Prof. Dr. Isabelle Buchstaller is professor of English Linguistics at the University of Duisburg-Essen and director of the Sociolinguistics Lab in Essen. Focusing her research on language variation and change, and corpus linguistics, she has worked on Hawaiian Creole, Tyneside English, Californian English, as well as Marshallese English.
Exploring the determinants of lifespan change
In this talk I will rely on a small panel sample to raise two questions:
- To which extent do individuals surrounded by a changing community show the ongoing change in their own production?
- What are the range and the determinants of linguistic (in)stability across the life-span?
Exploring life-span effects in the use of two linguistic variables suggests that some individuals replicate patterns in probabilistic community grammar and/or use new forms whereas others stay stable across their life-time. I will use these findings to discuss empirical and conceptual issues surrounding current models of speaker-internal and community grammar.
(This is a CSLS guest lecture and part of the Forum SLS. MA and PhD students receive 0.25 ECTS for attending the talk.)
