Research projects
Learn more about our research projects.
Language and Gender
Language and Gender research project provides an overview of research activities related to "Language and Gender", organised by Dr Falco Pfalzgraf.
For people interested in the subject, the JISCMAIL mailing list "Gender-Inclusive Language" has been set up. All interested colleagues are cordially invited to join, and to contribute. The list can be used to inform colleagues about our research, share your plans, make everybody aware of future conference presentations, talks, and publications; but also to suggest future workshops and conferences.
Generations of London English: Language and Social Change in Real Time
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.
(QMUL), Paul Kerswill (York), (QMUL), Sam Hellmuth (York)
Meaning on my mind: Number and the nature of cross-linguistic variation
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
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
(QMUL), Christina Manouilidou (Ljubljana), Alec Marantz (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.
Connecting Cognitive Biases and Typological Universals in Syntax
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
Jennifer Culbertson (Edinburgh), (QMUL), Klaus Abels (UCL)
Accent Bias and Fair Access in Britain
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
Erez Levon (Bern), (QMUL), Dominic Watt (York), and Christina Perry (QMUL Law)
Advancing the European Multilingual Experience (AThEME)
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