Wednesday 6th December: Dr Gili Diamant and Dr Emma Humphries

Wednesday 6th December 2023: Dr Gili Diamant and Dr Emma Humphries, Cardiff University

12.10pm in Room 3.58 of the John Percival Building on Colum Drive. or online via Zoom.

This session comprises a short introduction to the speakers, two short talks of around 15-20 minutes and the opportunity for questions from the floor.
Although the session ends at 1pm, its aim is to encourage connections across the University and beyond and to give opportunities to think together. Therefore, you will be welcome to stay for an extra 15 to 20 minutes of further questions, discussions and chat, if that develops. Discussions will conclude by 1.30pm.

Empowering multilingual potential: The challenges and opportunities of home language qualifications in the UK

There is a recognised need for stronger language skills in the United Kingdom which could be partly addressed by valuing and harnessing the home language skills of its population. One way in which these skills could be nurtured is through formal accreditation, an opportunity which is not consistently being offered to pupils who speak a language at home which differs from the classroom language. Drawing on data from focus groups with multilingual pupils, interviews with mainstream and complementary school staff, and information from university admissions teams, I explore the experiences of these stakeholders regarding home language qualifications, the perceived value of qualifications, as well as barriers and opportunities with regard to language qualification uptake.

Perfect is as perfect does? Meaning and function in Irish English HAVE constructions

Syntactic forms of the type [X have Y v-ed] (I have the tickets booked) regularly occur in English with a number of semantic senses. In the case of Irish varieties of English, it is often claimed that the form [X have Y v-ed] typically has only the meaning of an “accomplishment perfect”, which varies considerably from similar cases found in standard English varieties; and that Irish English speakers tend to use the “accomplishment perfect” in place of the standard HAVE perfect. Based on data from corpora of spoken Irish English, I explore the semantic variation of these forms as it extends beyond the prototypical meaning they share with standard Englishes. I then go on to examine the status of these forms as perfects by looking at some of their functions in the discourse, alongside the standard HAVE perfect.

This seminar will be hybrid although Gili and Emma will be present and we encourage in-person attendance in Room 3.58 of the John Percival Building [Note the change of room from our usual venue]. To join online click here.