Presented as part of the HRC Seminar Series

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This talk will deal with the variation of human language along two dimensions, the medium (spoken vs. written) and the level of distance or proximity between the interlocutors (from local to  global). The main focus of the talk will be on matters of methodology, i.e. the question of how the type of register variation in question can be systematically investigated and, ideally, measured.

Volker Gast studied General and Comparative Linguistics as well as Latin in Mainz, where he graduated in 1999. He obtained a PhD in English linguistics from the Free University of Berlin in 2003. Since 2009, he has been a professor of English linguistics at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena. His research interests include linguistic typology, semantics and corpus linguistics. He has done fieldwork on Mexican and Papuan languages, and has been involved in several interdisciplinary projects. Currently he is investigating pseudo-oral discourse in literary texts, with a focus on spoken language in James Joyce's works.

The Humanities Research Centre was established in 1972 as a national and international centre for excellence in the Humanities and a catalyst for innovative Humanities scholarship and research within the Australian National University. The HRC interprets the "Humanities" generously, recognising that new methods of theoretical enquiry have done much to break down the traditional distinction between the humanities and the interpretive social sciences; recognising, too, the importance of establishing dialogue between the humanities and the natural and technological sciences, and the creative arts.