Centre for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics
Research Groupings and Collaborations
Semantics and Pragmatics
Diane Blakemore is currently working with research students on relevance theoretic approaches to pragmatic stylistics, Diane is part of an informal collaboration of researchers and students working on linguistic pragmatic approaches to style.
She is also one of a group of researchers interested in the relationship between discourse, pragmatics and prosody.
Diane Blakemore and Fabrizio Gallai work on discourse markers from the point of view of language variation and change, semantics, pragmatics and their role in translation and interpreting.
Ivan Garcia-Alvarez and Diane Blakemore are members of a group of researchers in semantics and pragmatic working in the north-west of England who organize an annual one-day conference on research in semantics and pragmatics – SpinFest. For further information, contact Ivan Garcia-Alvarez
Funded Projects
Style and Translation
(Centre for Translation and Interpreting)
A number of researchers from linguistics and translation studies are working on the challenges posed by style and poetic language for translation. In particular, a number of students supervised by Diane Blakemore (Linguistics), Sameh Hanna (Translation Studies) and Myriam Salama-Carr (Translation studies) are working on the interpretation of similes, the translation of metaphor and experimental literature.
Arabic Dialectology and Semitic Linguistics
Two researchers from Arabic and Linguistics work on aspects of Arabic dialectology and Semitic linguistics. Janet Watson and Domenyk Eades are currently working with Miranda Morris from University of St Andrews on the documentation of the Modern South Arabian languages spoken in Oman and Yemen, a three-year project funded by the Leverhulme Trust. Janet has been collaborating with Dr Munira Al-Azraqi from King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, Dr Barry Heselwood from the University of Leeds, and Dr Samia Naim from LACITO-CNRS, Villejuif, on emphatic laterals in south-west Saudi Arabia.
Janet and Domenyk are part of a collaboration of academics and students working on Arabic dialectology and associated with the Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe . AIDA conferences are held every other year. The last one was held in Italy (March 2011).
In 2004 – 2007 Janet was involved in a project on Arabic Urban Vernaculars funded by the EU and headed by Dr Catherine Miller, University of Aix-en-Provence. A conference on Arabic urban vernaculars was held in Aix-en-Provence in October 2004 and a book, Arabic in the City, published by Routledge in 2007.
Together with Professor Geoffrey Khan, Janet and Domenyk launched the UK Semitic Linguistics Group at the University of Cambridge in June 2012. Five conferences and workshops on aspects of Semitic morphology and syntax have been held in recent years at Oslo (2005), Istanbul (2005), Salford (2007, 2008, 2010, 2011), and Cambridge (2012).
Funded Projects
Language Pedagogy
Huw Jarvis and Sian Etherington are all working with students on TESOL-based language pedagogy. Areas of investigation currently cover extensive reading, learner autonomy and the role of feedback in written English.
Huw is also responsible for bringing together the work of a wide variety of TESOL-based researchers through a series of webcasts.
Funded Projects
