the LINC Network

The How Does Language Work? Conference will be held at Aston University, Thursday 27th June and/or Friday 28th June, 2013.

I'll be teaching there on Friday June 28th, where I will be giving a session on the noun phrase (nominal group) and focussing specifically on the role of nominalisation.

My collegues Tom Bartlett and Gerard O'Grady will also be taking part. Tom will examine the clause as a pattern of wording built around a verb and how they can be combined to expand meaning potential. Gerard will explore Halliday’s notion of “theme”.

We're really exciting about taking part in this - it looks like a great event and a great opportunity to really engage with teachers who have such an important impact on students' understanding of how language works. The aim of this conference is to help "move learners from everyday language to the academic language needed to succeed".

Here is he full list of speakers:
Professor J R Martin, University of Sydney (Australia)
Associate Professor Sue Hood, University of Technology (Australia)
Tom Bartlett, Cardiff University (UK)
Lise Fontaine, Cardiff University (UK)
Gerard O’Grady, Cardiff University (UK)
Geoff Thompson, University of Liverpool (UK)
Brian Dare, Director of Lexis Education and international consultant for language and literacy

For more information see the conference website:

The 3rd LinC Summer School will be held September 8-10 2014 at Cardiff University. Details will follow soon!

This post is an update on the summer school programme for both the introductory and applied courses. An outline of both courses is given below followed by funding opportunities for attending the summer school.

Instructors

Sheena Gardner, Geoff Thompson, Mick O’Donnell, Izaskun Elorza, Blanca García-Riaza, Claire Acevedo, Margaret Berry, Alan Hess, Lise Fontaine, Tom Bartlett and Gerard O’Grady

Provisional Programme

Introductory Course - click here for session descriptions
The Introductory Course in SFL will introduce participants to the basics of SFL with a particular focus on clausal analysis. There will be sessions on each of the three metafunctions - the experiential, the interpersonal and the textual - as well as sessions discussing how the metafunctions combine to make multi-stranded meaning and on potential applications of the approach. The programme is set up to provided a paired lecture and workshop dedicated to each topic, which provides the opportunity to gain hands-on practical experience in analysing grammar. The programme also introduces the UAM CorpusTool for those who are interested in learning to use it.

• Introduction to SFL (Lise Fontaine)
• Experiential Meaning (Tom Bartlett)
• Experiential Meaning workshop (Tom Bartlett)
• Interpersonal Meaning (Geoff Thompson and Lise Fontaine)
• Workshop on Interpersonal Meaning, introducing the UAM CorpusTool (Mick O'Donnell and Lise Fontaine)
• Textual and information Meaning (Gerard O'Grady)
• Workshop on Textual and information Meaning (Gerard O'Grady)
• Summary Session: the full analysis and applications (Tom Bartlett and Gerard O'Grady)

Applied Course - click here for session descriptions
The applied course assumes a good foundation in SFL and is suited for people interested in applying SFL to educational settings. The sessions in the applied course are varied, providing a range of knowledge and experience in applying SFL to educational settings.

• Exploring university student writing through the BAWE corpus (Sheena Gardner)
• Teaching ‘reported speech’: From a formal to a systemic approach (Izaskun Elorza and Blanca García-Riaza)
• Interpersonal choices in the construction of the reader-in-the-text (Geoff Thompson) Classroom discourse analysis (Mick O'Donnell)
• Analysis using the UAM CorpusTool (Mick O'Donnell)
• The Reading to Learn literacy acceleration program (Claire Acevedo)
• Integrating SFL in education: presentations and open discussion (Alan Hess and Margaret Berry)

Funding Opportunities

The funding for staff or students from eligible institutions outside Europe is now up to a maximum of £1200. Funding for staff or students from eligible institutions inside Europe remains up to a maximum of £700. Summer School registration costs of £120 will be paid from the bursaries. Eligible institutions are those from institutions in the Banco de Santander universities network.
For more information, please consult this following website.

Those eligible for the funding should send a CV and covering letter, stating how much funding is being sought and how this money will be used. Please email your application us here.

Good news from CUP, Analysing English Grammar should be on shelves in October 2012 or soon after. The description of the book is given below along with the contents.

Analysing English Grammar (CUP)

A practical step-by-step introduction to the analysis of English grammar, this book leaves the reader confident to tackle the challenges analyzing grammar may pose. The first textbook to take an integrated approach to function and structure in grammatical analysis, it allows students to build experience, skills and confidence in working with grammar. The innovative, hybrid approach combines an introduction to systemic functional theory with a solid grounding in grammatical structure. The book approaches grammar in an incremental way, enabling students to develop grammatical skill in stages. It is of particular value to those starting to work with functional grammar but it is also relevant for experienced readers who are interested in developing a more systematic approach to grammatical analysis.

• The first textbook to take an integrated approach to function and structure in grammatical analysis
• Includes a range of interesting worked examples and exercises to engage the student
  
• Useful summaries and further reading sections are included at the end of each chapter

Contents

1. Introduction to functional grammatical analysis
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Analyzing grammar within a functional framework
1.3 An overview of systemic functional linguistics
1.4 The goal of grammatical analysis
1.5 Exercises
1.6 Further Reading

2 The units of language analysis
2.1 Introduction
2.2 The clause: elements and units
2.3 Word and group classes
2.4 An initial view of the clause: representing functions and structures
2.5 Summary
2.6 Exercises
2.7 Further Reading

3 The grammar of things: the nominal group
3.1 Introduction to referring expressions
3.2 The nominal group
3.3 Tests for recognizing nominal group boundaries
3.4 Worked example of the nominal group analysis
3.5 Exercises
3.6 Further Reading

4 Representing experience
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Analysing experiential meaning
4.3 Tests for analysing processes, participants and circumstances
4.4 Functional-structural view of the experiential strand of meaning
4.5 Summary
4.6 Exercises
4.7 Further Reading

5 Orienting Language
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Goals and limitations of the chapter
5.3 The role of subject and its place in the clause
5.4 The Finite element
5.5 Modality
5.6 Polarity
5.7 An interpersonal view of the clause
5.8 Mood
5.9 Summary
5.10 Exercises
5.11 Further Reading

6 Organizing Language
6.1 Introduction
6.2 A Textual view of the clause
6.3 Theme and Mood
6.4 Types of Theme
6.5 Thematic constructions
6.6 Analysing Theme
6.7 Texture
6.8 Summary
6.9 Exercises
6.10 Further reading

7 From text to clause
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Textual Themes and clause boundaries
7.3 Combining clauses
7.4 Identifying clause boundaries
7.5 Summary
7.6 Exercises
7.7 Further Reading

8 Guidelines for grammatical analysis
8.1 A focus on written texts
8.2 Summary of grammatical tests
8.4 Summary
8.5 Exercises
8.6 Further Reading

9 There and back again: interpreting the analysis
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Patterns of meaning in text
9.3 Final remarks
9.4 Exercises
9.5 Further reading

10 Answers to exercises

A comparison of the interpersonal metafunction in English and Slovenian

On Tuesday, February 14th, at 1.10pm in room 3.62, we're holding a postgrad research seminar. Monika Kavalir is visiting us from Slovenia for one week and she is working on the contribution that the Interpersonal Metafunction makes at the level below the clause, specifically exploring the hypothesis that adjectives can be used either absolutely or relatively in all three degrees in English and Slovenian. She will be presenting her work to us, which will be followed by discussion. This is a very friendly and casual session, please do join us if you are interested in the interpersonal functions of language and/or descriptions of non-English languages. If you have any questions, you can email me.

We will be running a one-day workshop in Corpus Linguistics on February 3rd 2012 for all postgraduate students, researchers and staff who are interested. The event is free but spaces are limited. You will be required to register for each event to secure a place and you can do this using this link.

Morning workshop:

AntConc: Emma Moreton (Coventry) will explain how AntConc can be used in your own research with your own corpus/corpora. It is a simple concordance program for Windows, Macintosh OS X, and Linux but it's quite powerful. We will show you how to build your own corpus and use the features in the software to obtain concordances and collocations. Emma will demonstrate how she is using it in her PhD research.
If you want to attend and use this workshop to try AntConc on your own data, you will need to bring your own laptop and your own data. However we can provide sample data for you to use.

Afternoon workshop:

UAM CorpusTool: Geoff Thompson (Liverpool) will lead an introductory workshop on using the UAM CorpusTool. This is a really nice project package - quite easy to use and is an excellent resource. It lets you manage your research project , coding your analysis at whatever level you need (discourse, text, sentence, group, word, etc.) and it includes a nice and useful statistical package. It's theory neutral but is generally used by those working within Systemic Functional Linguistics. This workshop will take place in a computer training room so no need for your own computer although you are welcome to use your own if you prefer.

AntConc and CorpusTool are both available for free and while they do very different things, they complement each other very nicely.

Outline of the day's events:

10.30 - 12.30: Introduction to AntConc
Emma Moreton (Coventry) and Lise Fontaine (Cardiff)
room 2.03 (Humanities Building)

14.00 - 17.00: the UAM CorpusTool
Geoff Thompson (Liverpool) and Lise Fontaine (Cardiff)
Training Room 2 (Julian Hodge Building)

Contact me, if you have any questions.

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LinC is hosting the following research seminar on November 21st 2012 at 4pm in room 3.58 (Humanities Building, Cardiff University):

Investigating ideologies in Canadian corpora:

Using systemic functional grammar in cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse studies

Rachelle Freake, Queen Mary, University of London

This paper presents findings on language ideologies in French and English Canadian newspapers. French and English have important functions in Canada where they are not only official languages but also serve as markers of social difference (Bouchard, 2002; Heller, 1999; Oakes & Warren, 2007). Throughout Canadian history, beliefs and understandings of language have come to be shared across social groups, ingrained in ways of life, and significant symbols of the nation (Karim, 1993; Kymlicka, 2004; Resnick, 1994). Here, systematically shared naturalized beliefs about language shall be understood as “language ideologies”, and these are often manifested in discourse (Blommaert, 1999; Boudreau & Dubois, 2007; Woolard, 1998). Since language ideologies are socially shared, they tend to differ between social groups. When groups are largely monolingual, ideologies may be unique to speakers of a single language. Since the vast majority of Canadians speak only one of Canada’s two official languages, it is unclear whether French speakers and English speakers share language ideologies even if they ostensibly share the same society (i.e., Canada). To ascertain whether French and English speakers’ language ideologies differ, a cross-linguistic analysis is required. Since newspapers serve as a rich site for studies of language ideologies (DiGiacomo, 1999; Johnson and Ensslin, 2007), this paper takes French and English newspapers as data. The aim, then, is to highlight some of the similarities and differences between language ideologies in French and English Canada and to demonstrate how specific methods can help in this endeavour.

Cross-linguistic corpus-assisted discourse studies (Baker et al., 2008; Freake et al., 2011) is a methodological approach that combines corpus linguistics tools, analysis, and theory with discourse analytic tools, analysis and theory. Both of these components have strong links to systemic functional grammar (see e.g. Eggins, 2004; Halliday & Matthieson, 2004; Hunston & Thompson, 2006; Martin, 2009; Young & Harrison, 2004), and thus the method used here, too, combines corpus linguistics and discourse analysis in a Hallidayan approach. Data are drawn from 17 Canadian newspapers (12 in English; 5 in French) over a three-week period in 2009 for a total of over 7.5 million words in English and 3.5 million words in French. The method proves to be useful in the study of language ideologies in Canada for many reasons. As discussed in other research (e.g. Baker et al., 2008), the flexibility and triangulation of the combined quantitative and qualitative approach allows for increased objectivity, larger data samples, and the examination of both minority and majority trends. The addition of a cross-linguistic component further enhances the comparative and contrastive capability of the approach (cf. Johansson, 2007; Partington, 2010). Finally, grounding both of the methodological components (i.e. discourse and corpus) in a systemic functional approach ensures a shared theoretical foundation for the findings. Results from this study suggest that French and English speakers draw on some similar and some divergent language ideologies. While language ideologies in French newspapers suggest integrative evaluations of French and instrumental evaluations of English, in English, newspapers suggest only instrumental understandings of the English and French languages. These overall different evaluations of Canadian official languages may have implications for conceptualizations of and consensus on Canadian nationhood.

English determiners and the concept of 'selection'

We will be holding an informal LinC event on Thursday October 27th at 11.15 am in room 3.66. It will be an informal lunch-time discussion of English determiners and the concept of 'selection'. We will be discussing/debating Fawcett's (2007) paper entitled: Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group: an essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics. I've copied the abstract for the paper below. If anyone is interested in joining us, please let me know and I'll send you a copy of the paper so that it can be read in advance of the meeting. If you do want to join us, bring your own lunch!

Modelling ‘selection’ between referents in the English nominal group: an essay in scientific inquiry in linguistics
In Butler, C.S., Hidalgo Downing, R., and Lavid, J., (eds.) 2007. Functional Perspectives on Grammar and Discourse: In Honour of Angela Downing. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
This paper addresses two issues, one descriptive and one methodological. It offers a description of part of the English nominal group (aka noun phrase) that greatly extends the traditional concept of the ‘determiner’. More specifically, it describes an integrated semantics and functional syntax for the quantifying and deictic determiners, based on the concept of ‘selection’. This approach has the advantage over standard representations that, when analyzing (1) five books, (2) those books and (3) five of those books, the words five, those and books expound the same element in each case. The paper then shows how this approach can be extended to eight other determiners and their associated uses of of (and, incidentally, the structure for its remaining uses). But there is equal emphasis on the methodology used to establish which of three possible types of structures should be used to model such examples, and the paper concludes by suggesting that the ultimate criteria are those of elegance in the operation of the grammar.

The research network for Linguistics in Cardiff is pleased to announce the 2nd LinC Summer school and Workshop in Systemic Functional Linguistics

Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales
September 3 – 5, 2012

Systemic Functional Linguistics and the classroom

The goal of the summer school is to offer research and training in both understanding the Systemic Functional Linguistic theory of language and applying it to educational settings. The summer school will run two parallel courses: introduction and applied.

The introduction to SFL course is ideal for people with little or no experience of SFL or those who want a refresher course. The applied course assumes a good foundation in SFL and is suited for people interested in applying SFL to educational settings. Both are suitable for professionals, students, and researchers who have an interest in learning more about Systemic Functional Linguistics and its applications.

Provisional programme to include:
Functional grammar; Phonology and intonation; Text analysis; UAM CorpusTool; Teaching writing through SFL; Use of corpora in teaching; Classroom discourse; SFL in language learning.

Instructors: Sheena Gardner, Geoff Thompson, Mick O’Donnell, Tom Bartlett, Gerard O’Grady and Lise Fontaine.

Registration is open now: Places are limited. Registration fee is £120 for the full three days.

Call for Poster Presentations
Participants at the summer school are encouraged to submit an abstract for a Poster Presentation. Accepted proposals will be presented at a poster session during the summer school. Deadline for proposal submissions is May 1st, 2012. Send abstracts of 500 words to linc-network@cf.ac.uk.

For more information: http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/linc

We'd like to announce an upcoming LinC event to be held on Tuesday June 21 2010 in room 0.36 of the Humanities Building, Cardiff University, at 3.30 pm.
Please see below for a description of the event. It will be run as a data session. Everyone is welcome.

Transitivity patterns in post-match media interview discourse

Kieran A. File, PhD Candidate
Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand

My PhD research explores the language of post-match media interviews in different sports (golf, tennis, rugby and football), and in different regions of the world (Oceania and Europe). The post-match media interview has become a common part of the televised sporting experience, yet, unlike other media interview genres, it has received little research attention. My primary research goal is to conduct a genre and register analysis of the language of post-match interviews using a combination of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and ethnographic interviews with stakeholders in these interviews.

In this data session I aim to break off one aspect of my genre analysis that has been causing me several analytical issues – the grammar of experiential/ideational meaning (transitivity patterns), in particular, the types of processes speakers in this genre use to encode their experiences of the world. Analysing the grammatical patterns of ideational/experiential meaning is an important step in a genre analysis as it helps analysts explore aspects of both the field of a particular register, and to see if field related patterns exist in certain stages of a given genre. However, when analysing transitivity patterns, analysts can come across a number of ‘sticky cases’ that test the theoretical and descriptive boundaries of the theory. My aim for this session is to explore some of these ‘sticky cases’. Firstly, I will talk very briefly about the project and quickly highlight some common transitivity patterns I have identified. We will then have a look at some data together (two transcripts: one from a team sport, one from an individual sport) to explore some of the decisions I am making and see how others view some of the sticky cases evident in this data set.

Keystroke Language (and Text) Production: perspectives from cognitive and functional linguistics

23-24 May 2011

Cardiff University, Cardiff, Wales

Supported by the Centre for Language and Communication Research and the LinC Research Network at Cardiff University

The use of keystroke logging as a methodology in language research is not a new field of study since the first Computer Keystroke Logging conference was held at Umeå University in Sweden in 2002. However to date this area of research has primarily focussed on written composition and translation studies. The KEY 2011 workshop and conference intends to broaden this perspective by extending the contributions keystroke logging can make to language production generally, including spontaneous language such as chat messaging. Its theme is to explore functional and cognitive perspectives on the use of keystroke logging in language research where the focus of interest is on the dynamic process of production rather than on the static product of language production.

Keynote Speakers

Professor Kristyan Spelman Miller (University of Winchester)
Dr Mick O’Donnell (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Wagsoft Software)

Call for papers

Papers are invited on the general theme of the conference, dealing with the use of keystroke logging in linguistic and language-related research. Presentations will be 20 minutes with 10 minutes discussion time. Papers which present work in progress or that focus on software development and methodology are also welcome. Although we will consider all contributions that relate to the main theme in general, we especially encourage papers that explore:

• Evidence of cognitive processing in electronic language production
• Corpora and the study of electronically produced language
• Language or text as dynamic process (rather than static product)
• Human-Computer Interaction as related to language and keyboard competence
• Linguistic competence (including translation competence)
• Descriptive work that enhances our understanding of electronically produced language
• Functional accounts of language production (including manual and cognitive errors)
• Methodological and/or ethical issues in the use of keystroke logging software

Abstracts

An abstract of approximately 400 words should be submitted electronically at the following webpage: http://linguistlist.org/confcustom/KEY2011. Please state, where appropriate, research questions, approach, method, data and (expected) results. Abstracts will be refereed anonymously by members of the programme committee.
The deadline for submissions is 16 March 2011.
Notification will be sent to authors by 4 April 2011.

KEY2011 website: http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/newsandevents/events/conferences/key2011/
email: linc-network@cf.ac.uk

Postgraduate Funding Opportunities in Language and Communication Research

ESRC Studentships in Language and Communication at Cardiff

The Centre for Language and Communication Research (CLCR) is able to support applications to the ESRC Open Studentship Competition for PhD studentships, covering tuition fees for British and EU students plus a generous stipend.
You must apply for your Cardiff University degree programme by Monday 7th February 2011. Further information is available here

In order to be considered for a studentship, in the first instance you need to apply for postgraduate study at Cardiff University. Please contact Dr Justine Coupland (PhD Admissions, CouplandJ@cf.ac.uk), or Professor Peter Garrett, (Director of Postgraduate Research, GarrettP@cf.ac.uk) or Mrs Dawn Harrington (CLCR Postgraduate Administrator, clcr-pg@cf.ac.uk) for further details.

Arts and Humanities Research Council Studentships (AHRC)

Under the Block Grant Partnership between the AHRC and the Centre for Language and Communication Research can also support applications for studentship awards, available in 2011/12, in the subject areas of Linguistics and in English Language and Literature. We invite applications for:

• 1 Research Preparation Masters in Linguistics.
• 1 doctoral award in Linguistics
• 3 doctoral studentship awards in English Language and Literature

You must apply for your Cardiff University degree programme by Monday 7th February 2011. For further details, application forms and guidance notes please visit
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/for/prospective/pg/funding/ahrcawards/index.html

Cardiff University President’s Research Scholarships

The University is making available 72 “flagship” postgraduate research awards which carry the prestige of association with the University’s new President, the Nobel Prize for Medicine (2007) winner, Professor Sir Martin Evans. A number of these awards are available for postgraduates seeking to research in the area of 'Re-constructing Multiculturalism'.
Deadline: The 2011/12 application process is beginning in Autumn 2010.
For more information, see: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/presidents/multiculturalism/index.html

School Research Bursaries and 'Cardiff 125' Scholarships

Please see the following webpage for more information.
http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/degreeprogrammes/postgraduateresearch/schoolfunding/

Please visit the Centre for Language and Communication website to find details of our primary research areas
http://www.cf.ac.uk/encap/degreeprogrammes/postgraduateresearch/langcommunicationmphil/index.html

For more information about these and other funding opportunities please contact:
Sarah Robertson, Academic Support Officer (encap-ac@cf.ac.uk).
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/for/prospective/pg/funding/index.html

Cardiff University
Centre for Language and Communication Research
School of English, Communication and Philosophy

There is now a downloads page for the International Systemic Functional Congress which was held in Vancouver, Canada, July 2010. In addition to presentations, there is also a video archive of the plenary speaker sessions which includes presentations by the following speakers:

Michael Halliday - Language Evolving: some systemic functional reflections on the history of meaning

Terrence Deacon - Language and complexity: Evolution inside out

Jim Martin - Metalinguistic divergence: axial argumentation in SFL

Annabelle Lukin - News reporting as social practice: some methodological implications of Halliday's 'register'

Giovanni Parodi - Academic genres across disciplines: Insights, findings and challenges in multimodal texts analysis of the PUCV-2010 Corpus of Spanish

Christian Matthiessen - Language evolving: Notes towards a semiotic history of humanity

Annabelle Lukin - News reporting as social practice: some methodological implications of Halliday's 'register'

Mary Schleppegrell - Evolving language-based pedagogy: Teachers taking up functional grammar

Kazu Teruya - Illuminating Grammar: language comparison

These videos and other documents from the conference can be found here.

A look back at the first LinC Summer School and Workshop

September 14-16 2010.

After a year of planning, it was amazing to see so many people attend. We had well over 80 registered participants, who came from all over the world. It was great to see people from Romania, Lithuania, Turkey, Tunisia and so many other places. Our special guest lecturers were Professor Michael Halliday, Professor Ruqaiya Hasan and Professor Sydney Lamb. In addition, we also had lectures and workshops given by Mick O’Donnell, Geoff Thompson, Robin Fawcett, Gordon Tucker, Paul Tench, Tom Bartlett, Gerard O’Grady and me.

Probably the most exciting part of the summer school was having Michael Halliday give an introductory lecture and workshop. His lecture was titled ‘On explanation in systemic functional theory’. He explored language as a resource for making meaning and he stressed the ‘enabling’ relationship between value and token, rather than a relationship of cause and effect. Since I have never had the pleasure of hearing him speak, it was a real treat. It was really nice to hear him explain his now famous analogy for language (as system) and text (as instance) using the concepts of climate and weather to explain the distinction. He also talked about the two main questions we might have when analysing text. The first is “why does the text mean what it does?” and the second is “why is the text valued as it is?”. To answer the first, he said that the text "means what the linguist says it means” by relating to the system and exploring how the text comes to mean what it does. So understanding the system is key in resolving the first question. He also suggested that there is not much point in trying to answer the second question without having first answered the first question. I was really pleased to hear him say we need more grammarians!

Sydney Lamb gave a talk on neuro-cognitive linguistics and the links between how the brain works and Systemic Functional Linguistics. As you might expect, the brain is an amazingly complex thing but it is so interesting to try to see how language works within this very complex neurological system. From the very early days of SFL, Halliday always paid tribute to Syd Lamb for his work on stratification networks and how it influenced the development of SFL. At the same time, Lamb has always credited Michael Halliday for how Halliday’s work on system network influenced the development of his stratificational theory of language. This was the first time they were lecturing together in many many years and it was fascinating to see how their approaches are coming together again after all this time. Perhaps our little summer school will have a similar historical value to the now famous Georgetown Roundtable where they met in 1964. Well, maybe or maybe not but it’s a nice thought!

Ruqaiya Hasan gave a lecture entitled ‘Conceptualising context of situation in relation to literature’ which considered context of situation in relation to literature. As I have been less familiar with her work, I was very impressed with her approach to context and how easily she could explain rather complex concepts. I liked how she described the material setting as a kind of dormant force which can impinge on what is going on at any time. I had never thought of literature in the way she approached it. I especially enjoyed her discussion of the ‘virtual speaker’ and ‘virtual reader’, which, as she pointed out very well, poses a challenge to context.

The rest of the summer school was something of a bee hive. Everyone was very busy and at breaks there always seemed to be so much to do and so many people to talk to! We ran parallel sessions for the advanced courses and at the same time, offered a very basic introductory course for people with little or no experience of SFL. In the advanced programme, we held sessions on the UAM CorpusTool - always very popular and rightly so since it is such an excellent analysis tool and project management system. There were also some detailed sessions dealing specifically with areas of the grammar such as conjunctives and transitivity. We’ve now got a web page which includes photos and links to handouts and lectures. Hopefully this will be a good resource for everyone.

It really was a privilege to get to spend time with so many renowed linguists. The summer school was more than that though, it was a very friendly and open-minded event that allowed everyone to talk to everyone very freely. Many strong connections and lasting friendships were formed. Now that we’ve finished the 1st ever LinC summer school, we can begin to look forward to the next one in 2012!

Dr Mick O'Donnell will be giving a talk in CLCR on September 22nd, 2010. Details below.

Discovering meaningful patterns in text using UAM CorpusTool

The recent availability of free and relatively accurate syntactic parsers for English have opened up new possibilities for text analysis. This talk will demonstrate how UAM CorpusTool can be used to explore grammatical patterns in English texts. For instance, the software can present views of the occurrences of Modality, Tense/Aspect, Voice, Process Types, etc. throughout a text, allowing you to perceive patterns in the text not immediately visible to a casual reader. Intermixing manual annotation with the automatic syntactic annotation allow other patterns to be revealed, for instance, whether particular characters in the text are construed as doers, as sayers, as thinkers, etc. The use of the software for quick studies of Register differentiation will also be demonstrated.

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2.15pm
Cardiff University
Humanities Building room 5.18