Welcome
I
am a linguist with a focus on English linguistics, more specifically on varieties of English (World
Englishes), diachronic and historical linguistics, as well as corpus linguistics. I hold a doctorate in
English Philology from the University of Freiburg and a
Habilitation in English
Linguistics from the University of Mannheim.
In my doctoral dissertation entitled Accent unites, syntax divides? Varying degrees of nativisation of English in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia (published as World Englishes and Second Language Acquisition: Insights from Southeast Asian Englishes), I examined the structural similarities and differences of postcolonial varieties of English sharing a substrate language but not a colonial history. My cumulative habilitation thesis entitled Contact-induced structural change in Middle English: an integrative approach to developing resources and modelling language contact is a collection of research papers that investigate the transfer of structural properties in the language contact setting between Middle English and Old French, dealing with methodological issues and modelling contact-induced change within the frameworks of Construction Grammar and Edgar Schneider’s Dynamic Model.
Currently, I am a post-doctoral researcher of the Department of English at the University of Mannheim. I have been teaching at universities since 2010, primarily on the topics of World Englishes and diachronic linguistics.
Research interests
- Varieties of English (World Englishes)
- Diachronic Linguistics
- Historical Linguistics
- Corpus Linguistics
Technical skills
- Python
- R
Languages
- German (native speaker)
- French (native speaker)
- English (near-native competence)
- Spanish (intermediate competence)
- Indonesian (intermediate competence)
- Mandarin Chinese (basic competence)
Hobbies & personal interests
- Guitar: I play mainly classical guitar and occasionally electric and acoustic guitar. If you've wondered why my fingernails look a bit unusual, that's why. Besides playing the classics, I enjoy writing original pieces and arrangements. See the YouTube music channel that I started with my wife during the 2020–2022 lockdowns if you want to hear me play.
- Sport: Not as often as I should or would like, but I enjoy hiking, trail running, swimming, and the occasional badminton (plus I have a few mean ping pong tricks up my sleeve).