Language and linguistics

We research the acquisition, production and interpretation of language in different contexts.

Our main strengths are in forensic linguistics, systemic functional linguistics, corpus linguistics, discourse analysis, formulaic language, visual/multimodal and digital communication, and professional communication.

Typically, we ask how particular social and cultural phenomena affect, or are affected by, language. For example, Alzheimer’s disease directly affects the production and comprehension of words. Conversely, someone’s language choices can shape how evident their dementia is and how others talk to them.

The primary research centre within Language and Linguistics at Cardiff is the Centre for Language and Communication Research. Further research groups include:

• Cardiff Language and the Law (CALL)
• Linguistic Ethnography Discussion and Study Group (LEDS)
• Cardiff Corpus Group
• The Nominal Group
• Sociolinguistics Group.

One of our researchers, Dr Sean Roberts is an evolutionary psycholinguist. He is part of a team developing a service called ‘Future Time Reference' that recognises real-time changes in risk taking from public social media.