Research cluster

Language Variation, Identity and Interaction

Lots of different people holding up speech bubbles.

Understanding language in use

From the first ‘hello’ to the last ‘goodbye’, we live our lives in social interaction. But how is language used in social contexts?

This cluster focuses on how we use language to do things with words: how we construct our distinct identities through language, how we form and maintain relationships, and how we use both verbal and non-verbal communication to build actions and social institutions together. We investigate language from the perspective of: linguistic variation and change, particularly regional varieties of British English and modern Arabic dialects; conversation analysis, particularly grammar and embodiment in interaction, and second language acquisition, particularly first language attrition.