My name is Anna Sjöberg, and I am a researcher in linguistic typology at Stockholms universitet/Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena. I received my PhD from Stockholm university in 2023 and my thesis Knowledge predication won the Greenberg Award in 2024.
My main research interests are semantic typology and corpus based typology. In particular, I am interested in complex and inter-subjective meanings, in particular knowledge predication. I am also interested in quantitative methods for typology, translation and language sampling.
I am currently employed by the Department of Linguistics at Stockholm University, funded by the Swedish Research Council’s (Vetenskapsrådet) International Postdoc grant (grant no. 2024-00412). For the academic years 24/25-25/26 I am based at the Department of English and American Studies, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, hosted by Prof. Volker Gast.
I can be reached at the e-mail address anna DOT sjoberg AT ling DOT su DOT se. Please feel free to reach out! :)
Much of our communication relates to knowledge; most languages have dedicated lexical forms for expressing who knows things and what they know: knowledge predication forms, e.g. English know. These forms’ use has been studied in some large, mainly European, languages, but it remains unknown how they are used in the rest of the world’s languages. What do people talk about knowing? What is the communicative function of talking about knowing?
These are the issues I investigate in the project Knowledge predication in languae use. Taking a usagebased perspective on language, I will consider the contexts in which knowledge predications occur in original texts from languages around the world.
The investigation of knowledge predication cross-linguistically is of interest from the point of view of understanding language — as knowledge predication forms appear to be almost universal — but for the same reason, it is also important to understanding human cognition more generally, and how we conceive of and interact with the world and each other.
My PhD thesis was about knowledge predication in a sample of 83 languages and was supervised by Bernhard Wälchli and Maria Koptjevskaja-Tamm. It won 2024’s Greenberg Award. The thesis is freely available here.
Sjöberg, A., Georgakopoulos, T & Koptjevskaja-Tammm M. Typology and universals of word meaning. In Geeraerts, D. & Glynn, D. (Eds.), The Cambridge handbook of lexical semantics. Cambridge University Press
Bondarenko, A., Panova, A. & Sjöberg, A. Extended functions of ‘truth’-words in the languages of Eurasia. In Koptjevskaja-Tamm, M., Bergqvist, H., Bondarenko, A. and Chantrain, G. (Eds.) Truth, lies, and deception across languages and cultures
Sjöberg, A. A semantic typology of knowledge predication. Mouton De Gruyter
Wälchli, B. & Sjöberg, A. 2024. A law of meaning. Linguistic Typology at the Crossroads 4(2). pp. 1‑71. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2785‑0943/18920
Sjöberg, A. 2023. Knowledge predication – A semantic typology. Stockholm University. [Doctoral thesis]
Saxena, A., Sjöberg, A., & Sagar, P. 2022. The sound system of Kanashi. In Saxena, A. and Borin, L. (eds.) Synchronic and diachronic aspects of Kanashi, pp 13‑52. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110703245‑002
Saxena, A., Sjöberg, A., Sagar, P., & Borin, L. 2022. Linguistic variation: A challenge for describing the phonology of Kanashi. In Saxena, A. and Borin, L. (eds.) Synchronic and diachronic aspects of Kanashi, pp. 131–144. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110703245‑004
Sjöberg, A. 2026. Knowledge predication in use - A cross-linguistic perspective. Diversity Linguistic Days. Gotha, Germany.
Bondarenko, A. & Sjöberg, A. 2025. Truth in Slavic: a parallel corpus perspective. 20th Annual Meeting of the Slavic Linguistic Society. Verona, Italy
Sjöberg, A. 2024. Patterns of motivation in the lexicon of cognition. 15th Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology. Singapore
Sjöberg, A. 2024. Knowledge predication - a semantic typology. 15th Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology. Singapore. [Invited plenary]
Sjöberg, A., Bondarenko, A., & Panova, A. 2024. Extended functions of ’truth’‑words. 57th Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europae. Helsinki, Finland
Sjöberg, A. 2022. Toward a semantic map of knowing. 14th Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology. Austin, USA
Sjöberg, A. 2021. Knowing Facts and Knowing People: A Cross‑Linguistic Trawl. European Society for Philosophy and Psychology. Leipzig, Germany.
Sjöberg, A. & Saxena, A. 2019. The Use of the Copula in Non‑Copular Constructions in South Asia: An Exploratory Study. 13th Conference of the Association for Linguistic Typology. Pavia, Italy. [Poster]
Sjöberg, A., & Saxena, A. 2019. The Use of the Copula in Non‑Copular Constructions in South Asia: An Exploratory Study. 52nd Annual Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea. Leipzig, Germany. [Poster]
Saxena, A., Sjöberg, A. & Sagar, P. 2018. Layers of contact and linguistic variation: challenges for describing the phonology of Kanashi. Fieldwork: methods and theory. Gothenburg, Sweden.
Saxena, A., Sjöberg, A. & Sagar, P. 2018. Some Typologically Interesting Features of the Kanashi Sound System. 53rd Linguistics Colloquium. Odense, Denmark.
Saxena, A. & Sjöberg, A. 2017. On word formation and prosody in Kanashi: some preliminary observations. 23rd Himalayan Languages Symposium. Tezpur, India