糖心探花

My interests in research and teaching are in the areas of political discourse analysis, (discourse) semantics, lexicology and word formation, pragmatics, (critical) discourse studies, sociolinguistics and cross-linguistic comparative language studies, as well as corpus-assisted methodologies.

I studied the use of silence as a means of communication, and how people make sense of silence and absence of communication especially in the public sphere. In 2013, I published a monograph “Silence and Concealment in Political Discourse” (John Benjamins) and in 2018 a co-edited volume “Exploring Silence and Absence in Discourse: Empirical Approaches” (Palgrave Macmillan).

I am also particularly interested in metalanguage and metadiscourse. Discourses about language use can help us explore language ideologies, i.e., people’s ideas about what language does and how it should (not) be used in various domains. These ideas need to be contextualised by asking whether and which agendas may be pushed when language is put out for debate.

Current debates over 'taboos', 'freedom of speech', 'silent majorities', and minorities gaining a 'voice' reflect societal norms that favour communication and problematise silence. I am undertaking a research project together with Prof Theo Jung (University of Halle-Wittenberg) funded by the Leverhulme Trust, that investigates the historical development of such norms from a bottom-up perspective. We are studying British and German diaries written between 1840 and 1990, focussing on ordinary people's reflections of communicative opportunities and constraints, and observing the communicative norms underlying such reflections as well as their change over time in the light of broader socio-cultural developments. 

My interest in debates about language and how it serves to construct communities and identity links with my Final Year module where we look at debates about the German language in relation to national identity over time.

Like many of my colleagues, I contribute to peer review for publishers, journals and research funding councils nationally and internationally, I supervise and examine PhD research students, organise or convene academic events, and present my research in talks and publications.