EHU LRG events are held online (via MS Teams), and are free to attend. Times are GMT. Registration opens three weeks before each event. The link is sent to registered participants the day before the event. If you have problems registering, or have any questions, contact the organiser: Imogen Marcus ([email protected])
Upcoming Events:
Talk #5 – 27th November 2025, 2-3pm (GMT).
Click here to register
Natalie Jones, University of Leeds
About ‘aboutness’ in the opening and closing statements of State of Minnesota v. Derek Michael Chauvin (2021)
This talk presents findings from research on the State of Minnesota v. Derek Chauvin trial (2021), examining the positioning and transformation of key narrative events, social actor identities, and the jury. A comparative analysis of the opening statements and closing arguments draws on concepts of ‘aboutness’ (e.g., Scott, 2017) and positioning theory (Davies & Harré, 1990) to explore how linguistic choices shape courtroom narratives. Using a bottom-up approach to comparatively examine lexical and grammatical collocations identified in the speeches, each barriser’s narrative focus is examined, utilising critical discourse analysis (CDA) and corpus linguistics (CL), using AntConc 3.6.9 (Anthony, 2020).While previous studies (e.g., Felton-Rosulek, 2010; Chaemsaithong, 2017) have focused on either openings or closings, comparing both seeks to identify shifts in lawyer talk and its impact on how events, actors, and the jury are framed from the beginning to the end of the trial. The analysis is twofold: (1) examining the strategic positioning of the jury, and (2) highlighting the role of function words (such as ‘the’) in shaping perspective, showing how lawyer talk positions the jury to view the police, the victim, and the defendant from different perspectives in texts that bookend the trial.
Anthony, L. 2020. AntConc (3.5.9) [Software].
Chaemsaithong, K. 2017. Evaluative stancetaking in courtroom opening statements. Folia
Linguistica. 51(1), pp.103–132.
Davies, B. and Harré, R. 1990. Positioning: The Discursive Production of Selves. Journal for the
Theory of Social Behaviour. 20(1), pp.43–63.
Felton-Rosulek, L. 2010. Prosecution and defense closing speeches: the creation of contrastive closing arguments. In: Coulthard, M., May, A. eds. The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics. London: Routledge, pp.218–230.
Scott, M. 2017. News downloads and aboutness [Online]. [Accessed 15 July 2023]. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FVa0KwtvLc
Sound transfer: the production of stops by bilingual speakers – Dr Niamh Kelly, Newcastle University, 5th December 2025 at 2pm (online via Teams).
Multilingual speakers may show phonetic transfer effects in their languages, meaning that one language can influence the other (e.g., Flege & Eefting 1987; McCarthy et al. 2013; Nagy 2015). Research on Western Armenian (WA) has described it as having a contrast between voiceless aspirated stops and voiced stops (Fairbanks 1948; Vaux 1998; Baronian 2017), a contrast that is typologically unusual. Since there is no monolingual community of WA, all speakers are part of a minority language community, and also speak the majority language. The current study examines speakers from two heritage communities of WA: one in Lebanon, where the majority language is Arabic, and one in the US, where the majority language is English. The results indicate L2 transfer in both communities, leading to two different patterns of voicing in WA. The results will be discussed in the context of transfer, majority languages and community bilingualism.
Death by dictionary: investigating the link between surname death and lexical association – Dr Harry Parkin, University of Chester, 26th February 2026, 2pm (online via Teams).
Surnames die, and previous work has estimated that over two-thirds of English surnames have been lost since 1350 (Sturges & Hagget, 1987; Plant & Plant, 2017). The mathematical focus of these previous studies has meant that possible socio-onomastic aspects of this pattern have not been addressed, and while chance may have some bearing on which names survive and which do not, the socio-onomastic question of “why some names are avoided” (Ainiala & Östman, 2017, p. 2) also seems relevant to this issue. This paper will present some initial findings of what is ultimately intended as a more detailed research project on the patterns of surname frequency reduction and surname death, looking at why some surnames die and others do not. By looking at broad patterns in frequency data, and comparing surnames with English vocabulary, some suggestions will be made, and some figures presented, in an effort to draw attention to this topic of socio-onomastic interest, showing that some frequency changes appear not to be random, and so some sort of change and innovation in our naming practices may have a part to play.
References:
Ainiala, T. & Östman, J. (2017). Introduction: Socio-onomastics and pragmatics. In T. Ainiala & J. Östman (Eds.), Socio-onomastics: The pragmatics of names (pp. 1–18). John Benjamins;
Plant, J. S. & Plant, R. E. (2017). Inheritance of English surnames by Sturges and Haggett, review and explanations. Journal of One-Name Studies 12(12), 13–15;
Sturges, C. M. & Haggett, B. C. (1987). Inheritance of English Surnames. Hawgood Computing.
Dr Costas Gabrielatos. Edge Hill University. Semester 2, 2026 (date tbc) (online via Teams). Abstract forthcoming.
Previous Events:
Preposition Dropping – Laura Bailey, 29 January 2025 at 3pm (online via Teams)
Our next Edge Hill Linguistics Research Seminar Series event is an online talk (via MS Teams) on 29 January 2025 at 3 pm by Dr Laura Bailey, Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Kent. This talk includes data from both Ormskirk and Greece, and will be of interest to anyone involved with syntax, sociolinguistics and language change.
All welcome via the link below.
Meeting ID: 399 362 650 659
Passcode: NU2p2nY9
/r/ you listening? Methodological challenges and theoretical insights from investigating a ‘rhotic’ English dialect – Jane Stuart-Smith, 6 November 2024 at 3pm (online via Teams)
On the 6th November 2024, we held an online talk (via Teams) at 3 pm for the Edge Hill Linguistics Research Seminar Series by Jane Stuart-Smith at the University of Glasgow.
Abstract:
Some sounds appear to do more social ‘work’ than others. One such sound is /r/, whose phonetic variants have long been recognized to be socially informative across many languages, including English (Labov 1972). Indeed, the presence/absence of postvocalic /r/ in in words such as car, card is a key feature distinguishing rhotic from non-rhotic English dialects (Maguire et al. 2010). At the same time, /r/ is phonetically complex which means that tracking synchronic and diachronic variation in /r/ can present challenges – and opportunities – for the linguist.
This talk will focus on the case of postvocalic /r/ in Scottish English, taking as its basis, results from a series of apparent- and real-time sociophonetic studies, in the field and in the lab, using auditory, articulatory and (different kinds of) acoustic analysis, carried out from 1998 until now. Our early studies confirmed earlier reports of socially-stratified variation in Glaswegian /r/, and specifically loss of coda /r/ in young working-class speakers (Stuart-Smith 2003; Stuart-Smith et al 2007).
They also led to the following questions:
- What are the phonetic mechanisms behind the ‘loss’ of postvocalic /r/? Difficulties with the auditory coding of weak /r/ variants, including ambiguous auditory percepts (Stuart-Smith 2007; Lennon 2024), were resolved by articulatory phonetic analysis, which reveal both tongue shape and timing of tongue gesture as factors in weaker/stronger /r/ variants, and their acoustic correlates (Lawson et al 2011; Lawson et al 2018; Lawson and Stuart-Smith 2021).
- When did /r/-weakening begin, what was the trigger and then the accelerating factors which helped it to spread over the course of the 20th century? Scottish soldiers recorded during the First World War already show weak /r/ (Stuart-Smith and Lawson 2017), which coincides with a change in voice quality around the same period (Sóskuthy and Stuart-Smith 2020); the change took off and was accelerated by sociolinguistic polarisation and TV influence (Stuart-Smith et al 2014).
- How does Glasgow /r/ compare with /r/ more generally? Scaling up the analysis of /r/, over larger numbers of speakers/tokens, allows us to zoom out from local closeups of Glaswegian, to a perspective of postvocalic /r/ within a common acoustic space across Scottish and English dialects. Finally, automated methods also facilitate comparison of Scottish /r/ variation with languages other than English, which are also showing /r/ weakening, specifically Quebec French.
‘Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers’ project event with Edge Hill’s Nineteenth Century Research Centre – 29 Feb 2024 at 6pm
On the 29th February 2024, we co-hosted an event with Edge Hill’s Nineteenth Century Research Centre focusing on the ‘Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers’ project and about Hamilton’s life and work, as well as what goes into creating online digital resources. For more details and to book, head to: https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/ehu19/events/
Dr Beth Malory – ‘A lexicon of relics: Tracing the diachronic evolution of diagnostic terminology in obstetrics and gynaecology’ – 22 Feb 2024 at 3pm (online via Teams)
The Edge Hill Linguistics Research Seminar Series held an online session on the 22nd February 2024 at 3 pm with speaker Dr Beth Malory (University College London) with a talk entitled: ‘A lexicon of relics: Tracing the diachronic evolution of diagnostic terminology in obstetrics and gynaecology’. To register, click here: https://store.edgehill.ac.uk/conferences-and-events/conferences/events/ehu-linguistics-research-seminar-series-thursday-22nd-february-2024