the LINC Network

As part of the research seminar series presented by the Centre for Language and Communication Research at Cardiff University, Dr Paul Tench will be presenting his work on developing alphabets for unwritten languages.

The talk will take place on 25th April 2012 at 2.15pm in room 3.58 of the Humanities Building at Cardiff University.

Dr Paul Tench will explain the technique used by the charity "The Seed Company" to facilitate the development of an alphabet by the speakers of unwritten languages, with special reference to recent experience in Zambia's remote Western Province. The linguist facilitates, but the community decides.

For more information about Paul's work, please his video account on his work on the new Zambian alphabet: Cardiff linguist Paul Tench helps new Zambian alphabet (BBC Wales).

This post is an update on the summer school programme for both the introductory and applied courses. An outline of both courses is given below followed by funding opportunities for attending the summer school.

Instructors

Sheena Gardner, Geoff Thompson, Mick O’Donnell, Izaskun Elorza, Blanca García-Riaza, Claire Acevedo, Margaret Berry, Alan Hess, Lise Fontaine, Tom Bartlett and Gerard O’Grady

Provisional Programme

Introductory Course - click here for session descriptions
The Introductory Course in SFL will introduce participants to the basics of SFL with a particular focus on clausal analysis. There will be sessions on each of the three metafunctions - the experiential, the interpersonal and the textual - as well as sessions discussing how the metafunctions combine to make multi-stranded meaning and on potential applications of the approach. The programme is set up to provided a paired lecture and workshop dedicated to each topic, which provides the opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience in analysing grammar. The programme also introduces the UAM CorpusTool for those who are interested in learning to use it.

• Introduction to SFL (Lise Fontaine)
• Experiential Meaning (Tom Bartlett)
• Experiential Meaning workshop (Tom Bartlett)
• Interpersonal Meaning (Geoff Thompson and Lise Fontaine)
• Workshop on Interpersonal Meaning, introducing the UAM CorpusTool (Mick O'Donnell and Lise Fontaine)
• Textual and information Meaning (Gerard O'Grady)
• Workshop on Textual and information Meaning (Gerard O'Grady)
• Summary Session: the full analysis and applications (Tom Bartlett and Gerard O'Grady)

Applied Course - click here for session descriptions
The applied course assumes a good foundation in SFL and is suited for people interested in applying SFL to educational settings. The sessions in the applied course are varied, providing a range of knowledge and experience in applying SFL to educational settings.

• Exploring university student writing through the BAWE corpus (Sheena Gardner)
• Teaching ‘reported speech’: From a formal to a systemic approach (Izaskun Elorza and Blanca García-Riaza)
• Interpersonal choices in the construction of the reader-in-the-text (Geoff Thompson) Classroom discourse analysis (Mick O'Donnell)
• Analysis using the UAM CorpusTool (Mick O'Donnell)
• The Reading to Learn literacy acceleration program (Claire Acevedo)
• Integrating SFL in education: presentations and open discussion (Alan Hess and Margaret Berry)

Funding Opportunities

The funding for staff or students from eligible institutions outside Europe is now up to a maximum of £1200. Funding for staff or students from eligible institutions inside Europe remains up to a maximum of £700. Summer School registration costs of £120 will be paid from the bursaries. Eligible institutions are those from institutions in the Banco de Santander universities network.
For more information, please consult this following website.

Those eligible for the funding should send a CV and covering letter, stating how much funding is being sought and how this money will be used. Please email your application us here.

Good news from CUP, Analysing English Grammar should be on shelves in October 2012 or soon after. The description of the book is given below along with the contents.

Analysing English Grammar (CUP)

A practical step-by-step introduction to the analysis of English grammar, this book leaves the reader confident to tackle the challenges analyzing grammar may pose. The first textbook to take an integrated approach to function and structure in grammatical analysis, it allows students to build experience, skills and confidence in working with grammar. The innovative, hybrid approach combines an introduction to systemic functional theory with a solid grounding in grammatical structure. The book approaches grammar in an incremental way, enabling students to develop grammatical skill in stages. It is of particular value to those starting to work with functional grammar but it is also relevant for experienced readers who are interested in developing a more systematic approach to grammatical analysis.

• The first textbook to take an integrated approach to function and structure in grammatical analysis
• Includes a range of interesting worked examples and exercises to engage the student
  
• Useful summaries and further reading sections are included at the end of each chapter

Contents

1. Introduction to functional grammatical analysis
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Analyzing grammar within a functional framework
1.3 An overview of systemic functional linguistics
1.4 The goal of grammatical analysis
1.5 Exercises
1.6 Further Reading

2 The units of language analysis
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The clause: elements and units
2.3 Word and group classes
2.4 An initial view of the clause: representing functions and structures
2.5 Summary
2.6 Exercises
2.7 Further Reading

3 The grammar of things: the nominal group
3.1 Introduction to referring expressions
3.2 The nominal group
3.3 Tests for recognizing nominal group boundaries
3.4 Worked example of the nominal group analysis
3.5 Exercises
3.6 Further Reading

4 Representing experience
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Analysing experiential meaning
4.3 Tests for analysing processes, participants and circumstances
4.4 Functional-structural view of the experiential strand of meaning
4.5 Summary
4.6 Exercises
4.7 Further Reading

5 Orienting Language
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Goals and limitations of the chapter
5.3 The role of subject and its place in the clause
5.4 The Finite element
5.5 Modality
5.6 Polarity
5.7 An interpersonal view of the clause
5.8 Mood
5.9 Summary
5.10 Exercises
5.11 Further Reading

6 Organizing Language
6.1 Introduction
6.2 A Textual view of the clause
6.3 Theme and Mood
6.4 Types of Theme
6.5 Thematic constructions
6.6 Analysing Theme
6.7 Texture
6.8 Summary
6.9 Exercises
6.10 Further reading

7 From text to clause
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Textual Themes and clause boundaries
7.3 Combining clauses
7.4 Identifying clause boundaries
7.5 Summary
7.6 Exercises
7.7 Further Reading

8 Guidelines for grammatical analysis
8.1 A focus on written texts
8.2 Summary of grammatical tests
8.4 Summary
8.5 Exercises
8.6 Further Reading

9 There and back again: interpreting the analysis
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Patterns of meaning in text
9.3 Final remarks
9.4 Exercises
9.5 Further reading

10 Answers to exercises

A comparison of the interpersonal metafunction in English and Slovenian

On Tuesday, February 14th, at 1.10pm in room 3.62, we're holding a postgrad research seminar. Monika Kavalir is visiting us from Slovenia for one week and she is working on the contribution that the Interpersonal Metafunction makes at the level below the clause, specifically exploring the hypothesis that adjectives can be used either absolutely or relatively in all three degrees in English and Slovenian. She will be presenting her work to us, which will be followed by discussion. This is a very friendly and casual session, please do join us if you are interested in the interpersonal functions of language and/or descriptions of non-English languages. If you have any questions, you can email me.

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