Alexandre François

François has done linguistic fieldwork in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

In 2002, he published a grammatical description of Araki, a language spoken by a handful of speakers on an islet south of Espiritu Santo (Vanuatu).{{sfn|François|2002}}

Most of his research focuses on the northern islands of Vanuatu, known as the Torres and Banks Islands, an area where sixteen out of seventeen languages are still spoken: Hiw, Lo-Toga, Lehali, Löyöp, Mwotlap, Volow (extinct), Lemerig, Vera'a, Vurës, Mwesen, Mota, Nume, Dorig, Koro, Olrat, Lakon, Mwerlap - all descended from the Proto-Torres–Banks language, which was also reconstructed by him. After describing Mwotlap,{{sfn|François|2003}}{{sfn|François|2024}} the language with most speakers in that area, he has published articles comparing the languages of the area more generally – both from a synchronic and historical perspectives. He has described the sociolinguistic profile of this area as one of "egalitarian multilingualism".{{sfn|François|2012}}

In 2005, François took part in a scientific expedition to Vanikoro (Solomon Islands), whose objective was to understand the wreckage of the French navigator La Pérouse in 1788. As a member of a multidisciplinary team, he recorded the oral tradition of the Melanesian and Polynesian populations of this island, concerning popular representations of this historical event.{{Citation

| last = Bremner

| first = Charles

| date = 13 May 2005

| title = Sea hero's fate revealed after 217 years

| work = The Times

| page =

| url = https://www.thetimes.com/travel/destinations/europe-travel/france/paris/sea-hero-s-fate-revealed-after-217-years-32zn8f6qb0b

}}. On that occasion, he also documented the three languages spoken on Vanikoro – Teanu, Lovono and Tanema – two of which are highly endangered.{{Citation

| last = Traufetter

| first = Gerald

| date = 15 June 2012

| title = Climate Change or Tectonic Shifts? The Mystery of the Sinking South Pacific Islands. Part 2: A Language's Lone Survivor

| publisher = Der Spiegel

| page =

| url = https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/south-pacific-islands-threatened-by-more-than-just-rising-sea-levels-a-838675-2.html

}}

{{sfn|François|2009}}

In 2015, he coauthored with Jean-Michel Charpentier the Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia, an atlas showcasing the internal linguistic diversity of French Polynesia.{{sfn|Charpentier|François|2015}}

In 2020, he was elected a member of the Academia Europaea.{{cite web |url= https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Fran%C3%A7ois_Alexandre |title= Alexandre François |last= |first= |date= |website= |publisher= Academia Europaea |access-date=2020-10-08|quote=}}

François recorded texts from the oral literature – myths, legends, folktales – in various language communities of Vanuatu and the Solomons.

He provided local communities with various books in their languages, in the perspective of promoting the use of vernacular languages in writing.[http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-literacy-e.htm "Building up vernacular literacy"] with free access to literacy materials.

Together with ethnomusicologist Monika Stern and anthropologist Éric Wittersheim, he ran a multidisciplinary project on traditional music and poetry in Vanuatu.[https://raifilm.org.uk/films/the-poets-salary/ The Poet's Salary] (2009), award-winning documentary by [http://ericwittersheim.com Éric Wittersheim], about François' and Stern's fieldwork in northern Vanuatu. This led to the publication of Music of Vanuatu: Celebrations and Mysteries, a CD album of songs and dances recorded during social events in the field.{{sfn|François|Stern|2013}}

François coined the term "colexification".{{sfn|Gast|Koptjevskaja-Tamm|2018}}{{sfn|Haspelmath|2023}} This term, used in lexical typology, captures the fact that certain concepts, which some languages distinguish in their lexicons, are encoded in the same way ("colexified") in other languages.

Together with Siva Kalyan (ANU), he also developed historical glottometry, a non-cladistic approach to language genealogy, inspired by the wave model.François (2014), Kalyan & François (2018).

• Meillet's principle

{{reflist}}

{{refbegin}}

• {{cite book |last1=Charpentier |first1=Jean-Michel |first2=Alexandre |last2=François |date=2015 |title=Atlas Linguistique de Polynésie Française — Linguistic Atlas of French Polynesia |language=French, English |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter & Université de la Polynésie Française |pages=2566 |doi=10.1515/9783110260359 |hdl=1885/229728 |isbn=978-3-11-026035-9 |url=https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110260359/html}}
• {{cite book

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|year=2002

|title=Araki: A disappearing language of Vanuatu

|publisher=Australian National University

|series=Pacific Linguistics, 522

|location=Canberra

|isbn=0-85883-493-6

|url=https://www.academia.edu/1330286

}}

• {{citation

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|year=2003

|title=La sémantique du prédicat en mwotlap (Vanuatu)

|series=Collection Linguistique de la Société de Linguistique de Paris

| volume =

| publisher = Peeters

| place = Leuven-Paris

|isbn=978-90-429-1271-7

|url=https://www.academia.edu/848675

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| contribution = The languages of Vanikoro: Three lexicons and one grammar

| editor-last = Evans

| editor-first = Bethwyn

| title = Discovering history through language: Papers in honour of Malcolm Ross

| volume =

| pages = 103–126

| publisher = Australian National University

| place = Canberra

| year = 2009

| series = Pacific Linguistics 605

| isbn =

| contribution-url = https://www.academia.edu/848677

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-link =

| contribution = Semantic maps and the typology of colexification: Intertwining polysemous networks across languages

| editor-last = Vanhove

| editor-first = Martine

| title = From Polysemy to Semantic change: Towards a Typology of Lexical Semantic Associations

| volume = 106

| pages = 163–215

| publisher = Benjamins

| place = Amsterdam, New York

| year = 2008

| series = Studies in Language Companion Series

| isbn =978-90-272-0573-5

| chapter-url= https://www.academia.edu/846905

| doi = 10.1075/slcs.106.09fra

| citeseerx = 10.1.1.395.5070

}}

• {{citation

|last=François

|first=Alexandre

|year=2012

|title=The dynamics of linguistic diversity: Egalitarian multilingualism and power imbalance among northern Vanuatu languages

|journal=International Journal of the Sociology of Language

|issue=214

|doi=10.1515/ijsl-2012-0022

|pages=85–110

|s2cid=145208588

|url=https://www.academia.edu/1471606

}}

• {{Citation

| last = François

| first = Alexandre

| author-link =

| contribution = Trees, Waves and Linkages: Models of Language Diversification

| editor1-last = Bowern

| editor1-first = Claire

| editor2-last = Evans

| editor2-first = Bethwyn

| title = The Routledge Handbook of Historical Linguistics

| series=

| pages = 161–189

| publisher = Routledge

| place = London

| year = 2014

| isbn = 978-0-41552-789-7

| contribution-url = https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00874726/

}}.

• {{Citation

| last1 =François

| first1 = Alexandre

| last2 = Stern

| first2 = Monika

| author-link =

| author2-link =

|date=2013

| title =Musiques du Vanuatu: Fêtes et Mystères – Music of Vanuatu: Celebrations and Mysteries

| type =CD album, released with liner notes and ebook

| publisher =Maison des Cultures du Monde

| location =Paris

| pages =

| series =label Inédit

| volume =W260147

| url =http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-Vanuatu-ebook_e.htm

}}

• {{Citation

| last1 = Kalyan

| first1 = Siva

| author1-link =

| last2 = François

| first2 = Alexandre

| author2-link =

| contribution = Freeing the Comparative Method from the tree model: A framework for Historical Glottometry

| editor1-last = Kikusawa

| editor1-first = Ritsuko

| editor2-last = Reid

| editor2-first = Laurie

| title = Let's talk about trees: Tackling Problems in Representing Phylogenic Relationships among Languages

| series= Senri Ethnological Studies, 98

| pages = 59–89

| publisher = National Museum of Ethnology

| place = Ōsaka

| year = 2018

| isbn =

| contribution-url = https://www.researchgate.net/publication/317102597

}}.

• {{Citation

| last =François

| first = Alexandre

| date = 2024

| title =Online Mwotlap–English–French dictionary

| type =work in progress

| publisher =

| location =Paris

| url =http://alex.francois.online.fr/AF-dict-Mwotlap_e.htm

}}

• {{Cite book| last1 = Gast| first1 = Volker| last2 = Koptjevskaja-Tamm| first2 = Maria| title = Aspects of Linguistic Variation| chapter = The areal factor in lexical typology | pages = 43–82| editor = Daniël Olmen, Tanja Mortelmans, Frank Brisard | publisher = De Gruyter | location = Berlin, Boston| date = 2018 | chapter-url =https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9783110607963-003/html| isbn = 978-3-11-060796-3 |doi=10.1515/9783110607963-003 }}
• {{Cite journal| doi = 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1236853| issn = 1664-1078| volume = 14| pages = 1236853| last = Haspelmath| first = Martin |authorlink=Martin Haspelmath | title = Coexpression and synexpression patterns across languages: Comparative concepts and possible explanations| journal = Frontiers in Psychology | date = 2023| doi-access = free| pmid = 37954181| pmc = 10634591}}

{{refend}}

• [http://alex.francois.online.fr A linguist in Melanesia, personal website].
• [http://www.lattice.cnrs.fr/en/alexandre-francois/ Professional page] (Lattice-CNRS).
• [https://cocoon.huma-num.fr/exist/crdo/meta/cocoon-fe529605-2983-48f6-9296-05298398f63c?lang=en Access to François' fieldwork archives] on 23 languages of Island Melanesia.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Francois, Alexandre}}

Category:Living people

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)

Category:Linguists of Austronesian languages

Category:Linguists of Oceanic languages

Category:Members of Academia Europaea

Category:French National Centre for Scientific Research scientists

Category:21st-century French linguists