the LINC Network

We will be running a one-day workshop in Corpus Linguistics on February 3rd 2012 for all postgraduate students, researchers and staff who are interested. The event is free but spaces are limited. You will be required to register for each event to secure a place and you can do this using this link.

Morning workshop:

AntConc: Emma Moreton (Coventry) will explain how AntConc can be used in your own research with your own corpus/corpora. It is a simple concordance program for Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Linux but it's quite powerful. We will show you how to build your own corpus and use the features in the software to obtain concordances and collocations. Emma will demonstrate how she is using it in her PhD research.
If you want to attend and use this workshop to try AntConc on your own data, you will need to bring your own laptop and your own data. However we can provide sample data for you to use.

Afternoon workshop:

UAM CorpusTool: Geoff Thompson (Liverpool) will lead an introductory workshop on using the UAM CorpusTool. This is a really nice project package - quite easy to use and is an excellent resource. It lets you manage your research project , coding your analysis at whatever level you need (discourse, text, sentence, group, word, etc.) and it includes a nice and useful statistical package. It's theory neutral but is generally used by those working within Systemic Functional Linguistics. This workshop will take place in a computer training room so no need for your own computer although you are welcome to use your own if you prefer.

AntConc and CorpusTool are both available for free and while they do very different things, they complement each other very nicely.

Outline of the day's events:

10.30 - 12.30: Introduction to AntConc
Emma Moreton (Coventry) and Lise Fontaine (Cardiff)
room 2.03 (Humanities Building)

14.00 - 17.00: the UAM CorpusTool
Geoff Thompson (Liverpool) and Lise Fontaine (Cardiff)
Training Room 2 (Julian Hodge Building)

Contact me, if you have any questions.

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Just came across this on the Motivated Grammar blog and it's a nice discussion of some of the things were were discussing at our recent LinC seminar on selection. Read the blog entry at Motivated Grammar for some discussion of expressions such as 'a number of' and 'amount of'.

LinC is hosting the following research seminar on November 21st 2012 at 4pm in room 3.58 (Humanities Building, Cardiff University):

Investigating ideologies in Canadian corpora:

Using systemic functional grammar in cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse studies

Rachelle Freake, Queen Mary, University of London

This paper presents findings on language ideologies in French and English Canadian newspapers. French and English have important functions in Canada where they are not only official languages but also serve as markers of social difference (Bouchard, 2002; Heller, 1999; Oakes & Warren, 2007). Throughout Canadian history, beliefs and understandings of language have come to be shared across social groups, ingrained in ways of life, and significant symbols of the nation (Karim, 1993; Kymlicka, 2004; Resnick, 1994). Here, systematically shared naturalized beliefs about language shall be understood as “language ideologies”, and these are often manifested in discourse (Blommaert, 1999; Boudreau & Dubois, 2007; Woolard, 1998). Since language ideologies are socially shared, they tend to differ between social groups. When groups are largely monolingual, ideologies may be unique to speakers of a single language. Since the vast majority of Canadians speak only one of Canada’s two official languages, it is unclear whether French speakers and English speakers share language ideologies even if they ostensibly share the same society (i.e., Canada). To ascertain whether French and English speakers’ language ideologies differ, a cross-linguistic analysis is required. Since newspapers serve as a rich site for studies of language ideologies (DiGiacomo, 1999; Johnson and Ensslin, 2007), this paper takes French and English newspapers as data. The aim, then, is to highlight some of the similarities and differences between language ideologies in French and English Canada and to demonstrate how specific methods can help in this endeavour.

Cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse studies (Baker et al., 2008; Freake et al., 2011) is a methodological approach that combines corpus linguistics tools, analysis, and theory with discourse analytic tools, analysis and theory. Both of these components have strong links to systemic functional grammar (see e.g. Eggins, 2004; Halliday & Matthieson, 2004; Hunston & Thompson, 2006; Martin, 2009; Young & Harrison, 2004), and thus the method used here, too, combines corpus linguistics and discourse analysis in a Hallidayan approach. Data are drawn from 17 Canadian newspapers (12 in English; 5 in French) over a three-week period in 2009 for a total of over 7.5 million words in English and 3.5 million words in French. The method proves to be useful in the study of language ideologies in Canada for many reasons. As discussed in other research (e.g. Baker et al., 2008), the flexibility and triangulation of the combined quantitative and qualitative approach allows for increased objectivity, larger data samples, and the examination of both minority and majority trends. The addition of a cross-linguistic component further enhances the comparative and contrastive capability of the approach (cf. Johansson, 2007; Partington, 2010). Finally, grounding both of the methodological components (i.e. discourse and corpus) in a systemic functional approach ensures a shared theoretical foundation for the findings. Results from this study suggest that French and English speakers draw on some similar and some divergent language ideologies. While language ideologies in French newspapers suggest integrative evaluations of French and instrumental evaluations of English, in English, newspapers suggest only instrumental understandings of the English and French languages. These overall different evaluations of Canadian official languages may have implications for conceptualizations of and consensus on Canadian nationhood.

English determiners and the concept of 'selection'

We will be holding an informal LinC event on Thursday October 27th at 11.15 am in room 3.66. It will be an informal lunch-time discussion of English determiners and the concept of 'selection'. We will be discussing/debating Fawcett's (2007) paper entitled: Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group: an essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics. I've copied the abstract for the paper below. If anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know and I'll send you a copy of the paper so that it can be read in advance of the meeting. If you do want to join us, bring your own lunch!

Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group: an essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics
In Butler, C.S., Hidalgo Downing, R., and Lavid, J., (eds.) 2007. Functional Perspectives on Grammar and Discourse: In Honour of Angela Downing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
This paper addresses two issues, one descriptive and one methodological. It offers a description of part of the English nominal group (aka noun phrase) that greatly extends the traditional concept of the ‘determiner’. More specifically, it describes an integrated semantics and functional syntax for the quantifying and deictic determiners, based on the concept of ‘selection’. This approach has the advantage over standard representations that, when analyzing (1) five books, (2) those books and (3) five of those books, the words five, those and books expound the same element in each case. The paper then shows how this approach can be extended to eight other determiners and their associated uses of of (and, incidentally, the structure for its remaining uses). But there is equal emphasis on the methodology used to establish which of three possible types of structures should be used to model such examples, and the paper concludes by suggesting that the ultimate criteria are those of elegance in the operation of the grammar.

The research network for Linguistics in Cardiff is pleased to announce the 2nd LinC Summer school and Workshop in Systemic Functional Linguistics

Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales
September 3 – 5, 2012

Systemic Functional Linguistics and the classroom

The goal of the summer school is to offer research and training in both understanding the Systemic Functional Linguistic theory of language and applying it to educational settings. The summer school will run two parallel courses: introduction and applied.

The introduction to SFL course is ideal for people with little or no experience of SFL or those who want a refresher course. The applied course assumes a good foundation in SFL and is suited for people interested in applying SFL to educational settings. Both are suitable for professionals, students, and researchers who have an interest in learning more about Systemic Functional Linguistics and its applications.

Provisional programme to include:
Functional grammar; Phonology and intonation; Text analysis; UAM CorpusTool; Teaching writing through SFL; Use of corpora in teaching; Classroom discourse; SFL in language learning.

Instructors: Sheena Gardner, Geoff Thompson, Mick O’Donnell, Tom Bartlett, Gerard O’Grady and Lise Fontaine.

Registration is open now: Places are limited. Registration fee is £120 for the full three days.

Call for Poster Presentations
Participants at the summer school are encouraged to submit an abstract for a Poster Presentation. Accepted proposals will be presented at a poster session during the summer school. Deadline for proposal submissions is May 1st, 2012. Send abstracts of 500 words to linc-network@cf.ac.uk.

For more information: http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/linc

iGE: the interactive Grammar of English

Available for: iPhone 3 and 4, iPod Touch, iPad

UCL has launched an app for iphone, ipad and related products.

They describe iGE as a complete grammar of the English Language, specifically designed for mobile devices.

The app offers:

• An extensive glossary helps you make sense of grammatical terms.
• A guided course takes you through different concepts in turn.
• Interactive exercises and puzzles aim to reinforce learning and make it fun.

It looks very promising!

Check it out here.

We'd like to announce an upcoming LinC event to be held on Tuesday June 21 2010 in room 0.36 of the Humanities Building, Cardiff University, at 3.30 pm.
Please see below for a description of the event. It will be run as a data session. Everyone is welcome.

Transitivity patterns in post-match media interview discourse

Kieran A. File, PhD Candidate
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

My PhD research explores the language of post-match media interviews in different sports (golf, tennis, rugby and football), and in different regions of the world (Oceania and Europe). The post-match media interview has become a common part of the televised sporting experience, yet, unlike other media interview genres, it has received little research attention. My primary research goal is to conduct a genre and register analysis of the language of post-match interviews using a combination of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and ethnographic interviews with stakeholders in these interviews.

In this data session I aim to break off one aspect of my genre analysis that has been causing me several analytical issues – the grammar of experiential/ideational meaning (transitivity patterns), in particular, the types of processes speakers in this genre use to encode their experiences of the world. Analysing the grammatical patterns of ideational/experiential meaning is an important step in a genre analysis as it helps analysts explore aspects of both the field of a particular register, and to see if field related patterns exist in certain stages of a given genre. However, when analysing transitivity patterns, analysts can come across a number of ‘sticky cases’ that test the theoretical and descriptive boundaries of the theory. My aim for this session is to explore some of these ‘sticky cases’. Firstly, I will talk very briefly about the project and quickly highlight some common transitivity patterns I have identified. We will then have a look at some data together (two transcripts: one from a team sport, one from an individual sport) to explore some of the decisions I am making and see how others view some of the sticky cases evident in this data set.

Keystroke Language (and Text) Production: perspectives from cognitive and functional linguistics

23-24 May 2011 - revised dates

Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales

Supported by the Centre for Language and Communication Research and the LinC Research Network at Cardiff University

The use of keystroke logging as a methodology in language research is not a new field of study since the first Computer Keystroke Logging conference was held at Umeå University in Sweden in 2002. However to date this area of research has primarily focussed on written composition and translation studies. The KEY 2011 workshop and conference intends to broaden this perspective by extending the contributions keystroke logging can make to language production generally, including spontaneous language such as chat messaging. Its theme is to explore functional and cognitive perspectives on the use of keystroke logging in language research where the focus of interest is on the dynamic process of production rather than on the static product of language production.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Kristyan Spelman Miller (University of Winchester)
Dr Mick O’Donnell (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Wagsoft Software)

Call for papers

Papers are invited on the general theme of the conference, dealing with the use of keystroke logging in linguistic and language-related research. Presentations will be 20 minutes with 10 minutes discussion time. Papers which present work in progress or that focus on software development and methodology are also welcome. Although we will consider all contributions that relate to the main theme in general, we especially encourage papers that explore:

• Evidence of cognitive processing in electronic language production
• Corpora and the study of electronically produced language
• Language or text as dynamic process (rather than static product)
• Human-Computer Interaction as related to language and keyboard competence
• Linguistic competence (including translation competence)
• Descriptive work that enhances our understanding of electronically produced language
• Functional accounts of language production (including manual and cognitive errors)
• Methodological and/or ethical issues in the use of keystroke logging software

Abstracts

An abstract of approximately 400 words should be submitted electronically at the following webpage: http://linguistlist.org/confcustom/KEY2011. Please state, where appropriate, research questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results. Abstracts will be refereed anonymously by members of the programme committee.
The deadline for submissions is 16 March 2011.
Notification will be sent to authors by 4 April 2011.

KEY2011 website: http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/newsandevents/events/conferences/key2011/
email: linc-network@cf.ac.uk

Garrett, Peter. 2010. Attitudes to Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

One of my colleagues, Professor Peter Garrett recently published a book on attitudes to language. It has been reviewed on Linguist List and you can read the review here.

The frontmatter from Cambridge describes the book as follows:
Just about everyone seems to have views about language. Language attitudes and language ideologies permeate our daily lives. Our competence, intelligence, friendliness, trustworthiness, social status, group memberships and so on are often judged from the way we communicate. Even the speed at which we speak can evoke reactions. And we often try to anticipate such judgements as we communicate. In this lively introduction, Peter Garrett draws upon research carried out over recent decades in order to discuss such attitudes and the implications they have for our use of language, for social advantage or discrimination and for social identity. Using a range of examples that includes punctuation, words, grammar, pronunciation, accents, dialects and languages, this book explores the intricate and fascinating ways in which language influences our everyday thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

The book is available from Amazon in print and Kindle versions, and of course from many other book sellers everywhere.

This new magazine looks great!
Popular Linguistics Magazine

I've copied the editor's introduction to the magazine here (taken from here):

Welcome to the first issue of Popular Linguistics Magazine, everyone!

written by DS Bigham, Editor

Over the last few years, I’ve been thinking a lot about the public perception of linguistics and language research. I’ve often been frustrated at the abuse and misunderstanding of basic linguistic concepts in the popular media (for example, this summer’s debacle over President Obama’s speech-style reported on “The Global Language Monitor”, see CNN’s coverage here), or even at the lack of widespread response from linguists on public policy issues, such as the Arizona immigration law or, reaching back, the Ebonics school funding debates. Why isn’t the public better educated about linguistics? I fear that it’s because we, as linguists, haven’t done the best job of getting the word out. We haven’t yet provided the public with a single non-specialist standard for linguistics-based reporting.

Oh, there are exceptions, certainly. Blogs like Language Log and Language Hat, Ben Zimmer’s “On Language” column for the New York Times, and occasional pieces here and there in this magazine or that newspaper. But a single trusted source, a regular, dedicated place where people can go and read about all aspects of our research, with articles written by true experts of the field… that’s what linguistics has been lacking.

If physics could bring quantum entanglement to the masses in Scientific American, if psychology could bring cognitive dissonance to the world outside of academia in Psychology Today, if my 90 year old grandmother could read about nanotube technology in Popular Science, why couldn’t we bring linguistics out into the wider world? That was the kernel that popped in my head way back in the late summer of 2007. Linguistics didn’t just need our own PR machine; we needed a magazine.

With that in mind, I’d like to present the first issue of Popular Linguistics Magazine, a monthly online publication where we aim to bring linguistics and language research to anyone who’s interested, regardless of whether they’re a linguist or not. Our goal here at Popular Linguistics is to present to you, dear readers, all aspects of linguistics, from breaking news in language technologies to stories from intrepid documentary fieldworkers, from research detailing how language works in the brain to stories showing how language works in society. Linguistics for everyone, finally.

Keystroke Language (and Text) Production: perspectives from cognitive and functional linguistics

23-24 May 2011

Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales

Supported by the Centre for Language and Communication Research and the LinC Research Network at Cardiff University

The use of keystroke logging as a methodology in language research is not a new field of study since the first Computer Keystroke Logging conference was held at Umeå University in Sweden in 2002. However to date this area of research has primarily focussed on written composition and translation studies. The KEY 2011 workshop and conference intends to broaden this perspective by extending the contributions keystroke logging can make to language production generally, including spontaneous language such as chat messaging. Its theme is to explore functional and cognitive perspectives on the use of keystroke logging in language research where the focus of interest is on the dynamic process of production rather than on the static product of language production.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Kristyan Spelman Miller (University of Winchester)
Dr Mick O’Donnell (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Wagsoft Software)

Call for papers

Papers are invited on the general theme of the conference, dealing with the use of keystroke logging in linguistic and language-related research. Presentations will be 20 minutes with 10 minutes discussion time. Papers which present work in progress or that focus on software development and methodology are also welcome. Although we will consider all contributions that relate to the main theme in general, we especially encourage papers that explore:

• Evidence of cognitive processing in electronic language production
• Corpora and the study of electronically produced language
• Language or text as dynamic process (rather than static product)
• Human-Computer Interaction as related to language and keyboard competence
• Linguistic competence (including translation competence)
• Descriptive work that enhances our understanding of electronically produced language
• Functional accounts of language production (including manual and cognitive errors)
• Methodological and/or ethical issues in the use of keystroke logging software

Abstracts

An abstract of approximately 400 words should be submitted electronically at the following webpage: http://linguistlist.org/confcustom/KEY2011. Please state, where appropriate, research questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results. Abstracts will be refereed anonymously by members of the programme committee.
The deadline for submissions is 16 March 2011.
Notification will be sent to authors by 4 April 2011.

KEY2011 website: http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/newsandevents/events/conferences/key2011/
email: linc-network@cf.ac.uk

Postgraduate Funding Opportunities in Language and Communication Research

ESRC Studentships in Language and Communication at Cardiff

The Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR) is able to support applications to the ESRC Open Studentship Competition for PhD studentships, covering tuition fees for British and EU students plus a generous stipend.
You must apply for your Cardiff University degree programme by Monday 7th February 2011. Further information is available here

In order to be considered for a studentship, in the first instance you need to apply for postgraduate study at Cardiff University. Please contact Dr Justine Coupland (PhD Admissions, CouplandJ@cf.ac.uk), or Professor Peter Garrett, (Director of Postgraduate Research, GarrettP@cf.ac.uk) or Mrs Dawn Harrington (CLCR Postgraduate Administrator, clcr-pg@cf.ac.uk) for further details.

Arts and Humanities Research Council Studentships (AHRC)

Under the Block Grant Partnership between the AHRC and the Centre for Language and Communication Research can also support applications for studentship awards, available in 2011/12, in the subject areas of Linguistics and in English Language and Literature. We invite applications for:

• 1 Research Preparation Masters in Linguistics.
• 1 doctoral award in Linguistics
• 3 doctoral studentship awards in English Language and Literature

You must apply for your Cardiff University degree programme by Monday 7th February 2011. For further details, application forms and guidance notes please visit
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/for/prospective/pg/funding/ahrcawards/index.html

Cardiff University President’s Research Scholarships

The University is making available 72 “flagship” postgraduate research awards which carry the prestige of association with the University’s new President, the Nobel Prize for Medicine (2007) winner, Professor Sir Martin Evans. A number of these awards are available for postgraduates seeking to research in the area of 'Re-constructing Multiculturalism'.
Deadline: The 2011/12 application process is beginning in Autumn 2010.
For more information, see: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/presidents/multiculturalism/index.html

School Research Bursaries and 'Cardiff 125' Scholarships

Please see the following webpage for more information.
http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/degreeprogrammes/postgraduateresearch/schoolfunding/

Please visit the Centre for Language and Communication website to find details of our primary research areas
http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/degreeprogrammes/postgraduateresearch/langcommunicationmphil/index.html

For more information about these and other funding opportunities please contact:
Sarah Robertson, Academic Support Officer (encap-ac@cf.ac.uk).
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/for/prospective/pg/funding/index.html

Cardiff University
Centre for Language and Communication Research
School of English, Communication and Philosophy

LinC will be holding a two-part workshop and discussion on:

Theme, topic, Subject and Given

In these two sessions we will discuss how the grammatical features of Theme, Subject and Given contribute to the topic of a text - a non-grammatical category.

In the first session (8th November) we will go over textual mark-up of Theme and Subject and discuss different aspects of thematicity and the notion of participant tracking. Those taking part will then be given a text, already marked up for Given/New, and asked to mark up Theme and Subject and to schematise participant tracking in preparation for the second session (22nd November).

The following readings are also recommended as preparation for the second session:

• Berry, M. 1996. What is Theme? – A(nother) personal view. In Berry, M., Butler, C.S., Fawcett, R.P., and Huang, G.W. (eds.) Meaning and Form: Systemic Functional Interpretations. Meaning and Choice in Language: Studies for Michael Halliday. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
• Martin, J.R. (1992) English Text: System and Structure. Philadelphia and Amsterdam: John Benjamins - Chapter 3; pp.93-157
• Thompson, G. 2007. Unfolding theme: the development of clausal and textual perspectives on Theme. In Hasan, R., C. Matthiessen and J. Webster Continuing Discourse on Language: A Functional Perspective (Volume 2). London and Oakville: Equinox.

The second session will be entirely dedicated to a discussion of how the various grammatical and semantic devices analysed co-contribute to what we commonly refer to as the ‘topic’ of a text.

Both sessions (Nov. 8th and 22nd, 2010) will start at 5pm in Room 5.26 of the Humanities Building, Colum Road.

I'd like to announce an upcoming talk as part of the CLCR seminar series on Wednesday October 13th at 4.30pm to (approx) 6.15pm (room 5.26 in the Humanities building). All welcome!

Language, Borders and Identities: investigating phonological variation, attitudes and perceptions on the Scottish/English border

Dr Dominic Watt and Dr Carmen Llamas
The University of York

Abstract

In this paper we present findings from the Accent and Identity on the Scottish-English Border (AISEB) project.1 We take a three-pronged approach to the investigation of phonological features in four border towns, presenting detailed analysis of speakers’ production patterns, their attitudes towards linguistic variation and national identity, and their perception of linguistic features, demonstrating that this multi-faceted approach deepens our understanding of how speakers index social categories.

The data come from a subsample of the sociolinguistic interviews and questionnaires completed by 160 speakers (40 from each of the four localities: Gretna and Eyemouth in Scotland, Carlisle and Berwick in England). In the first part of the talk we present distributional patterns in speakers’ productions of (r), the Scottish Vowel Length Rule, and Voice Onset Time in voiceless plosives, which we find to vary geographically and socially.

We devote the second part of the talk to relating these production patterns to speakers’ self-classifications in terms of the available labels for local, regional and (supra)national groupings (e.g. Berwicker, English, Scottish, Borderer, British), and to how they classify and evaluate their accents as either ‘Scottish’ or ‘English’. We also consider speakers’ affective attitudes towards these labels and consider whether, for example, speakers who self-identify as Scottish and evaluate this identity positively use higher rates of coda (r) in words such as car, bird, etc. We will also consider the perceptual side of the study in order to assess the extent to which individual phonological features can be seen to index these identities on the border.

By presenting production, attitudinal and perceptual findings, we will demonstrate how our multi-faceted approach can shed further light on interspeaker phonological differences and allow a firmer foundation from which to interpret motivations for variable linguistic behaviour.

1 Supported by the UK Economic & Social Research Council, grant no. RES-062-23-0525.

There is now a downloads page for the International Systemic Functional Congress which was held in Vancouver, Canada, July 2010. In addition to presentations, there is also a video archive of the plenary speaker sessions which includes presentations by the following speakers:

Michael Halliday - Language Evolving: some systemic functional reflections on the history of meaning

Terrence Deacon - Language and complexity: Evolution inside out

Jim Martin - Metalinguistic divergence: axial argumentation in SFL

Annabelle Lukin - News reporting as social practice: some methodological implications of Halliday's 'register'

Giovanni Parodi - Academic genres across disciplines: Insights, findings and challenges in multimodal texts analysis of the PUCV-2010 Corpus of Spanish

Christian Matthiessen - Language evolving: Notes towards a semiotic history of humanity

Annabelle Lukin - News reporting as social practice: some methodological implications of Halliday's 'register'

Mary Schleppegrell - Evolving language-based pedagogy: Teachers taking up functional grammar

Kazu Teruya - Illuminating Grammar: language comparison

These videos and other documents from the conference can be found here.