Research

Edinburgh is one of Europe's largest centres for research in linguistics. At its core is Linguistics and English Language (LEL) in the College of Humanities and Social Science. LEL has close and active ties to the larger community of researchers within the University (in particular in the two other subject areas in our School - Philosophy and Psychology - and in the School of Informatics). A number of members of LEL are also members of the Human Communication Research Centre.

News

Common Misconceptions About Language Learning Dispelled

3 Jun 2013

Professor Antonella Sorace is interviewed by TES magazine...

3 Minute Thesis Competition Winners (College heat)

31 May 2013

CHSS have nominated three candidates to go through to the University heat...

Ferdinand de Saussure biography

24 May 2013

Linguistics Professor John Joseph interviewed about Ferdinand de Saussure biography...

3 Minute Thesis Competition Winners

19 May 2013

The PPLS heat of the 3 minute thesis competition was won by...

View all news

Events

Developmental Phonology Reading Group

21 Jun 2013 12:10 – 13:00

Reading: MacDonald, E. N., Johnson, E. K., Forsythe, J., Plente, P., & Munhall, K. G. (2012).

Linguistic Circle

18 Jul 2013 16:10 – 17:30

Title: "TBA"
Speaker: Jen Hay

Linguistic Circle

25 Jul 2013 16:10 – 17:30

Title: "TBA"
Speaker: Jacob Eisenstein

View more events

Formed in 2005 from two departments awarded a joint 5 in RAE 2001, LEL includes some 50 staff and 60 research students who range in background from philology to engineering. LEL pursues multidisciplinary linguistic research as well as interdisciplinary research engaging with biology, education, psychology, cognitive science, and the speech and language technologies.

Research Groups

Ethics Information

Codes, Guidelines, Recommendations

Reading Groups & Research Centres

Research Events

Events programme

Group Descriptions and Postgraduate Information

The Centre for Speech Technology Research (CSTR) is concerned with research in all areas of speech technology including speech recognition, speech synthesis, speech signal processing, information access, multimodal interfaces and dialogue systems.
The Developmental Linguistics Research Group undertakes theoretical and experimental research on language acquisition, language attrition, and language change. The fundamental research aim is to investigate the nature of the constraints on how linguistic knowledge can vary over time, both within and between individuals.
The English Language Research Group conducts research into the synchronic and diachronic linguistics of the English Language and of Scots, investigating the structure of these languages at all levels, their social and regional variation, history, and stylistics.
The Institute for Historical Dialectology (IHD) conducts research into mediaeval written vernaculars, and is currently preparing linguistic atlases of Early Middle English and of Older Scots.
The Language Evolution & Computation (LEC) Research Unit focuses on understanding the origins and evolution of language and communication. The unit has pioneered the application of computational and mathematical modelling techniques to traditional issues in language acquisition, change and evolution.
The Language in Context Research Group investigates how the social, interpersonal and discursive context of language shapes its forms and uses.
The Language Variation & Change (LVC) Research Group encompasses a wide range of research topics related to variation and change in language, from both diachronic and synchronic perspectives. Research includes areas of historical linguistics, sociolinguistics, dialectology, and other approaches to modeling language change.
The Phonetics & Phonology Research Group brings together a sizeable group of researchers treating a very broad range of topics - "from speech synthesis to optimality theory" - as part of a unified field of activity; hardly anyone in the group can readily be pigeonholed as a "phonologist" or a "phonetician".
The Syntax & Semantics Research Group conducts research in both of these core areas of linguistic theory, and in the interfaces between them and other areas, such as pragmatics.

LEL hosts a large and thriving community of postgraduate students, working towards a variety of MSc degrees as well as the PhD. Further information about postgraduate study and research is available on the postgraduate study pages. Researchers of postdoctoral standing who are interested in pursuing their research at Edinburgh should make contact with a relevant member of the department; they may want to look into the fellowship programme at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, the Caledonian Research Foundation European Visiting Research Fellowships, or the British Academy Visiting Fellowships.