Research in English Language and Linguistics
Our research engages with English and its cognate languages from medieval times to the present day, and is concentrated in:
Glasgow has a long-established, international reputation for the historical study of English, linking the best of philological, literary-critical and linguistic traditions. We are a leading player in the area of modern English language, using quantitative analysis of large online corpora as well as qualitative research in a variety of genres to identify and interpret language use across a wide range of contemporary spoken and written data.
Our historic strengths in the study of Scots and English in Scotland have been enhanced by the recent development of innovative large-scale collaborative projects. Our provision in the area of medieval studies is closely associated with the interdisciplinary Glasgow Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, one of the largest concentrations of its kind in the UK.
Glasgow is one of the world’s leading centres of excellence for Digital Humanities, and many of our projects have a substantial digital element.
Our reputation in all of these areas has been recognised by large-scale external funding from (e.g.) the British Academy, Leverhulme Trust, the Mellon Foundation, the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and the UK Research Councils.
We have a flourishing graduate programme, with a range of taught and research masters’ degrees and a large constituency of doctoral students.
We have dedicated research studentships in all fields of English Language, funded by our world-famous Historical Thesaurus project, and we are part of graduate training consortia including the ESRC-funded Doctoral Training Centre pathways in Social and Applied Investigations in Language and Linguistics, and the Quadrivium programme in medieval manuscript studies.