Research

We are interested in the mental representation of language and particularly in cognitive approaches to language variation and change. Drawing on insights from construction grammar and cognitive linguistics, we focus on the regional and social variation of first, second as well as foreign language varieties of English around the world. We aim to make substantial contributions to the understanding of synchronic variability and diachronic change of languages as well as the mental grammars of multilingual speakers.

Methodologically, we combine corpus-based approaches with experimental studies and place great emphasis on the advanced statistical analysis of objective, reliable and valid sociolinguistic data.

In research and teaching, we offer broad training in all of the above subfields to enable our students and young researchers to carry out independent research on cognitive research questions as early as possible.