Alison Aspin
Doctoral Student in Linguistics - Alison’s thesis is entitled ‘Words That Stay and Words That Go: Factors Affecting Word Survival and Obsolescence in English’.
Research project title
Words That Stay and Words That Go: Factors Affecting Word Survival and Obsolescence in English
Supervisors
Dr William van der Wurff and Dr Adam Mearns
Contact details
Email: a.k.aspin@newcastle.ac.uk
Research interests
- language change and the history of English
- psycholinguistics and the structure of the mental lexicon
- the influence on language of ideas about prestige
- ambiguity in speech
- swearing and profanity, euphemism and offensiveness in language
A brief outline of the research project
While new words in English have received considerable scholarly attention, the longer-term survival or loss of words has been a neglected topic. This project addresses that topic. It aims to identify and assess, systematically, the factors influencing lexical loss/persistence, and to investigate the role played by psycholinguistic processes. The project will contribute to the understanding of lexical change in English and – more widely – to forging a link between two currently separate fields of enquiry: historical lexical change, and the processing of words in the mind.
- Full AHRC Northern Bridge Doctoral Training Award
- 2015 recipient of the Taught MA Prize for Linguistics (Newcastle University)
- Language and Cognition Reading Group
- SELLL Postgraduate Tutors Committee
- SEL1027 - Introduction to the Structure of Language 1: Syntax and Phonology: Seminar Leader, 2018-19
- SEL2223 - Speakers as Wordsmiths: Seminar Leader and Lecturer, 2018-19
- SEL1027 - Shaping Sounds and Syntax: Seminar Leader, 2017-18
- SEL1012 - Language through Time: Introduction to the History of English: Seminar Leader, 2017-18
- SEL2223 - Speakers as Wordsmiths: Invited Lecturer, 2016-17
- Durham Castle Conference (Durham University): Evolution of the English lexicon: survival of the fittest?, 2017 (Paper)
- HaSS Conference (Newcastle University): Language as chimera: how English got its odd body parts, 2017 (Paper)
- 12th Newcastle upon Tyne Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics (Newcastle University): Disappearing words: factors affecting word obsolescence in English, 2017 (Paper)