Literary linguistics
The University of Sheffield has one of the largest concentrations of researchers in literary linguistics in the world.
One of the cluster’s key strengths is the diversity of subjects and approaches it includes, from cognitive poetics to the history of literary and linguistic thought, from dialect representation to empirical stylistics.
Our research interests are brought together by our shared focus on style of all kinds – narrative, dramatic, filmic, discursive and poetic. Cluster members also share common concerns with practical public engagement and are involved in a range of community-based research activities, involving work with local reading groups, art galleries, museums, schools and arts organisations.
Our vibrant research environment is further nurtured and sustained by the international conferences, workshops, and symposia we regularly participate in and host.
Our postgraduate students are also a central component in our literary-linguistic research community. Recent doctoral projects completed by our PhD students include the representation of dialect in South Yorkshire literature; the history of linguistic transcription; multimodal cognitive poetics; thou and thee in 18th-century drama; the representation of perception in the novels of Jane Austen; and metaphors of the economic crisis.
