Cliff Goddard - Minimal Languages in Action

has worked as a computational linguist for over two decades, building a variety of dictionaries, language models and grammars in multiple languages. These have been used for proofing tools, machine-translation systems and speech-recognition applications. His academic base is University of Washington.

is a PhD candidate at Griffith University, Australia. Diget researches accessibility and cross-translatability of public health communication in Australia. Her PhD project is entitled Minimal English for accessible public health messaging: Mapping the terrain. Diget has a Master of Linguistics and Cognitive Semiotics from Lund University, Sweden.

is Professor of Linguistics at Griffith University, Australia, and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Humanities. Much of his research lies at the intersection of language, meaning and culture. He has published widely in descriptive, theoretical and applied semantics, language description and typology, ethnopragmatics and intercultural communication.

is a developmental psychologist with expertise in developmental neuroscience, parent-infant mental health, and behavioural paediatrics. She conducts clinical research in the Nurture Science Program in the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center, New York, and runs the Early Experience and Physiology Laboratory at Williams College.

is a member of the Centre for Sustainable Communities at the University of Canberra, Australia. She has extensive experience with linguistic research in Solomon Islands. Her interests include lexical semantics, Oceanic languages and cultures, and language and development practices.

studied at University of Wrocaw, Poland, where she completed her Master degree in Spanish philology. Her main research interests are cross-cultural pragmatics, narrative medicine and health communication. In addition, she coordinates clinical trials in a medical centre in Opole, Poland.

is Professor of Korean language in Jeonbuk National University, South Korea. Her speciality lies in Korean semantics and pragmatics. Aside from other publications she is the lead translator of Anna Wierzbickas Cross-cultural Pragmatics into Korean. She also has interests in education research.

is head of Selkokeskus, the Finnish Centre for Easy Language, Helsinki, Finland. In her career she has developed the guidelines for Easier Finnish for both written and spoken language, promoted the use of Easy Language in Finland and carried out various projects with persons who need linguistic support. Leskel is undertaking doctoral thesis at the University of Helsinki concerning guidelines for Easy Language in interaction.

completed her Bachelor of Languages and Linguistics (Honours) at Griffith University in 2019. She is studying her Master of Information Studies, with a view to pursue a career in libraries. In doing so, she hopes to contribute to language revitalisation by connecting communities with heritage documents on their languages.

Until his untimely death in February 2021, Bert Peeters was a long-standing advocate of the Natural Semantic Metalanguage (NSM) approach. Working mainly on French and (Australian) English, his main interests were in language as a key to cultural values, intercultural communication and language teaching. He published prolifically on these topics and was editor of many collective volumes.

completed her PhD at the Australian National University (ANU) in 2019, creating The Australian Dictionary of Invisible Culture for Teachers. Her research focuses on the semantics and pragmatics of language, and how linguistics can improve language education. She works as a sessional lecturer at the ANU, teaching Cross-cultural Communication.

is a Docent in General Linguistics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Her research interests are in lexical semantic methodology, Finnish language, and easy languages. Vanhatalo has been applying NSM outside linguistics and popularising lexical semantics. Her mission is to reduce language-related misunderstandings and help people to communicate better in everyday life.