Heading for Britain!
Some weeks ago, I received the good news that Lancaster University had accepted my application for a position as a PhD student in Linguistics. Therefore, next January I will be leaving for the UK to join the Department of Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster. I will be working on a research project (provisionally entitled “Levels of Systematicity and Creativity in Idioms: a Socio-Cognitive Approach to Italian Data”), under the supervision of Professor Elena Semino. In principle, this project aims to empirically test the hypothesis that the cognitive status of idiomatic constructions is similar to that of more “regular” expressions, resulting from the interaction of domain-general cognitive principles and communicative routines (in a usage-based fashion). In particular, I would like to investigate the idiomatic systematicity and creativity in a large amount of data drawn from a giant web-based corpus of Italian (my mother-tongue language), adopting an approach similar to Langlotz’s (2006), but more concerned with the intersubjective dimension of language use and the cultural background of native Italian speakers. However, my project will take a more definite shape after getting to Lancaster and speaking to Prof. Semino. STAY TUNED!
References:
Langlotz, Andreas. 2006. Idiomatic Creativity. A Cognitive-Linguistic Model of Idiom-Representation and Idiom Variation in English. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
