- University of Lausanne, English Department, Faculty Memberadd
This paper offers a qualitative and quantitative study of the development of periphrastic tense and aspect constructions in the Irish language. It is argued that the modern periphrastic perfect construction arose to fill a gap left in the... more
This paper offers a qualitative and quantitative study of the development of periphrastic tense and aspect constructions in the Irish language. It is argued that the modern periphrastic perfect construction arose to fill a gap left in the tense marking system by the generalization of the former perfect to preterite senses. It is suggested that this development was facilitated by the evolution of a periphrastic, prepositional progressive, which grammaticalized to specify the aspectual differences in continuous aspect marking. A similar development is envisaged for the comparable, but not identical, Welsh aspectual system.
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This contribution investigates the attitudes of teacher training students towards the use of corpus linguistics in English language teaching at school. To do so, a questionnaire study has been carried out amongst teacher training students... more
This contribution investigates the attitudes of teacher training students towards the use of corpus linguistics in English language teaching at school. To do so, a questionnaire study has been carried out amongst teacher training students attending English-classes involving corpus-based approaches at a German and a Swiss university. Asked about their perceptions of advantages and disadvantages of the use of corpus linguistics in classroom teaching, the sixty-five participating students valued the availability of large amounts of authentic materials and its comparatively easy availability. While some respondents stress the possibility for corpus linguistic approaches to use more varied teaching methods in the classroom and to allow pupils to carry out their own research projects, a considerable number of respondents are highly critical of the complexity of corpus use in class, the perceived difficulties of using corpora and query tools for the pupils and the investment of time required of the teachers when preparing corpus materials for classroom use. This chapter calls for a more extensive use of indirect corpus methods in the classroom, and for corpus-based teaching materials to be made available to teacher training students.
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“To boldly go where no man has gone before”, popularized by the science fiction series Star Trek, has provided an iconic example for the use of split infinitives. From its introduction, the series may have paved the way for the broader... more
“To boldly go where no man has gone before”, popularized by the science fiction series Star Trek, has provided an iconic example for the use of split infinitives. From its introduction, the series may have paved the way for the broader use of split infinitives in contemporary, informal English in spite of prescriptive grammars shunning the structure. The current qualitative and quantitative study is based on the general diachronic Corpus of Historical American English (COHA) and a specific telecinematic corpus (TV Corpus). It aims to trace genre influence in the use of split infinitives in sci-fi and television discourses. It asks whether the use of split infinitives in informal genres can be correlated with its prominent use in the Star Trek series. The current study finds that both raw and relative frequencies increase in the wake of Star Trek, as well as the probability of choice. Yet the clearest influence from Star Trek stems from the spread of the iconic to boldly go phrase.
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This study investigates how 1) school teachers in the Ruhr Valley in Germany deal with the linguistic integration of recently arrived immigrants in school and 2) how the school-age immigrants experience their linguistic integration in the... more
This study investigates how 1) school teachers in the Ruhr Valley in Germany deal with the linguistic integration of recently arrived immigrants in school and 2) how the school-age immigrants experience their linguistic integration in the schools. In order to do so, the study uses semi-structured interviews with teachers as well as questionnaire studies with the students. The study finds that the teachers prioritize methods that are known from recently evolved concepts of translanguaging and allow the use of multilingual approaches. The students seem to value these approaches. Overall, they appear very motivated to acquire the necessary language skills to join the regular classes quickly. For this, exposure to the German target language both inside and outside school are valued.
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This paper introduces first work on the project Linguistic Inclusion of School Age Immigrants in Ruhr Valley Schools. The project addresses the question of how multilingual and multicultural immigrants are integrated into the Ruhr Valley... more
This paper introduces first work on the project Linguistic Inclusion of School Age Immigrants in Ruhr Valley Schools. The project addresses the question of how multilingual and multicultural immigrants are integrated into the Ruhr Valley school system, located in northwestern Germany. The current paper reflects on which strategies teachers use for the first linguistic inclusion of recent immigrants in integration classes in the Ruhr Valley. As data collection method we use the sociolinguistic interview. The results show that even though full immersion into the German language is the ultimate goal of integration classes, the teachers rely on multiple methods also known in the translanguaging framework in order to facilitate the integration of these vulnerable students.
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This Introduction to the Special Issue describes the research background to Irish English Corpus Pragmatics. It also gives a brief overview of the papers accepted for the Special Issue. These papers introduce new approaches to the field... more
This Introduction to the Special Issue describes the research background to Irish English Corpus Pragmatics. It also gives a brief overview of the papers accepted for the Special Issue. These papers introduce new approaches to the field of Irish Corpus Pragmatics, allowing scholars to expand their methodological tool boxes in dealing with Pragmatics on the basis of corpus evidence.
Open access link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41701-022-00124-9
Open access link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41701-022-00124-9
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This contribution investigates the attitudes of teacher training students towards the use of corpus linguistics in English language teaching at school. To do so, a questionnaire study has been carried out amongst teacher training students... more
This contribution investigates the attitudes of teacher training students towards the use of corpus linguistics in English language teaching at school. To do so, a questionnaire study has been carried out amongst teacher training students attending English-classes involving corpus-based approaches at a German and a Swiss university. Asked about their perceptions of advantages and disadvantages of the use of corpus linguistics in classroom teaching, the sixty-five participating students valued the availability of large amounts of authentic materials and its comparatively easy availability. While some respondents stress the possibility for corpus linguistic approaches to use more varied teaching methods in the classroom and to allow pupils to carry out their own research projects, a considerable number of respondents are highly critical of the complexity of corpus use in class, the perceived difficulties of using corpora and query tools for the pupils and the investment of time required of the teachers when preparing corpus materials for classroom use. This chapter calls for a more extensive use of indirect corpus methods in the classroom, and for corpus-based teaching materials to be made available to teacher training students.
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Working from the perspective of Leech’s (2014) modification to Blum-Kulka et al.’s (1989) approach to classifying requests, this study investigates how far impositive directive speech acts are found in spoken Irish English, a variety of... more
Working from the perspective of Leech’s (2014) modification to Blum-Kulka et al.’s (1989) approach to classifying requests, this study investigates how far impositive directive speech acts are found in spoken Irish English, a variety of English which is well-known for avoiding face threats. The study further investigates how these impositive speech acts are influenced by the genre of the spoken category. In order to do so, this study uses data from the southern component of SPICE-Ireland, a pragmatically annotated corpus of spoken Irish English, and analyses data from six different genres of spoken conversation: Broadcast discussions, Business transactions, Classroom discussions, Face-to-face conversations, Legal presentations and Telephone conversations. These genres are classified in terms of the concepts of ‘language of distance’ versus ‘language of immediacy’. In the data, impositive strategies are frequently found, particularly so in private settings of ‘language of immediacy’. In the more public and formal settings of ‘language of distance’, by contrast, indirect strategies are more prominent.
Open Access link: https://rdcu.be/cOVT2
Open Access link: https://rdcu.be/cOVT2
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This Introduction to the Special Issue describes the research background to Irish English Corpus Pragmatics. It also gives a brief overview of the papers accepted for the Special Issue. These papers introduce new approaches to the field... more
This Introduction to the Special Issue describes the research background to Irish English Corpus Pragmatics. It also gives a brief overview of the papers accepted for the Special Issue. These papers introduce new approaches to the field of Irish Corpus Pragmatics, allowing scholars to expand their methodological tool boxes in dealing with Pragmatics on the basis of corpus evidence.
Open Access Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41701-022-00124-9
Open Access Link: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41701-022-00124-9
Research Interests: Pragmatics, Corpus Linguistics, Irish English, Cross-cultural pragmatics, and Narratology Literariness Literary Linguistics Stylistics and Pedagogy Critical Discourse Analysis Gender and Writing Literary Translation Studies Lingusitics and Philosophy Metaphor Cognition Pragmatics Text Linguistics Corpus Stylistics
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The study in hand investigates the impact of social status on the use and change of pragmatic formulae in historical varieties of English. The study asks which leavetaking formulae are used between writers of equal social status in... more
The study in hand investigates the impact of social status on the use and change of pragmatic formulae in historical varieties of English. The study asks which leavetaking formulae are used between writers of equal social status in varieties of English in the later 18th century. Working on a corpus of letters compiled from two subsets of letters each from 18th-century Scottish and Irish English, the study illustrates pragmatic change on the basis of the investigation of leavetakings involving the servant formula. By doing so, the study also helps to widen the hitherto predominating narrow focus on mainly English English. The study shows that the use of formulae is situationally dependant. It suggests that pragmatic change takes place amongst writers of equal social status in the private domain, which then leads to the use of such formulae in the public domain and to the use between writers of different status groups.
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This paper investigates the attested pragmatic uses of would in selected spoken and written components of ICE Ireland. Different uses are discerned and the prominence of would as a marker of tentativeness, particularly in the spoken... more
This paper investigates the attested pragmatic uses of would in selected spoken and written components of ICE Ireland. Different uses are discerned and the prominence of would as a marker of tentativeness, particularly in the spoken genres investigated, is noted. Innovative use of modal categories ties in with the assumption that change in the use of modal verbs happens in spoken genres, and it suggests that the use of would as a marker of tentativeness could be a rising use pattern in Irish English. Comparisons of frequency with research on other varieties of English show that some usage patterns differ from patterns so far observed in British English and can be compared to select Outer Circle varieties. These deviant uses in non-past non-hypothetical contexts seem to be due to an extension of tentative marking rather than a lack of distinction between modal would and future or volitional will marking.
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In the context of this volume, which focusses on the position of English in the context of multilingual Switzerland, the characteristics of English as an international language and lingua franca are discussed and its position in teaching... more
In the context of this volume, which focusses on the position of English in the context of multilingual Switzerland, the characteristics of English as an international language and lingua franca are discussed and its position in teaching and education. This introductory chapter provides background information to contextualize the contributions in the volume. To do so, it outlines key developments in research into English in Switzerland and sketches the multilingual situation in Switzerland. It then proceeds to give an overview of the development of English as a world language and the domains of its use in Switzerland. This contribution argues that, like the world-wide spread of English, the use of English in Switzerland is now motivated both by pressure from international business and by the demands of language users.
The paper investigates periphrastic progressives, perfects and futures in the Irish language. The guiding research question was how periphrastic tense and aspect constructions grammaticalised in the Irish language, and secondly, whether... more
The paper investigates periphrastic progressives, perfects and futures in the Irish language. The guiding research question was how periphrastic tense and aspect constructions grammaticalised in the Irish language, and secondly, whether the same development can be found in a closely related language, Welsh. The approach employed in the paper is largely empirical. The data has been manually extracted from written corpora of Old- and Middle Irish texts, consisting of about 120,000 and 130,000 words respectively, as well as from a Middle Welsh sample corpus consisting of about 42,000 words. The material is discussed both qualitatively and quantitatively. The Celtic languages Irish and Welsh have a morphological division between habitual and punctual verbal aspect. Both modern languages have also developed periphrastic progressive constructions consisting of the verb ‘BE’, a spatial preposition ‘at’ and a verbal noun, the Celtic equivalent to the infinitive in other languages, e.g.: 1. ...
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Les études individuelles dans cette revue ont montré diverses influences sur la langue et la culture en Irlande au cours des siècles de son développement documenté.
Abstract: Among Celticists it is well known that suddenly encountered new characters in a story/sagatext in Old Irish can be introduced using the definite article, as in: Ba dorchae ind adaig.[...]. Co n-accae ara chind in fer, 7 leth a... more
Abstract: Among Celticists it is well known that suddenly encountered new characters in a story/sagatext in Old Irish can be introduced using the definite article, as in: Ba dorchae ind adaig.[...]. Co n-accae ara chind in fer, 7 leth a chind fair [...].'Dark was the night. He sees a ...
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Working from the perspective of Leech’s (The Pragmatics of Politeness. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014) modification to Blum-Kulka et al.’s (Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ, Ablex, 1989) approach to... more
Working from the perspective of Leech’s (The Pragmatics of Politeness. Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2014) modification to Blum-Kulka et al.’s (Cross-cultural pragmatics: Requests and apologies. Norwood, NJ, Ablex, 1989) approach to classifying requests, this study investigates how far impositive directive speech acts are found in spoken Irish English, a variety of English which is well-known for avoiding face threats. The study further investigates how these impositive speech acts are influenced by the genre of the spoken category. In order to do so, this study uses data from the southern component of SPICE-Ireland, a pragmatically annotated corpus of spoken Irish English, and analyses data from six different genres of spoken conversation: Broadcast discussions, Business transactions, Classroom discussions, Face-to-face conversations, Legal presentations and Telephone conversations. These genres are classified in terms of the concepts of ‘language of distance’ versus ‘language o...
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This Introduction to the Special Issue describes the research background to Irish English Corpus Pragmatics. It also gives a brief overview of the papers accepted for the Special Issue. These papers introduce new approaches to the field... more
This Introduction to the Special Issue describes the research background to Irish English Corpus Pragmatics. It also gives a brief overview of the papers accepted for the Special Issue. These papers introduce new approaches to the field of Irish Corpus Pragmatics, allowing scholars to expand their methodological tool boxes in dealing with Pragmatics on the basis of corpus evidence.
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In the texts connteted to the Ulster Cycle of Tales we find a number of references to snow. This study investigates descriptions of heavy snowfall and bad weather conditions in Ulster Cycle tales to determine the function of the... more
In the texts connteted to the Ulster Cycle of Tales we find a number of references to snow. This study investigates descriptions of heavy snowfall and bad weather conditions in Ulster Cycle tales to determine the function of the description of such phenomena.
It finds that snow was a not infrequent phenomenon in early Irish life. Yet, mention of this type of natural phenomenon appears to used as a narrative instrument and it is used to delay or otherwise influence the development of the tale. Natural forces are controlled by higher powers and may connive with heroes or turn against them.
It finds that snow was a not infrequent phenomenon in early Irish life. Yet, mention of this type of natural phenomenon appears to used as a narrative instrument and it is used to delay or otherwise influence the development of the tale. Natural forces are controlled by higher powers and may connive with heroes or turn against them.
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ABSTRACT This paper provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of syntactic and semantic factors present in light verb constructions as compared to the use of verbal simplexes in order to determine predictors for light verb use. The... more
ABSTRACT This paper provides a qualitative and quantitative analysis of syntactic and semantic factors present in light verb constructions as compared to the use of verbal simplexes in order to determine predictors for light verb use. The data set consists of letters from the 1780s component of the Corpus of Irish English Correspondence (CORIECOR). Data has been extracted semi-automatically using AntConc and processed with R. A logistic regression of the results shows that modification of the predicate noun is the strongest predictor of light verb use in the data set, followed by semantic and aspectual differences between light verb constructions and simplexes.
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Since the Middle Ages, the linguistic landscapes of Ireland have clearly undergone massive changes, of which the most obvious one is the rise of English and the concomitant decline of Irish. Generally, in situations where different... more
Since the Middle Ages, the linguistic landscapes of Ireland have clearly undergone massive changes, of which the most obvious one is the rise of English and the concomitant decline of Irish. Generally, in situations where different population groups, who are speakers of different linguistic varieties, come into contact, it is the language of the socio-economically more powerful group that will influence the language of the less powerful population group (e.g. Crystal 2002, Thomason 2001: 66, 77, Hickey 2010: 8). As far as the linguistic situation in Ireland is concerned, Crowley (2000: 1) observes that the relations between the two main languages of Ireland, English and Irish, are as complicated as the political relations between these two communities. In order to trace the linguistic influences of relative socio-economic differences, the lexicon of a language constitutes a good source. The language of the less powerful linguistic variety will typically incorporate a large number of loanwords from the more powerful variety, as the vocabulary is ‘an open class with a high degree of awareness by speakers’ (Hickey 2010: 8). In the following we will consider statements about population groups as well as semantic fields of loanwords taken from the languages in contact.
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Caint Ros Muc, edited by Arndt Wigger, consists of two volumes. The first volume besides the text contains an introduction, explaining the background of the collection, an interview series conceived by Hans Hartmann together with Thomás... more
Caint Ros Muc, edited by Arndt Wigger, consists of two volumes. The first volume besides the text contains an introduction, explaining the background of the collection, an interview series conceived by Hans Hartmann together with Thomás de Bhaldraithe, and audio-taped in 1964. In total 6 areas in the Cois Fharrige part of Conamara have been considered in the original collection of the data. The Cama part was edited in 1996 by Ó hUiginn et al.1 Caint Ros Muc is based on the edited transcript of more than 10 hours of recordings from Ros Muc, including six Speakers and one interviewer. The material is spontaneously uttered and not ‘corrected’ by the editor. The language is Irish throughout without translations. The stated aim of the volume is to provide scholars with a corpus of South Conamara Irish for linguistic study, and to provide a collection of social history. The topics discussed during the conversations centre around local history and folklore and local people in living memory up to the 1960ies. The speakers are identified in each case. Phonetic transcription of words and phrases is provided in noteworthy cases. The second volume, Foclóir, is a word Index rather than a dictionary. All tokens of a lexeme are given under their headword, the place of attestation in the corpus and also the informants who provided them. Additionally there is a table of speaker distribution and the phonetic transcription of the headword and its token frequency. Indexes of the people and places mentioned have been added as well as of the English words used. This edition will naturally provide data for the linguist interested in lexicon, phonology and syntax of Conamara Irish. Also sociologists and folkBesprechungen und Anzeigen 282
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Expressive speech acts are one of the five basic categories of speech acts identified by Searle (1976). Expressives remain underresearched, though select categories of expressive speech acts, especially offering thanks and compliments,... more
Expressive speech acts are one of the five basic categories of speech acts identified by Searle (1976). Expressives remain underresearched, though select categories of expressive speech acts, especially offering thanks and compliments, have received more extensive attention. An overall classification of expressive speech acts on the basis of corpus data has not yet been carried out. The current study provides a first survey of different types of expressive speech acts on the basis of three categories of spoken Irish English of different levels of formality: broadcast discussion, classroom discussion and face-to-face interaction. The data are extracted from the pragmatically tagged SPICE-Ireland corpus, a member of the International Corpus of English-family of corpora. The aim of the current study is to offer an overview and classification of expressives in the corpus material. Eight distinct subcategories of expressive speech acts are identified in this study. These categories are a...
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This study implements an automated parser-based approach to the investigation of light verb constructions. The database consisting of ICE-GB and ICE-IRE is used to obtain qualitative and quantitative results on the use of light verb... more
This study implements an automated parser-based approach to the investigation of light verb constructions. The database consisting of ICE-GB and ICE-IRE is used to obtain qualitative and quantitative results on the use of light verb structures. The study explains and evaluates the steps employed to optimize parser output in detecting open lists of light verb constructions. It discusses the qualitative usage differences of these structures in the data between the two varieties and finds that ICE-GB favours fewer high frequency light verbs while ICE-IRE contains more diverse lower frequency light verbs and more passives. Overall, counts of light verb constructions are considerably higher than previously assumed. The projected counts suggest that attestations of light verb constructions will increase considerably if the search is not restricted to certain high-frequency light verbs as is typically done in studies employing manual or semi-automatic approaches to data collection.
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Das leitende Prinzip der Linzer Keltologentagung 2005 war, dass „Keltologie “weder eine Verlängerung der Indogermanistik noch eine solche der Ur-und Frühgeschichte sein soll. Sie soll in möglichst hohem Ausmaß im eigentlichen Wortsinn... more
Das leitende Prinzip der Linzer Keltologentagung 2005 war, dass „Keltologie “weder eine Verlängerung der Indogermanistik noch eine solche der Ur-und Frühgeschichte sein soll. Sie soll in möglichst hohem Ausmaß im eigentlichen Wortsinn „integrativ “und „ ...
Research Interests: Periphrasis and Tempus
In the texts connected to the Ulster Cycle we find a number of references to snow. Given the climatic conditions in present day Ireland, where the winters tend to be wet, but the temperatures rarely reach or fall below freezing point, the... more
In the texts connected to the Ulster Cycle we find a number of references to snow. Given the climatic conditions in present day Ireland, where the winters tend to be wet, but the temperatures rarely reach or fall below freezing point, the descriptions of snow reaching up to the girdles of men (e. g. LL 34799 co rranic co formnu fer) are unusual, perhaps even unnatural. The references to snow in the literary texts connected to the Ulster Cycle are not cases of casual remarks on the weather in general, as the prosewriters of the time did not typically inform us of whether it was a pleasant morning or whether there might not have been a light breeze on such and such a day. Mention of this type of natural phenomenon is made, but this is not likely to be casual and noncommittal. Rather the examples mentioning snow, and indeed other weather conditions as well, appear to be intentional and well-placed comments with some direct impact on narrative dynamics. In the following we will distingu...
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This paper showed that the arrival of heavy snow or mist is a feature often employed in Medieval Irish and Welsh literature. Inclement weather conditions are consciously used by redactors of Medieval Celtic texts in order to indicate an... more
This paper showed that the arrival of heavy snow or mist is a feature often employed in Medieval Irish and Welsh literature. Inclement weather conditions are consciously used by redactors of Medieval Celtic texts in order to indicate an influence of super-human powers on the course of events.On the one hand, the elements may impose a narrative pause on the agents, and cause a turn-around in the direction of the narrative. On the other hand, they are repeatedly found to connive with the protagonists in the narrative against an enemy.
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uu.se. Publications. ...
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This study investigates in how far Schneider’s Dynamic Model and the Extra- and Intra-territorial Forces Model can explain the rise of the English language in Ireland. The study uses a largely qualitative approach with data drawn from... more
This study investigates in how far Schneider’s Dynamic Model and the Extra- and Intra-territorial Forces Model can explain the rise of the English language in Ireland. The study uses a largely qualitative approach with data drawn from historical texts and corpora. It is argued that the English language, in spite of the strong position of the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman settlers, was a minority language potentially under threat of extinction at the beginning of the early Modern Period and developed into the de facto first language in Ireland due to continued extra- and intra-territorial pressure. Irish language speaking population groups nevertheless retained sufficient linguistic influence to allow for some language contact features to observable in the resulting contact variety of English.
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Review of The Celtic Englishes IV. Ed. Tristram, H.L.C. Potsdam: Universitatsverlag Potsdam. 2006.
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Support verb constructions, amongst others also called verbo-nominal constructions, expanded predicate or complex verb, paraphrase simple verbs by using complex predicates, like 'to think' versus 'to have a think'. In many... more
Support verb constructions, amongst others also called verbo-nominal constructions, expanded predicate or complex verb, paraphrase simple verbs by using complex predicates, like 'to think' versus 'to have a think'. In many cases these structures illustrate special semantic or aspectual traits not found in the corresponding simple verb construction, e.g. 'he concludes' versus• He reached that conclusion fairly late (Ingressive).These types of structure can be found in various language groups and a number of different functions have been attributed to them. Amongst these are change of sentence structure and change of stress pattern, as well as creation of an obligatory object for transitive verbs for English.This paper examined Irish material collected from a corpus of Old- and Modern Irish texts in comparison with the extant descriptions of English and Basque material and found that similar functions are observable for the Irish language, but that also the cre...
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This study provides a survey of the constructions of verbal nouns with prepositions that are used in a significant way, such as creating syntactic and semantic contexts not found with ordinary nouns. Particular emphasis is placed on... more
This study provides a survey of the constructions of verbal nouns with prepositions that are used in a significant way, such as creating syntactic and semantic contexts not found with ordinary nouns. Particular emphasis is placed on constructions serving to denote tense, mood and aspect. Also some syntactic contexts involving verbal nouns as objects are examined. This material has been collected primarily from Old and Middle Irish texts, but some reference is made to Modern Irish where this seems helpful in order to illustrate developments. The observations made are compared to findings on the use of verbal nouns in a closely related language, Middle Welsh, and an unrelated, non-Indo-European language, Basque. The discussion of the Medieval Irish material is followed by the evaluation of an illustrative corpus of Middle Welsh data and available descriptions of Welsh verbal nouns. Parallel constructions in these Insular Celtic languages are then brought together in order to assess wh...
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Present habitual marking [in Irish English] has been investigated and described by numerous researchers over the years. Amongst these are Henry (1957), Harris (1986), Kallen (1989), Filppula (1999), Fiess (2003) and Hickey (2007).... more
Present habitual marking [in Irish English] has been investigated and described by numerous researchers over the years. Amongst these are Henry (1957), Harris (1986), Kallen (1989), Filppula (1999), Fiess (2003) and Hickey (2007). Throughout this paper we will use aspectual terminology which follows the classification of Bybee, Perkins and Pagliuca (1994: 125–75). Thus we can distinguish between verb phrases that overtly mark an ongoing or habitual internal temporal constituency, i.e. the imperfective, in the verbal category, and those that do not overtly mark imperfectives. The primary division within the imperfective paradigm according to both Bybee et al. and to Comrie (1976) is that of progressive, i.e. ongoing action, versus habitual, i.e repeated action. Progressive events are commonly taken to be ongoing for a period of time and are typically expressed by dynamic verbs. Stative verbs may also denote events that take place over a longer period of time, but in contrast to dynam...
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Support verb constructions is one of the terms used to denote complex predicates, which contain a verb of general semantic content, like have, take, make give or do, and an object typically derived from a verb, as in He gives a talk every... more
Support verb constructions is one of the terms used to denote complex predicates, which contain a verb of general semantic content, like have, take, make give or do, and an object typically derived from a verb, as in He gives a talk every Monday evening. Different functions have been described for these structures in English, including change of sentence structure and stress patterns, as well as creation of an obligatory object for transitive verb, have been attributed to them[1]. Their origin and development is still disputed and the possibility of influence of Celtic languages has been mooted repeatedly[2], lately e.g. by Klemola (2002)[3] and McWhorter (2006)[4]. Even though similar constructions also exist in the Irish language, no previous investigations have been carried out in this area. The present paper proposes to address the research question when the use of do plus non-finite verbal forms developed in the Irish language, and how its usage compares to the documented evolu...
This introduction to Early Irish literature is intended for students who are beginning their studies of Early Irish Literature, or of Celtic literatures and/or languages in general. It would also like to address itself to scholars of... more
This introduction to Early Irish literature is intended for students who are beginning their studies of Early Irish Literature, or of Celtic literatures and/or languages in general. It would also like to address itself to scholars of other (literary) disciplines who would like to gain a basic familiarity with the literature of early Ireland, as well as to the general interested reader. Therefore, no initial familiarity either with Ireland or with its literary heritage is expected. This textbook intends to offer a first overview of a number of basic topics in early Irish literature and can be used as an initial companion to primary reading, such as for example texts found in edited volumes of early Irish tales, or on freely accessible websites.
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This corpus-based study examines the use of support verb constructions in Old English and Old Irish. It determines in how far these constructions can be seen as a means to offer semantic specification of existing verbal expressions. The... more
This corpus-based study examines the use of support verb constructions in Old English and Old Irish. It determines in how far these constructions can be seen as a means to offer semantic specification of existing verbal expressions. The study further investigates whether support verb constructions may be employed to create periphrastic verbal expressions to denote concepts for which no simple verb exists in the language at that stage. This latter situation may particularly arise as a consequence of contact with new cultural concepts. The approach of the study is both qualitative and quantitative. It compares the use of the Old English constructions to corresponding Old Irish structures as well as to other language varieties, especially Present Day English, which has a considerably more analytic morphological structure than either of the two medieval languages.
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The volume The Celtic Englishes IV contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Colloquium on Celtic Englishes, organised by Hildegard LC Tristram at the University of Potsdam in September 2004. This final meeting in the series... more
The volume The Celtic Englishes IV contains the proceedings of the Fourth International Colloquium on Celtic Englishes, organised by Hildegard LC Tristram at the University of Potsdam in September 2004. This final meeting in the series followed earlier events in ...
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Special Issue of Corpus Pragmatics. All papers are open access @
https://link.springer.com/collections/hgcjagiaeb
https://link.springer.com/collections/hgcjagiaeb
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The volume «Language and Identity in Migration Contexts», which contains studies from different languages and migration contexts across the world, provides an excellent overview of the topic while highlighting some key elements like... more
The volume «Language and Identity in Migration Contexts», which contains studies from different languages and migration contexts across the world, provides an excellent overview of the topic while highlighting some key elements like multilingualism, societal and educational contexts, as well as forced migration. The volume will therefore be of much interest to researchers working on these topics. (Prof. Dr. Anita Auer, Université de Lausanne, Switzerland)
The contributions to this volume shed a new light on various central topics in the discourses on language, migration and identity. The continued centrality of language on identity formation processes is underlined but it is shown that language is not a defining criterion for identity formation processes of migrants, in the context of migration or for heritage speakers in all cases. However, societal contexts play an important role in identity formation and these societal contexts themselves are strongly influenced by the ideologies that are prevalent in societies and that may be perpetuated in educational contexts. In the discussion of language, identity and migration in this volume, perspectives from the Global North are enriched by perspectives of the Global South, and the impact of media influence in migration discourse is analysed.
The contributions to this volume shed a new light on various central topics in the discourses on language, migration and identity. The continued centrality of language on identity formation processes is underlined but it is shown that language is not a defining criterion for identity formation processes of migrants, in the context of migration or for heritage speakers in all cases. However, societal contexts play an important role in identity formation and these societal contexts themselves are strongly influenced by the ideologies that are prevalent in societies and that may be perpetuated in educational contexts. In the discussion of language, identity and migration in this volume, perspectives from the Global North are enriched by perspectives of the Global South, and the impact of media influence in migration discourse is analysed.
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The aim of this edited volume is to demystify corpus linguistics for use in English language teaching (ELT). It advocates the inclusion of corpus linguistics in the classroom as part of an approach to ELT in which students engage with... more
The aim of this edited volume is to demystify corpus linguistics for use in English language teaching (ELT). It advocates the inclusion of corpus linguistics in the classroom as part of an approach to ELT in which students engage with naturally occurring language. The first chapter provides a basic but essential introduction to corpus linguistics, including sections on corpora and corpus methods, and this is followed by a review of the use of corpus linguistics in ELT. Chapters on the traditional ELT strands of skills, vocabulary and grammar as well as chapters on pluricentric approaches (on language and culture, World Englishes and English as a Lingua Franca) flow naturally from the second chapter, which reports on a survey of the attitudes of trainee teacher to the use of corpus linguistics in the ELT classroom. The final two chapters show how the work of corpus linguists can benefit classroom teacher preparation, materials development and textbook writing.
This book will be of interest not only to academics in fields such as English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics, but also to educators of teacher-trainees and teacher-trainees themselves, as well as teachers who are looking for new interactive approaches to ELT.
This book will be of interest not only to academics in fields such as English Language Teaching, Applied Linguistics and Corpus Linguistics, but also to educators of teacher-trainees and teacher-trainees themselves, as well as teachers who are looking for new interactive approaches to ELT.
Research Interests:
This volume brings together work by researchers based in Switzerland and abroad investigating the position of English in multilingual Switzerland. Against the background of key developments of English as a world language and its position... more
This volume brings together work by researchers based in Switzerland and abroad investigating the position of English in multilingual Switzerland. Against the background of key developments of English as a world language and its position in Switzerland, the volume focusses on the importance of English vis-à-vis Swiss multilingualism, its characteristics as an international language and lingua franca and its position in teaching and education. In doing so it addresses questions concerning the use of English in relation to the national languages of Switzerland, fills lacunae and highlights recent developments. Contributions show that the use of English in business, public and private life in Switzerland is now motivated both by growing internationalisation and by the demands of domestic language users. While this can be argued to be the case in a number of countries world-wide, the situation of Switzerland is particular due to its multilingual status.
It is argued that it is of key importance for Switzerland to devise and implement strategies for language, status and curriculum planning of national versus non-national languages in order to secure national identity and cohesion on the one hand, and international chances and opportunities for future generation of Swiss citizens on the other hand.
It is argued that it is of key importance for Switzerland to devise and implement strategies for language, status and curriculum planning of national versus non-national languages in order to secure national identity and cohesion on the one hand, and international chances and opportunities for future generation of Swiss citizens on the other hand.
Research Interests:
Available online at: https://www.unil.ch/clsl/files/live/sites/clsl/files/shared/CLSL%2038%20Ireland%20and%20its%20Contacts%20print.pdf This volume traces various foreign influences on the languages and culture of Ireland during the... more
Available online at:
https://www.unil.ch/clsl/files/live/sites/clsl/files/shared/CLSL%2038%20Ireland%20and%20its%20Contacts%20print.pdf
This volume traces various foreign influences on the languages and culture of Ireland during the centuries of its documented history.
The legacy of the Celts on the continent is described and the linguistic implications of the term Celtic, as well as of its relatives, are discussed in relation to the people to whom they have been applied in the remote and more recent past.
Further, the linguistic and societal outcomes of cultural contacts on the island of Ireland are traced. The influence of Latin and Greek learning on early Ireland is shown and the rise of the English language in Ireland is described in its socio-cultural context. Linguistic and cultural contacts in the modern area are also considered in the discussions of how the Irish and Irish variety of English are perceived in American popular culture, and how multilinguality made use of in James Joyce’s work. Finally, the question is asked how similar or dissimilar Irish English in fact is compared to other international varieties of English.
These studies show that the cultural and linguistic influences are not only unidirectional, they form a network of influences which are largely determined by issues of prestige of the languages concerned.
Available online at:
https://www.unil.ch/clsl/files/live/sites/clsl/files/shared/CLSL%2038%20Ireland%20and%20its%20Contacts%20print.pdf
https://www.unil.ch/clsl/files/live/sites/clsl/files/shared/CLSL%2038%20Ireland%20and%20its%20Contacts%20print.pdf
This volume traces various foreign influences on the languages and culture of Ireland during the centuries of its documented history.
The legacy of the Celts on the continent is described and the linguistic implications of the term Celtic, as well as of its relatives, are discussed in relation to the people to whom they have been applied in the remote and more recent past.
Further, the linguistic and societal outcomes of cultural contacts on the island of Ireland are traced. The influence of Latin and Greek learning on early Ireland is shown and the rise of the English language in Ireland is described in its socio-cultural context. Linguistic and cultural contacts in the modern area are also considered in the discussions of how the Irish and Irish variety of English are perceived in American popular culture, and how multilinguality made use of in James Joyce’s work. Finally, the question is asked how similar or dissimilar Irish English in fact is compared to other international varieties of English.
These studies show that the cultural and linguistic influences are not only unidirectional, they form a network of influences which are largely determined by issues of prestige of the languages concerned.
Available online at:
https://www.unil.ch/clsl/files/live/sites/clsl/files/shared/CLSL%2038%20Ireland%20and%20its%20Contacts%20print.pdf
Research Interests:
The paper investigates the use of motifs from Early Irish Voyage Literature in the Kildare Poems, written in Ireland in the mid-14th century. The study identifies potential Irish literary motifs, particularly those connected to the... more
The paper investigates the use of motifs from Early Irish Voyage Literature in the Kildare Poems, written in Ireland in the mid-14th century. The study identifies potential Irish literary motifs, particularly those connected to the Otherworld as seen in early Irish voyage literature. However, the motifs are unusually explicit in their sexual imagery and may be understood as satirical. It is suggested that the exaggerated presentation of motifs from early Irish voyage literature points to a cultural distance of the author towards a culture he was well familiar with.