Annika Tjuka
Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution
Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
phone: +49 (0) 341 3550 272
e-mail:
annika_tjuka@[>>> Please remove the text! <<<]eva.mpg.de
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About me
My main goal is to explore linguistic diversity, especially the variations of word meanings across languages. I integrate findings from linguistics and psychology in my research and adopt a computational approach. I received my doctorate with highest honors (summa cum laude) from Friedrich Schiller University Jena in March 2024 and I am working as a postdoctoral researcher. A major achievement of my academic career so far is the development of a cross-linguistic database, which contains rich information on word properties across 39 languages (https://norare.clld.org). In addition, I have investigated the relationship between word meanings in the semantic domain of the human body, exploring the intricate interplay between language, culture and cognition. The key results of these investigations are reported in a study on body-object colexifications published in Linguistic Typology and a study on body part vocabularies published in Scientific Reports.
Curriculum Vitae
Academic Degrees
| 2024 | Ph.D. in Linguistics at Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena and International Max Planck Research School for the Science of Human History (IMPRS-SHH) Dissertation: Language variation in word meanings: Cross-linguistic patterns and causes of colexifications Reviewers: Johann-Mattis List, Stephen C. Levinson and Asifa Majid |
| 2019 | Master of Arts in Linguistics at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Master's thesis: Body-part metaphors as a window to cognition: A cross-linguistic study of object and landscape terms Reviewers: Elisabeth Verhoeven and Kilu von Prince |
| 2016 | Bachelor of Arts in German Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Bachelor's thesis: Emotionalisation through texts Reviewers: Katharina Spalek and Manfred Krifka |
Academic Positions
| 2023 - Present | Postdoctoral Researcher at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Leipzig. |
| 2026 | Academic Visitor at University of Oxford, Department of Experimental Psychology, Oxford, UK. |
| 2019 - 2023 | Doctoral Researcher at Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Jena. |
| 2019 | Research Associate at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the FAHMRRR project, funded by ERC. |
| 2017 - 2019 | Student research assistant at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the MelaTAMP project, funded by DFG. |
| 2016 - 2019 | Student research assistant at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in the FAHMRRR project, funded by ERC. |
| 2018 | Internship and student research assistant at Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig. |