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ISLE Research Network

Search for research themes

Members of ISLE can choose to create a brief profile of their current research activities for publication on our website. Each profile may contain up to 5 'themes', and each theme may include any number of keywords.

We aim for this page to be a showcase of research in English Linguistics. It will enable members to get in touch with others working on related research topics.

Use your own keywords or choose ISLE member / Linguist List keywords:

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(Socio)Linguistic Effects across Political Borders

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Long neglected as "unimportant" variation, political borders that cut across older dialect zones reveal interesting linguistic and sociolinguistic features that are very "real" for speakers

Broadcast English

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I study the role of broadcast English on standardization of spoken language; in particular the role of the Advisory Committee on Spoken English of the BBC.

Standardization of the English language

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The topic of my research is the history of normative English grammar, particularly its contacts with contemporary philosophy of language, rhetoric and poetics.

  • Expires after: 01-01-2525
  • Keywords: Standardization,Historical Linguistics,Historical Sociolinguistics,Language And Culture,Prescriptivism,Grammar Writing

19c grammars and grammar writing

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I investigate British and American grammars, grammar writing and their influence on language change of the time, based on corpus studies and my collection of nineteenth-century grammars (CNG).

Variation and Change in English

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Grammatical and phonological variation in past and present varieties of English; functional conditioning; based on linguistic corpora and text databases; with a focus on quantitative methodologies.

  • Expires after: 31-12-2030
  • Keywords: Alternations,Constraints On Variation,Corpus Linguistics,Diachronic Variation,Historical Linguistics,Language Change,Phonology,Quantitative Methods,Variationist Linguistics,World Englishes,Grammar

Sociolinguistic typology

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What is the diachronic effect of shifts in population makeup on language structure? And how can this be investigated in historical corpora?

  • Website: https://www.ling.uni-konstanz.de/en/walkden/starfish/
  • Expires after: 01-07-2030
  • Keywords: Sociolinguistics,First And Second Language Acquisition,Historical Linguistics,Corpus Linguistics,L2,Historical Syntax,History Of English,Diachronic Linguistics,Language Change,Language Contact,Syntactic Complexity

Language contact and grammatical change in early English

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How much is early English syntax shaped by contact with Celtic and Norse? My Konstanz inaugural lecture (see link) gives an overview of some of my work on this so far.

Verb-second

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When the verb does and doesn't come second.

  • Website: walkden.space/research.html
  • Expires after: 01-07-2028
  • Keywords: Syntax,Historical Linguistics,Corpus Linguistics,Old English,Middle English,Historical Syntax,Grammar

Null subjects

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Is the subject expressed, or not?

  • Website: walkden.space/research.html
  • Expires after: 01-07-2028
  • Keywords: Syntax,Corpus Linguistics,Historical Linguistics,Old English,Historical Syntax,Grammar

Letter writing in Late Modern English

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Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers. A window onto eighteenth-century life, literature and language

  • Website: https://www.maryhamiltonpapers.alc.manchester.ac.uk/about/
  • Expires after: 31-12-2027
  • Keywords: Grammar Writing,Historical Sociolinguistics,Language Attitudes,Diachronic Variation,Prescriptivism,Standardization,Variationist Linguistics,Corpus Linguistics,Historical Correspondence,Pragmatics,Social Network Analysis,Socio-historical Linguistics

Have a bite, have a bash, have a taste and a smell : a study of atypical light verb constructions in Modern and Contemporary English

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PhD thesis

  • Website: https://theses.fr/2020TOUR2024
  • Expires after: 31-12-2027
  • Keywords: Light Verb Constructions,Semantics,Syntax,Construction Grammar,Analogy,Historical Linguistics

Social Network Analysis (with Tino Oudesluijs)

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Using both letters between individuals and mentions in letters and diaries to reconstruct social network

Uses of the auxiliary be in The Mary Hamilton Papers (with Tino Oudesluijs)

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BE is the auxiliary undergoing most change in the second half of the 18th century. Among structures of interest are the passival, the progressive in main clauses, untensed use of BE as semi-modal.

Discourses of Religion in early modern Britain: lexicons of controversy and conflict

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What are the ‘keywords’ to be found in anglophone works of religious controversy, instruction and devotion during the medieval and early modern periods?

  • Expires after: 01-08-2025
  • Keywords: Corpus Linguistics,Diachronic Linguistics,English Historical Linguistics,Cultural Linguistics,History Of Scots,Lexicology