Author(s): Paul Monaghan, Michael Walsh

English Language

The contributors to More than Mere Words reflect on Sutton’s important
contribution to linguistics and the study of Australian languages. The first
two chapters give a historical perspective on the study of Australia’s
Indigenous languages.
There follows a section on language as a reflection of connection to
place, and then a set of essays on language in its socio-cultural contexts, spanning prehistory to the present. The final part of the book charts
the consequences of the colonial encounter through a consideration
of language endangerment. The volume’s title captures both the
complexity of languages as systems embedded in their social contexts
through space and time, and a sense that this celebration of Peter’s life
and career cannot simply be read as ‘mere words’.