• County South

    LA1 4YL Lancaster

Accepting PhD Students

PhD projects

I am keen to receive proposals for research projects investigating any aspect of political communication from a broadly cognitive linguistic perspective.

20072025

Research activity per year

Personal profile

Current Teaching

I currently convene the following modules at UG and PG levels:

  • LING330 Language, Cognition and Culture (UG)
  • LING324 Cognitive Linguistics (UG)
  • LING439 Cognitive Linguistics (PG)
  • LING440 Critical Discourse Analysis (PG)

I also contribute to teaching on LING103 Linguistics (UG)

SUMMARY of research interests (100 words)

My research combines insights and methods from cognitive science and critical discourse analysis (CDA) to investigate the links between language, cognition and action in contexts of political communication. It falls into three principal programmes as part of a more general cognitive approach to CDA:

In the first, I use frameworks developed in cognitive linguistics (including cognitive grammar, frame semantics and conceptual metaphor theory) to analyse the conceptualisations evoked by linguistic structures in specific social and political contexts of communication includng their ideological and (de)legitimating functions.

In the second, I use experimental methods to empirically test the effects that semiotic choices have on audience attitudes toward social groups and social/political issues.

In the third, I investigate the multimodal properties of political communication including co-text images and co-speech gestures.

I have worked on discourses in different areas of politics but I am primarily interested in discourses of migration, discourses of political protest, and the discrusive performance of right-wing populism.

Related documents

Keywords

  • Discourse analysis
  • Cognitive Linguistics
  • Critical Discourse Analysis
  • Language Evolution
  • Pragmatics

Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years

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