My primary research interest concerns varieties of English.
I am particularly interested in the relationship between variation and formal accounts of the structure of language.
I completed a PhD on this topic in 2000, entitled Variation and (socio)linguistic theory: a case study of Tyneside English.
One of my current research projects concerns Old English sociolinguistics, and the problems associated with variationist approaches to Old English dialects.
The draft article I've written considers alternative approaches which are still broadly sociolinguistic, including the use of genetic evidence to trace demographic movement in the past.
I am also working with Takeshi Koike on another Old English topic: the history of impersonal verbs from Old to Middle English, within the framework of Cognitive Grammar.
Finally, I have just begun work on a textbook in the ETOTEL series, entitled An Introduction to English Sociolinguistics. |
