The 2022-23 edition of the LEL seminar begins tomorrow (4th October) with a talk by Lauren Fonteyn (Leiden University). The talk will be at 4pm in Simon 1.34. The abstract and the title are below. Featured photo is from Lauren’s website MacBERTh & GysBERT: using machine learning to automate grammatical and semantic data annotation in historical […]
August 9, 2022 by manling
Comments Off on Zimmermann in “English Language and Linguistics”
Summer time is reading time, and if you’re after reading material, Manchet’s humble recommendation is Richard Zimmermann’s latest paper. The article, published in English Language and Linguistics, is titled “A quantitative model of verb–object order in Middle English with special reference to the prose–poetry distinction”. This paper has everything. It has poetry, numbers, trees, data, […]
August 5, 2022 by manling
Comments Off on Mancunians at ICHL25
Oxford University is hosting the 25th International Conference on Historical Linguistics this week. The programme features a number of papers with Manchester connections (some of them historical), as highlighted below. Romance GO + infinitive: past and future, home and awayNigel Vincent and Max W. Wheeler Dynamical systems – a standard theory for language change? Henri […]
September 13, 2021 by manling
Comments Off on Brendan Cox on his summer internship
A number of LEL students spent their summer doing an internship. Manchet will let you hear from some of them, starting with Brendan Cox’s account of his Research Experience Internship. My Student Experience Internship, led and supervised by Dr Richard Zimmermann, took place over the course of 8 weeks in the summer of 2021. Thanks […]
August 27, 2021 by manling
Comments Off on Moretti viva-ed
Congratulations to Lorenzo Moretti (pictured below) for passing his PhD viva! Lorenzo started his PhD at Manchester in 2017, working on the origin of auxiliary do under the supervision of Tine Brebam and Kersti Börjars, with John Payne as the Independent Reviewer. What he’s found out is that auxiliary do is the result of two constructions – causative do and pro-verb do – […]
January 14, 2021 by manling
Comments Off on Ayumi Miura showered with honours
PhD alumna Ayumi Miura has had an enviable run with prestigious awards. In December 2020, she was awarded a prize from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. The prize is awarded to junior scholars in a tough interdisciplinary competition, judged on two criteria: the quality and originality of research outputs, and leadership potential […]
June 12, 2020 by manling
Comments Off on Fonteyn and Nini in Cognitive Linguistics
The latest issues of Cognitive Linguistics is out, featuring a paper by former colleague, Lauren Fonteyn, and still a colleague, Andrea Nini. Lauren and Andrea’s brainchild is a perfect fusion of their linguistic interests: historical corpora, language variation and change and the role of an individuality. Are we individuals? Read ‘Individuality in syntactic variation: An […]
May 20, 2020 by manling
Comments Off on Zimmermann in Journal of Historical Syntax
Richard Zimmermann’s latest paper is just out in Journal of Historical Syntax. The paper is titled “Testing causal associations in language change: The replacement of subordinating then with when in Middle English”, and it’s a beautiful display of what LEL does best: language change and data (note also the beautiful minimalist graphics). The paper is […]
April 22, 2020 by manling
Comments Off on For the lovers of Old English
If you like Old English, you really need to check out Richard’s Old English treasure trove of a website. Equally, if you you don’t yet know whether or not you like Old English, but you would like to develop a preference, this website is a must-visit corner of the internet. It has everything: its very own […]
April 8, 2020 by manling
Comments Off on Yáñez-Bouza et al. (2019) volume hailed in JHS
Last year, we celebrated the launch of Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax. This volume is in honour of LEL’s David Denison, edited by Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, Emma Moore, Linda van Bergen and Willem B. Hollmann, with the assistance of Ayumi Miura, and published by Cambridge University Press. The collection has just received a warm […]
October 3, 2022 by manling
Comments Off on Lauren Fonteyn at LEL seminar