billylinguist Creative Writing, English Language, English Literature, Linguistics

MLA Toronto 2026

In January 2026, two Northumbria colleagues, Billy Clark and Tony Williams will take part in a special session on ‘Producing and Evaluating Style’ at the Modern Language Association (MLA) convention in Toronto

The session will explore ideas from Billy’s project, funded by the Leverhulme Trust (MRF-2024-043), which will develop an account of the pragmatic processes involved in producing, interpreting and evaluating communicative acts, as well as how all of these processes interact

You can read more about the MLA session on the MLA Humanities Commons site here:

https://producingandevaluatingstyle.mla.hcommons.org

There will also soon be more information on the project page:

https://northumbriaenglish.org/producing-and-evaluating-style/

Here are the slides for Billy’s talk:

https://northumbriaenglish.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/billyclark-mla2026-pragmaticsandstyle.pptx

billylinguist English, English Language, Linguistics

Polysemy, Pragmatics and Word Meaning

The next speaker in our English Language and Linguistics research seminar series is Professor Robyn Carston from University College London

The talk’s title is Polysemy, Pragmatics and Word Meaning. There’s an abstract below.

Time: 12noon to 1pm, Wednesday 19 February 2025

Place: Sandyford 417, City Campus, Northumbria University

Also online: email Billy Clark to join online: billy.clark@northumbria.ac.uk

Directions and campus map: https://www.northumbria.ac.uk/about-us/our-campuses/newcastle-city-campus

Continue reading “Polysemy, Pragmatics and Word Meaning” →
billylinguist English Language, Linguistics, research, Uncategorized

Language and Intangible Cultural Heritage

The next speaker in our English Language and Linguistics research seminar series is Professor Natalie Braber from Nottingham Trent University

The talk’s title is ‘Is our language part of our heritage? Intangible cultural heritage in the UK‘. There’s an abstract below.

This is an online session. Email Billy Clark to join: billy.clark@northumbria.ac.uk

Continue reading “Language and Intangible Cultural Heritage” →
billylinguist Language Learning and Teaching, Linguistics, Uncategorized

Supporting English Language Teaching

The next speaker in our Language and Linguistics Research Seminar series is our colleague Dr. Bill Guariento.

The talk’s title is ‘Supporting English Language Teaching students online in Gaza’

Bill will be telling us about his project supporting students in Gaza with online teaching.

Continue reading “Supporting English Language Teaching” →
billylinguist Uncategorized

Linguistics Research Seminars

We have a great line-up of research seminars for semester one of 2023-2024. Here is the lineup:

. . .
We offer a combination of in-person and online seminars. In-person seminars will also be streamed via Teams unless otherwise stated.

. . .
18 October 2023
Dr Phillip Wallage (Northumbria University)
How to say NO in early German and early English: changing ways to agree and disagree
12:00-13:00, Sandyford 301

. . .


1 November 2023
Dr Rachid Khoumikham (Northumbria University)
Exploring career progression for female engineers: insights into the influence of English medium education (EME) on career progression in the UK and Palestine
12:00-13:00, Sandyford 301

. . .
22 November 2023
Prof. Louise Cummings (Hong Kong Polytechnic University) Cognitive-linguistic difficulties in adults with Long COVID 12:00-13:00, online via Teams

. . .

8 December 2023
Richie Greaves and Tony Evans (guest speakers and Hillsborough survivors)
Hillsborough: the truth
15:00-16:00, Lipman 0001
Followed by a poster exhibition and presentations from EL6052 Forensic Linguistics at 16:00-17:00

. . .
13 December 2023
Dr Stefan Grondelaers (Radboud University Nijmegen)
Title to be confirmed
12:00-13:00, online via Teams

. . .

All welcome. For further information, please contact Dr Mimi Huang, Research Group Lead and Postgraduate Research Lead for Language and Linguistics: mimi.huang@northumbria.ac.uk