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Graeme Trousdale

About me

Grammaticalization and lexicalization in English

My current research is primarily concerned with the related phenomena of grammaticalization and lexicalization, as part of a wider interest in English historical linguistics.  I have been particularly interested in the role of constructions in grammaticalization and lexicalization, and this has involved research into the development of English impersonals and transitive clauses, composite predicate constructions, and possessives.  A current project is concerned with gradience/gradualness and the emergence of grammaticalized and lexicalized constructions.  My work therefore represents an intersection of grammaticalization studies with Construction Grammars of various kinds.

Non-standard varieties of English, past and present

I have always been interested in accents and dialects of English (especially those spoken in England), and in how we can account for variation and change in such varieties.  This means that I am also interested in certain aspects of general linguistic theory, including sociolinguistics.  I have published work on a number of topics, from grammatical variation in present-day Tyneside English to variation in spellings in Old English charters written in Kent in the ninth century.  I am also working on a textbook in the Edinburgh Textbooks on the English Language series, entitled An Introduction to English Sociolinguistics.  

Educational linguistics

The place of language in the English school classroom is also important to me, and I have published research particularly on knowledge about language in the Scottish secondary curriculum, though I am involved in UK-wide committee and consultancy work.  I am a member of the Linguistics Association of Great Britain's Education Committee, and also secretary of the Committee for Linguistics in Education.  In Scotland, I chair the Committee for Language Awareness in Scottish Schools (CLASS), and am a member of the Association for Scottish Literary Studies' Language Committee.  If you are a teacher of English in Scotland, and would like to discuss aspects of language study in the English classroom (from P1 to Advanced Higher), please contact me.  If you are based in southern or central Scotland, you might be interested in an Open Studies course run by members of the department, entitled Language in Textual Analysis.  This course will be available from the 2006-7 session onwards. For students and teachers working on A-level English Language, I can thoroughly recommend the English Language weblog created and maintained by Dan Clayton at St. Francis Xavier 6th Form College in Clapham, London, and emagazine (both the magazine itself and the associated website) published by the English and Media Centre in London.

Although it may seem that my interests are very diverse, I do see a connection between everything I work on!  For more details, you can look at a list of my presentations and publications

Research supervision

I am fortunate to be - or to have been - involved as the primary or co-supervisor of the following research students: 

Completed

• Takeshi Koike (PhD, awarded 2004) Thesis title: An analysis of the genitive case using the theoretical framework of Cognitive Grammar: a study based on the data from Ælfric's Catholic Homilies 1st series.
• Paul Monaghan (MSc by Research, awarded 2005),language maintenance and shift in Bermuda.
• Nick Wilson (MSc by Research, awarded 2007), discourse variation in an Edinburgh sports community of practice.
• Robert McKenzie (PhD, awarded 2006). Thesis title: A quantitative study of the attitudes of Japanese learners towards varieties of English speech: aspects of the sociolinguistics of English in Japan.
• Hiroshi Obara (PhD, awarded 2008). Thesis title: Modality and politeness in late Modern English.
• Lynn Clark (PhD, awarded 2009). Thesis title: Variation, change and the usage-based model.

• Will Barras (MSc by Research awarded with distinction 2006, now a final year PhD student funded by AHRC). Will's research explores variable rhoticity in Lancashire English, and the relationship between language variation, change and phonological theory. Will is co-supervised by Patrick Honeybone and me.
• Wojciech Gardela (second year part-time PhD student funded by AHRC. Wojciechs research concerns the grammaticalization of aspect markers in northern Middle English and Older Scots. Wojciech is co-supervised by Keith Williamson and me.
• Han Jing (first year PhD student). Jing is working on construction grammar and Chinese, and is being co-supervised by Nik Gisborne and me.

Teaching

English Language 1: Figurative language (semester 1); English sociolinguistics (semester 2)
English Language 2: Grammaticalization (semester 2)
Honours and MSc: English grammar: a cognitive account (annually in semester 1);
Figurative language (even-numbered years in semester 2); Dialectology in the British Isles (odd-numbered years in semester 2, co-taught with Warren Maguire)

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