Current  position

Lecturer in Sociolinguistics, University of Salford

Internal roles

Member, CASS Ethical Approval Committee (Research, Innovation & Academic Engagement)

External roles

Membership Secretary, Linguistics Association of Great Britain (LAGB)

I am a variationist sociolinguist investigating how language use varies across social groups and space, and how it gradually changes over time.

My main academic interests include discourse-pragmatic and morpho-syntactic variation and change; varieties of English (social, regional, ethnic, national); the grammaticalization of discourse-pragmatic features; synergies between variation theory & grammaticalization theory; discourse markers; interactional sociolinguistics. Click here for more information about my research.

I regularly organise and/or contribute to events for non-academic audiences which aim at raising awareness of issues relating to language variation and change, breaking down persisting prejudices against the use and users of particular linguistic forms, and promoting the discipline of linguistics in general. Click here for further information.

DiPVaC 1, Salford, April 2012 (photo courtesy of Callum M. Wright)