PhD projects
Candidates wishing to apply to work on any of these projects should quote the
projectreferencenumberontheirapplicationform.
1.Discoursepresentationinepistolaryprosefiction:acorpus‐basedanalysis
Thisprojectaimstodeterminetheformsandfunctionsofspeech,writingandthought
presentation in epistolary prose fiction. This will be achieved by constructing an
electronic corpus either of one epistolary novel or a series of samples of epistolary
fiction (this will be the student’s decision). The corpus will then be annotated for
categories of speech, writing and thought presentation using the model of discourse
presentationoriginallyoutlinedbyLeechandShort(1981)inStyleinFiction(Longman)
andlatermodifiedbySeminoandShortinCorpusStylistics:Speech,WritingandThought
Presentation in a Corpus of English Writing (Routledge). Once the corpus is tagged and
frequency information obtained for the various discourse presentation categories, this
willbecomparedwiththefrequencyoftagformsintheLancasterSpeech,Writingand
Thought Presentation Written Corpus. Qualitative analysis will then be carried out to
determine the function of discourse presentation in epistolary fiction, with the aim of
determiningparticulardistinctivefeaturesofthissub‐genre.
Keywords:corpuslinguistics,diaries,discoursepresentation,letters,stylistics
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandProf.LesleyJeffries
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC001
2.Theeffectsofpresenttensenarrationinprosefiction
This project investigates the stylistic effects that arise from the use of present tense
narrationinprosefiction.Thecandidatewillcompilearepresentativesampleofpresent
tense narratives and determine an analytical framework to investigate the effects of
boththesimpleandprogressiveaspectinthesetexts.Thisprojectwillbeinformedby
theoriesandmodelsfromcognitivestylistics(e.g.textworldtheory,deicticshifttheory)
and may involve informant testing. Specifically, the hypothesis to be tested is that
present tense narration results in a greater degree of narrative involvement for the
readerthanisthecasewithprototypicalpasttensenarration.
Key words: aspect, deictic shift theory, involvement, narration, present tense, prose
fiction,textworldtheory
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandDrJaneLugea
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC002
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4.Aspokencorpusof1960sBritishEnglish
Theaimofthisprojectistoconstructaonemillionwordcorpusofnaturally‐occurring
spokenBritishEnglishfromtheearly1960s.Thecorpuswillasfaraspossiblematchthe
structure of the Brown family of corpora and will facilitate (i) a comparison of speech
and writing from this period of history and (ii) a diachronic comparison of speech by
using the spoken section of the BNC corpus of 1990s British English as a comparator.
Thecandidatewillberesponsibleforsourcingdata fromsoundarchives (e.g.National
MediaMuseum,NationalSoundArchive)andtranscribingthis.Oncethecorpushasbeen
constructed, the candidate will carry out corpus linguistic analysis to determine
differences in vocabulary frequency, syntactic structure and semantic/pragmatic
meaningovertime.
Keywords:1960s,corpuslinguistics,diachronicanalysis,speech
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandProf.LesleyJeffries
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC003
4.Aspokencorpusof1930sBritishEnglish
Theaimofthisprojectistoconstructaonemillionwordcorpusofnaturally‐occurring
spoken British English from the 1930s. The corpus will as far as possible match the
structure of the Brown family of corpora and will facilitate a synchronic analysis of
speechinearly20thcenturyBritain,thuscontributingtoasignificantgapinthestudyof
the history of English. The candidate will be responsible for sourcing data from sound
archives (e.g. National Media Museum, National Sound Archive) and transcribing this.
Once the corpus has been constructed, the candidate will carry out corpus linguistic
analysis to determine features of vocabulary, syntactic structure and
semantic/pragmaticmeaning,usingappropriatereferencecorporawherepossible.
Keywords:1930s,corpuslinguistics,speech,synchronicanalysis
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandProf.LesleyJeffries
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC004
5.Theeffectsofinterlingualsubtitlesoncharacterisation
Frequently, interlingual subtitles in television/cinematic drama omit elements of the
original character dialogue. The purpose of this project is to find out whether these
omissionsarelikelytoaffectthecharacterisationprocessthatforeignlanguageviewers
engagein.Thecandidatewillcarryoutacasestudyofaselectionofextractsfromdrama
on TV or in the cinema, focused on determining the function of stylistic choices in
translateddialogue.Usingamodelofcharacterisationdevelopedinstylistics,qualitative
analysis will be carried out to determine whether the elements omitted in interlingual
subtitles constitute characterisation triggers. If characterisation cues are missing from
thesubtitleswecanreasonablyassumethatnon‐nativespeakingviewersarepotentially
gettinganimpoverishedviewingexperience.Someinformanttestingmaybeinvolvedin
this project. The ultimate aim is to make recommendations for improving hearing‐
impaired subtitling. We welcome applications to study any foreign language but
particularlySpanishandFrench.
Keywords:characterisation,interlingual,stylistics,subtitles
Supervisors:DrJaneLugea,DrMalcolmPollardandProf.DanMcIntyre
Researchcentre:LanguagesandTranslationResearchGroup,StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:LTRG001
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6.Stylisticandpragmaticchangein20thcenturywrittenBritishEnglish
Traditionally,thestudyofthehistoryofEnglishhaslargelyconcentratedontheperiod
from Old English to Late Modern English (approximately 450AD to 1800). It is only
relativelyrecentlythatlinguistshavebeguntoinvestigatehowEnglishdevelopedinthe
twentieth century, mainly because it was not possible before the advent of
computational methods of linguistic analysis to determine the fine‐grained changes to
thelanguagethatoccurwithinarelativelyshorttime‐span(100years).Itisalsothecase
that historical linguistic analysis of English has focused on form‐related issues such as
changesinphonology,morphologyandsyntax.Thisprojectaimstoredressthebalance
by investigating stylistic and pragmatic over the course of the 20th century. The
candidatewillworkonregisterdevelopmentinprofessionalcommunication,buildinga
diachroniccorpusofprofessionalcommunicationtofacilitatethis.
Keywords:historyofEnglish,pragmatics,professionalcommunication,stylistics
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandDrJimO’Driscoll
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre,CentreforInterculturalPolitenessResearch
Projectreferencenumber:SRC005
7.Enumerationandexemplificationintextualmeaning
This project aims to investigate in detail the phenomenon of listing in (primarily)
English texts. As one of the ‘Textual‐Conceptual Functions (TCFs) of Jeffries’ model of
textualmeaning,thepracticeoflistingintextshasbeenunder‐exploredbycomparison
withotherTCFs.Whilstthereissomediscussionindiscourseandmediastudiesofthe
phenomenonofthethree‐partlist,thepreciseeffectsoftwo,three,fourandmany‐part
listsandtheirrelationshiptotheconceptualprocessesofenumeratingandexemplifying
havenotbeenexploredinanydepth.Thisprojectwilltakeaninductiveapproachtothe
topic,searchingforexamplesoflistsfromarangeofdifferentgenres,bothliteraryand
non‐literary,toestablishsomeprinciplesofthephenomenoninthefirstplacewhichwill
thenbetestedagainstfurtherexamplesuntilarelativelystablemodeloflistinghasbeen
established and the various potential forms that it may take have been examined. The
potentialforideational,aestheticandideologicaleffectswillformpartofthismodeland
mayprovidesomeopportunitiesforinformant‐testingtorefinethemodelfurther.
Keywords:lists,stylistics,textual‐conceptualfunctions
Supervisors:Prof.LesleyJeffriesandProf.DanMcIntyre
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC006
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8.Creatingequivalenceintextualmeaning
This project aims to investigate in detail the phenomenon of creating equivalence in
(primarily)Englishtexts.Asoneofthe‘Textual‐ConceptualFunctions(TCFs)ofJeffries’
modeloftextualmeaning,thepracticeofcreatingequivalenceintextshasbeenunder‐
explored by comparison with other TCFs. Whilst the creation of opposition has been
explored in some depth, the phenomenon of the three‐part list, the precise effects of
apposition and other textual ways of creating equivalence have not been studied in
detail.Thisprojectwilltakeaninductiveapproachtothetopic,searchingforexamples
of equivalence from a range of different genres, both literary and non‐literary, to
establishsomeprinciplesofthephenomenoninthefirstplacewhichwillthenbetested
against further examples until a relatively stable model of listing has been established
andthevariouspotentialformsthatitmaytakehavebeenexamined.Thepotentialfor
ideational,aestheticandideologicaleffectswillformpartofthismodelandmayprovide
someopportunitiesforinformant‐testingtorefinethemodelfurther.
Keywords:equivalence,stylistics,textual‐conceptualfunctions,apposition
Supervisors:Prof.LesleyJeffriesandProf.DanMcIntyre
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC007
9.Personalpronounsandthereaderincontemporarypoetry
This project aims to investigate the role of the personal pronoun in contemporary
poetry. Whilst on some levels, poems work just like any other genre, there are also
expectations of poems that are different from other genres and as a result of this
combination of possibilities there are stylistic effects that are probably only available
through poems. Building on previous work in this field, the project will collect and
analyseacorpusofcontemporarypoemsinEnglish,workingfromthecorpusupwards
towardsatypologyofpronounusageandthepotentialreaderpositionsthattheycreate.
Whilst some corpus tools are envisaged as aiding the analysis, it is expected that this
projectwilldependlargelyonqualitativeanalysis.
Keywords:personalpronouns,stylistics,contemporarypoetry
Supervisors:Prof.LesleyJeffriesandDrLouiseNuttall
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC008
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10.Textualmeaningandtextworldtheory
This project aims to investigate the potential of Jeffries’ developing theory of textual
meaning to develop the theory of text worlds by adding to the analytical framework
those ‘Textual‐Conceptual Functions (TCFs) of Jeffries’ model which are not already
incorporated into Text World Theory. Whilst deixis and modality are already
incorporatedintoTWT,thisthesiswillinvestigate,forexample,theadditionalinsights
that could be gained by including textual opposition, equivalence, enumeration,
exemplification, prioritisation and negation in the analysis of text worlds. This project
will take an inductive approach to the topic, using different genres, both literary and
non‐literary,toestablishthecontributionoftheseadditionalanalyticaltoolstotheTWT
framework.Thepotentialforideational,aestheticandideologicaleffectswillformpart
ofthediscussionfollowingtheanalysisinthisthesis.
Keywords:stylistics,textual‐conceptualfunctions,TextWorldTheory
Supervisors:Prof.LesleyJeffriesandDrLouiseNuttall
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC009
11.Intertitlesandtheinfluenceofplaysonearlycinema:astylisticinvestigation
This project examines the use of intertitles in silent movies in an effort to trace the
impact of theatre on early cinema. The project will involve constructing a diachronic
corpus of intertitles drawn from a representative sample of US and European silent
movies.TheintertitleswillthenbetaggedusingaframeworkdevelopedbyKatieWales
fortheanalysisofstagedirectionsintheatreplays.Oncethetaggingisdone,thecorpus
willbeanalysedtodeterminewhetherthereareinterpretivelysignificantdevelopments
inthefunctionofintertitlesascinematicnarrativetechniquesdevelop.
Keywords:cinema,intertitles,silentmovies,stagedirections,stylistics
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandDrJaneLugea
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC010
12.Atextworldtheoryaccountofpantomime
This project aims to provide an account of the stylistic effects of English pantomime
using text world theory (TWT) as an investigative framework. The candidate will be
responsibleforchoosinganappropriatepantomimescriptorscriptsandcarryingouta
textworldtheoryanalysisfocusedonexplainingthecognitivecomplexitiesinvolvedin
processingthetext.OfparticularinteresttheoreticallywillbehowTWTcanaccountfor
thebreakingofthefourthwall.
Keywords:cognition,fourthwall,pantomime,textprocessing,textworldtheory,
Supervisors:Prof.DanMcIntyreandDrJaneLugea
Researchcentre:StylisticsResearchCentre
Projectreferencenumber:SRC011
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