Forschungsprojekte

This project studies the characteristics of dialogues across two dimensions that have often been conflated in the past, fictional/non-fictional and spontaneous/scripted. Using a novel kind of data – recordings and transcriptions from improvised theatre performances – comparisons with spontaneous conversation and scripted fiction can show how spontaneity and fictionality influence the form and pragmatic functions of linguistic characteristics like hesitation markers, pauses, discourse markers, stance expressions and repetitions. In addition, the comparison with telecinematic fiction provides new insight into how the presence of the audience and related factors of the communicative framework affect humour and fictional classification.

Ethics of queer in/visibility is a project situated at the English Department of Heidelberg University and funded by the Jellinek Center for Ethics. With our activities, we aim to strengthen interdisciplinary networking on topics related to queer in/visibility, build connections with the local community, and bring excellent international research to Heidelberg.

Based on an extensive corpus-based study, this revealing book explores how epistemic stance is expressed in the early modern period, and in doing so, presents new methodologies for using corpora to investigate issues in historical pragmatics. It provides a new, corpus-driven method for the analysis of pragmatic functions that rely on context-dependent interpretations. By retrieving passages that include a high-density of the pragmatic function under investigation, the subsequent analysis can reveal previously neglected forms and context-dependent factors. It includes four empirical studies that apply the method to the analysis of epistemic stance in four Early Modern English corpora, the result of which emphasise the importance of context for the expression of stance. It also includes an appendix with inventories of Early Modern English stance expressions, offering starting points for further research studies. It is essential reading for researchers and students in historical pragmatics and corpus pragmatics.