Peter Budd

PhD Student

Pete completed a BA in French and Russian at the University of Nottingham in 1996.

He spent time working in finance in London as well as periods spent teaching English in Mexico and Chile before enrolling in the ELAP MA course in language documentation and description in 2003-4. The MA Field Methods class provided the opportunity to work with a native speaker of the Khorchin dialect of Mongolian. Data collected during class elicitation sessions led to his dissertation on the case-marking morphology of the language (abstract).

For his PhD Pete carried out a language documentation project of Bierebo, an undescribed Austronesian language spoken by approximately 800 people on the island of Epi in Vanuatu. The core theoretical work focuses on the binary system of realis/irrealis mood in the language. General research interests include typology, morphology, syntax and anthropological linguistics.

Two fieldtrips have been made and a trilingual dictionary (Bierebo-Bislama-English) is in progress as well as two primers in the language. These materials are being developed through work with a language committee for Bierebo which was formed in March 2006.

See also http://www.hrelp.org/aboutus/students/stories/seventhelapphd.html