Assistant in General Linguistics, University of Cologne |
01/03/2010 | Magistra Artium (Master of Arts), Thesis topic: On the Concept of Renovation in the Framework of Grammaticalization Theory |
10/2006 – 02/2010 | Undergraduate studies majoring in General Linguistics with minors in Philosophy and English Philology at Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster |
09/2005 – 06/2006 | Studies in Linguistics, Philosophy, English Literature, and Political Science at University College Dublin (Ireland) |
Corpora
- Reinöhl, Uta 2024. Documentation of Igu. Data Center for the Humanities. https://doi.org/10.18716/dch/b.00000017
- Casaretto, Antje, Jakob Halfmann, Natalie Korobzow, Daniel Kölligan & Uta Reinöhl. 2023. The morphologically glossed Rigveda – The Zurich annotation corpus revised and extended. Hosted by VedaWeb – Online Research Platform for Old Indic Texts. University of Cologne. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8410655
- Casaretto, Antje, Simon Fries & Uta Reinöhl. 2021. Vedic Sanskrit prose interlinearized and GRAIDed. Data Center for the Humanities. https://doi.org/10.18716/dch/a.00000053
- Kölligan, Daniel, Claes Neuefeind, Uta Reinöhl, Patrick Sahle, Antje Casaretto, Anna Fischer, Börge Kiss, Natalie Korobzow, Jürgen Rolshoven, Jakob Halfmann, Francisco Mondaca. VedaWeb. Online Research Platform for Old Indic Texts. University of Cologne
Books and Edited Volumes
- Louagie, Dana & Uta Reinöhl (eds). 2022. Typologizing the Noun Phrase. Special Issue of Linguistics 60 (3).
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2016. Grammaticalization and the Rise of Configurationality in Indo-Aryan. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2010. Zum Begriff der Renovation im Rahmen der Grammatikalisierungstheorie. Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster (ms).
Articles in Academic Journals and Edited Volumes
- Contzen, Eva von, Stefan Pfänder, Uta Reinöhl, Uta & Maria Sulimma. “Repetition, again. Cross-disciplinary Approaches to Practices and Forms of Repeating.” DIEGESIS. Interdisciplinary E-Journal for Narrative Research Interdisziplinäres / E-Journal für Erzählforschung 13.2 (2024). 138–159. doi: 10.25926/dr7c-jt58
- Reinöhl, Uta and Ellison, T. Mark. “Metaphor forces argument overtness“. 2024. Linguistics 62(4), 795-847.
https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2021-0072 - Casaretto, Antje & Uta Reinöhl. Subm. Identifying discourse functions without formal clues – Secondary predicates and related functions in Vedic Sanskrit.
- Reinöhl, Uta. Subm. Discontinuous nominal expressions in Vedic Sanskrit – Forms and functions.
- Ellison, T. Mark & Uta Reinöhl. 2022. Compositionality, Metaphor, and the Evolution of Language. International Journal of Primatology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10764-022-00315-w.
- Louagie, Dana & Uta Reinöhl. 2022. “Typologizing nominal expressions: the noun phrase and beyond”, in: Dana Louagie & Uta Reinöhl (eds). Typologizing the Noun Phrase. Special Issue of Linguistics 60 (3), 659-714.
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2022. Locating Kera’a (Idu Mishmi) in Its Linguistic Neighbourhood: Evidence from Dialectology. In Mark W Post, Stephen Morey & Toni Huber (eds.), Ethnolinguistic Prehistory of the Eastern Himalaya, 232–263. Leiden: Brill.
- Kaland, C., Peck, N., Ellison, T.M., Reinöhl, U. 2021. “An initial exploration of the interaction of tone and intonation in Kera’a“. Proc. 1st International Conference on Tone and Intonation (TAI), 132-136, doi: 10.21437/TAI.2021-27
- Casaretto, Antje, Dimmendaal, Gerrit J., Hellwig, Birgit, Reinöhl, Uta, Schneider-Blum, Gertrud. 2020. Roots of Ergativity in Africa (and Beyond), Studies in African Linguistics 49, 111-140.
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2020. Continuous and discontinuous nominal expressions in flexible (or “free”) word order languages. Patterns and correlates, Linguistic Typology 24, 71-111
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2020. What are and what aren’t complex nominal expressions in flexible word order languages?, Language Typology and Universals 73, 57-79
- Kölligan, D., Neuefeind, C., Kiss, B., Mondaca, F., Reinöhl, U. & P. Sahle. 2019. VedaWeb – on the Role of Annotations in Analyzing Ancient Indo-Aryan Texts. To Appear in: Proceedings of the Historical Corpora and Variation Conference (HiCoV). Cagliari, Italy. 4.04-05.04.2019.
- Kiss, B., Kölligan, D., Mondaca, F., Neuefeind, C., Reinöhl, U. & P. Sahle. 2019. It Takes a Village: Co-developing VedaWeb, a Digital Research Platform for Old Indo-Aryan Texts. In Steven Krauwer & Darja Fišer (eds.), Workshop Proceedings. Twin Talks: Understanding Collaboration in DH. Fourth Digital Humanities Conference in the Nordic Countries 2019 (DHN2019), 35-44. Copenhagen, Denmark. 05.03.2019.
- Ellison, T. Mark & Uta Reinöhl. 2018. Metaphorical extension and the evolution of configurationality. In Christine Cuskley et al. (eds.), The Evolution of Language, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference, Torun, Poland, 2018.
- Reinöhl, Uta & Antje Casaretto. 2018. When grammaticalization does NOT occur. Prosody-syntax mismatches in Indo-Aryan. Diachronica 35(2). 238-276.
- Reinöhl, Uta & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann. 2017. Renewal: A figure of speech or a process sui generis?. Language 93(2). 381–413.
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2016. A single origin of Indo-European primary adpositions? Unveiling the Indo-Aryan branch-off. Diachronica 33(1). 95-130.
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2013. Reassessing Indo-Aryan postpositions in the Sprachbund debate. Preproceedings of the International Conference on Language Contact in India 6-8 February 2013, 170-184.
Reviews and similar publications
- Reinöhl, Uta. 2018. Review of Eystein Dahl & Krzysztof Stroński (eds.). 2016. Indo-Aryan ergativity in typological and diachronic perspective. Journal of South Asian Languages and Linguistics 5(1). 111-121.
- Reinöhl, Uta & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann. 2011. Review of Christoph Schroeder et al. (eds.). 2008. Secondary Predicates in Eastern European Languages and Beyond. Linguistic Typology 15(1). 131-139.
Selected talks / presentations
- Reinöhl, Uta. Schamanismus, Sprache und Heilungsritual im östlichen Himalaya. 12. Juli 2022. Dienstagskolloquium “Seele – Geist – Körper”. Universitätsklinikum Freiburg.
- Mondaca, F., Rau, F., Neuefeind, C., Kiss, B., Kölligan, D., Reinöhl, U. & P. Sahle. C-SALT APIs – Connecting and Exposing Heterogeneous Language Resources. Digital Humanities Conference 2019 (DH2019). Utrecht, Netherlands. 09.07-12.07.2019.
- Kölligan, D., Neuefeind, C., Kiss, B., Mondaca, F., Reinöhl, U. & P. Sahle. VedaWeb – on the Role of Annotations in Analyzing Ancient Indo-Aryan Texts. Historical Corpora and Variation Conference (HiCoV). Cagliari, Italy. 04.04-05.04.2019.
- Kiss, B., Kölligan, D., Mondaca, F., Neuefeind, C., Reinöhl, U. & P. Sahle. It takes a village: Co-developing VedaWeb, a Digital Research Platform for Old Indo-Aryan Texts. Twin Talks: Understanding Collaboration in DH. Fourth Digital Humanities Conference in the Nordic Countries 2019 (DHN2019). Copenhagen, Denmark. 05.03.2019.
- Reinöhl, Uta & T. Mark Ellison. Obligatorification stems from universal communicative requirements not syntactic reanalysis. Wither reanalysis? HU Berlin, 1.-2. March 2019.
- Reinöhl, Uta & T. Mark Ellison. Obligatorification in syntax. ICL 20, Kapstadt, 2.-6. Juli 2018.
- Reinöhl, Uta & Antje Casaretto. Secondary predicates in Vedic Sanskrit – On the challenge of identifying syntactic categories in a so-called ‚non-configurational‘ language. South Asian Language Analysis 34, 19.-21. Juni 2018, Universität Konstanz.
- Reinöhl, Uta & T. Mark Ellison. Obligatorification in syntax. 16. März 2018, Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University, Canberra.
- Reinöhl, Uta. Functions of discontinuous nominal expressions in Vedic Sanskrit. SLE, 10.-13. Sept. 2017, Zürich.
- Reinöhl, Uta. Towards a Typology of Old Grams. International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) 23, San Antonio (2017).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Syntactic Paradigmatization as a Constraint on Grammaticalization – On the Rise of Participial Predicates in Indo-Aryan. International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) 23, San Antonio (2017).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Locating Kera’a (Idu Mishmi) in its linguistic neighbourhood: Evidence from dialectology. International Consortium for Eastern Himalayan Ethnolinguistic Prehistory, La Trobe University, Melbourne (Feb 8-10 2017).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Exploring configurationality as a historical phenomenon. From non-configurational to (low-level) configurational in Indo-European. Centre of Excellence for the Dynamics of Language, Australian National University (November 2015).
- Reinöhl, Uta. The Indo-Aryan ‘alignment change’ revisited. International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) 22, Naples (July 2015).
- Reinöhl, Uta. The origins of the New Indo-Aryan postpositional phrases. South Asian Language Analysis 31, Lancaster (May 2015).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Disentangling semantic and formal change in grammaticalization – A case study from Indo-Aryan. Universität Zürich, Institut für Vergleichende Sprachwissenschaft (8/5/15).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Exploring configurationality as a historical phenomenon. Syntax of the World’s Languages 6, Pavia (Sep 8-10 2014).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Syntactically nouns, semantically spatial relators: Zero-valent adverbs undergoing the genitive shift in Post-Vedic Old Indic. 36. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Sprachwissenschaft (DGfS), Marburg (March 6-7 2014).
- Reinöhl, Uta. An outlier in the family: Indo-Aryan branching off from Indo-European in its route to adpositions and configurationality. Contrastive Linguistics & Diachrony (CoLiDi), Ghent (Feb 27-28 201).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Syntactic variation and the rise of configurationality in Indo-Aryan. International Conference on Historical Linguistics (ICHL) 21, Oslo (Aug 5-9 2013).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Reassessing Indo-Aryan postpositions in the Sprachbund debate. Language Contact in India, Pune, India (Feb 6-8 2013).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Invited talk with Nikolaus P. Himmelmann: A Note on Renovation. Journée d’étude. Autour de la grammaticalisation, Université Lille 3 (Dec 7 2012).
- Reinöhl, Uta. Die Entstehung phrasaler Struktur im Indoarischen – Konstituenz als emergentes Phänomen. Sprachwandel, Munich (July 13-15 2011).
Posters
- Kiss, B., Kölligan, D., Mondaca, F., Neuefeind, C., Reinöhl, U. & P. Sahle. 2018. VedaWeb – A Web-based Platform for Ancient Indo-Aryan Texts. To Appear in: Book of Abstracts of the First European Association for Digital Humanities Conference (EADH 2018 – Data in Digital Humanities). Galway, Ireland 7.12–09.12.2018.
- Reinöhl, U., Kölligan, D., Kiss, B., Mondaca, F., Neuefeind, C. & P. Sahle. 2018. VedaWeb – eine webbasierte Plattform für die Erforschung altindischer Texte. In Book of Abstracts der 5. Jahrestagung der Digital Humanities im deutschsprachigen Raum (DHd 2018), Köln 26.2–2.3.2018, 485–486.
Current Research Projects
- Co-Speaker with Prof. Stefan Pfänder (Romance Linguistics, Freiburg), as well as Prof. Dr. Achim Rabus (Freiburg), Prof. Dr. Daniela Marzo (Freiburg), Prof. Dr. Lars Bülow (LMU), T. Mark Ellison, PhD (Köln) of FRIAS Project Group on Repetition in Language (2022/2023).
- Projektleitung einer Emmy-Noether-Forschungsgruppe zum Thema: Non-hierarchicality in grammar. Construction formation without word class distinction across categories and languages.
- VedaWeb (Based at the University of Cologne, in cooperation with Prof. Daniel Kölligan, Prof. Rolshoven, and Prof. Patrick Sahle), since July 2017.
- Agent prominence and the diachrony of predication in Indo-Aryan (Together with Prof. Dimmendaal), subproject B03 in the Collaborative Research Center (SFB) 1252 Prominence in Language at the University of Cologne, January 2017–December 2020.
- Projekt Multi-headedness in cross-categorial perspective. The syntax and semantics of referents and events. Postdoctoral project funded by a postdoctoral scholarship from the University of Cologne.
Further information about the seminar’s current research projects can be found here.
Awards
- Heinz-Maier-Leibnitz-Preis 2019, the most important German early-career award, granted by the DFG (German Research Foundation) and the BMBF (Federal Ministry of Education and Research)
- Wilhelm von Humboldt Prize for the Best Dissertation 2015, German Linguistics Society
- Award for the Dissertation by the German Academic Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes)
- Offermann-Hergarten Award 2016, University of Cologne