Current and Recent Grants
Generations of London English: Language and Social Change in Real Time
Devyani Sharma (QMUL), Paul Kerswill (York), Kathleen McCarthy (QMUL), Sam Hellmuth (York)
This project builds on prior research between colleagues at QMUL and York which established the existence of Multicultural London English as an emerging new variety of English in the UK.
The project take will advantage of a ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunity to capture the evolution of this new speech variety in real time, yielding a unique large-scale corpus of speech data. We’ll also build on our earlier collaboration in Accent Bias Britain to tackle the potential impact of public perceptions of changing language features on the life chances of speakers of different accents.
Meaning on my mind: Number and the nature of cross-linguistic variation
Luisa Martí (QMUL)
Languages like English and Turkish have singular and plural nouns. Why, then, do you say three boys in English, with a plural noun, but üç (three) çocuk (boy) ('three boy') in Turkish, with a singular noun? How do languages with dual nouns, such as Slovenian or Imere, say two boys, and why? This project looks at patterns of numeral-noun combinations across languages and uncovers the basic primitives of number marking (singular, plural, dual, etc.) that are responsible for...
Funded by a Leverhulme Trust research fellowship (2023-24)
Systematicity and Variation in Word Structure Processing Across Languages (SAVANT)
Linnaea Stockall (QMUL), Christina Manouilidou (Ljubljana), Alec Marantz (NYU/NYUAD)
The project brings together a global team of researchers to explore how speakers detect, recognise and interpret constituent pieces of complex words.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, with additional support from the NeLLab operating grant at NYU/NYUAD
Cognitive Plasticity and Language Acquisition
A collaborative project with colleagues from McGill University’s Language Acquisition Research Group, University of Albertam, and University of Essex.
The project investigates the effects of linguistic environment on cognitive plasticity and language acquisition.
Funded by Fonds de recherche du Québec
Structure and Interpretation in Imere
Coppe van Urk (QMUL), and Luisa Martí (QMUL)
Funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant
Perception and Representation of Prosodic Prominence in Singapore English
Adam Chong (QMUL), and James Sneed German (Aix-Marseille Université)
Funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant
Permanency of L1 Attrition of Multiple Linguistic Domains in Returning Albanian Migrants from the UK and US
Esther de Leeuw (QMUL), Enkeleida Kapia (Akademia e Studimeve Albanologjike)
Funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Small Research Grant
Connecting Cognitive Biases and Typological Universals in Syntax
Jennifer Culbertson (Edinburgh), David Adger (QMUL), Klaus Abels (UCL)
This project will shed light on whether there are universal cognitive biases in language learning, if such biases are at play for particular phenomena, and how people's native languages affect these biases.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 2018-2020
Accent Bias and Fair Access in Britain
Erez Levon (Bern), Devyani Sharma (QMUL), Dominic Watt (York), and Christina Perry (QMUL Law)
The aim of the project is to investigate attitudes to regional accents in Britain today, and the effects that accent bias may or may not have on access to the professions among speakers of different varieties of English in the UK. Combining methods from Linguistics, Psychology, and Economics, the project will focus on the role of accent and other speech factors in people's ability to judge competence in hiring contexts, both members of the public and recruiters in law firms in London and Leeds.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, 2017-2019
The Scots Syntactic Atlas (SCOSYA)
Jennifer Smith (Glasgow), David Adger (QMUL), Caroline Heycock (Edinburgh)
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2015-2019
Advancing the European Multilingual Experience (AThEME)
Linnaea Stockall (QMUL), David Adger (QMUL), Jenny Cheshire (QMUL), and Hagit Borer (QMUL), together with colleagues at 16 other European institutions
This grant is to establish the AThEME consortium to study bilingualism and multilingualism in Europe.
Funded by the European Commission Collaborative Project Award, 2014-2019
Perspective and the Self in Natural Language
Funded by the Marie Curie Career Integration Grant, 2014-2018
Past grants:
Clausal Selection: Integrating Theoretical with Experimental Linguistics (ClauSe: InTEL)
Christos Vlachos (QMUL), and David Adger (QMUL)
The project investigated the way verbs in English and Greek select their clausal complements. Aside from its theoretical strand, the project includes experimental studies and public engagement activities.
Funded by Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions, 2015-2017
Syntactic Uniformity, Syntactic Diversity: Syntactic Building Blocks and their Role in Determining Inter- and Intra-linguistic Variation
Leverhulme Major Research Fellowship, 2015-17
This award is to investigate the cross linguistic consequences of the syntactic architecture that Professor Borer lays out in her 3 volume Structuring Sense series.
Why Do People from Different Cultures Think Differently?
Alex Mesoudi (PI, Exeter), Devyani Sharma (QMUL), Peter McOwan (QMUL), Parvati Nair (QMUL)
Funded by a Economic Social Research Council grant, 2013-2016
Learning about the World through Generic Statements: a Cross-linguistic Perspective
Linnaea Stockall (QMUL), Napoleon Katsos (Cambridge), Dimitra Lazaridou-Chatzigoga (QMUL)
Funded by the British Academy, 2014-2015
Is Earlier Always Better? Factors Affecting Bilingual Speech Perception and Production
Esther de Leeuw and Linnaea Stockall
Funded by the British Academy, 2012-2014
Multicultural London English/Multicultural Paris French
Jenny Cheshire (QMUL), Penelope Gardner-Chloros (Birkbeck), Françoise Gadet (Université de Paris-Ouest)
Funded by ESRC/ANR, 2010-2014
The semantics of definite descriptions
This research investigated the meaning of the word 'the' and related issues.
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, 2010-2011
Atomic Linguistic Elements of Phi (ALEPH)
David Adger and Daniel Harbour
The ALEPH research project investigated the features that underly person and number systems.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, 2009-2013
Intonation Patterns in British and Dutch Radio News Broadcasts
Colleen Cotter (QMUL), Carlos Gussenhoven (QMUL, Radboud), and Hans Van de Velde (Utrecht)
In this collaborative project, the research team developed a corpus from which to investigate the ways in which intonation patterns in radio news broadcasts in British English and Netherlandic Dutch have changed over time.
Funded by the British Academy
Forms and Functions of Prosodic Structure
An international network project on Forms and Functions of Prosodic Structure.
Funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, 2008-2010
Multicultural London English: the Emergence, Acquisition and Diffusion of a New Variety
The Multicultural London English research investigated the emergence of a new variety of English in London.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, October 2007-September 2010
Dialect Development and Style in a Diasporic Community
This research investigated English dialect variation and change within families of Indian origin in London.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, January 2008-January 2010.
The Grammar-Meaning Connection: Evidence from Scottish Gaelic
This research investigated the connection between meaning and grammar in Scottish Gaelic.
Funded by the Leverhulme Trust, September 2006-September 2009
Linguistic Innovators: the English of Adolescents in London
This research investigated linguistic innovation among adolescents in London.
Funded by the Economic and Social Research Council, October 2004-September 2007
Syntax and Information Packaging in a Polysynthetic Language
This research investigated information structure in Kiowa.
Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, April 2004-April 2007