Research in Linguistics

Members of staff in Linguistics supervise projects at Masters and PhD level and undertake research on a wide range of languages and in a range of areas in Linguistics:

Phonetics and Phonology:
Research in the domain of speech sounds encompasses a range of topics both descriptive and experimental. While the empirical focus is frequently on Irish and Irish-English, the theoretical implications of this research are generally relevant to the characterisation of possible sound systems cross-linguistically. By focusing on what is possible in one language, and in particular by approaching theoretical questions in a systemic way, we gain a better understanding of how the sound systems of languages work.  Research is conducted on the production and perception of contrast at different levels of organisation in different dialects or varieties, in many cases exploring the social dimensions behind contrasting systems. Thus there is great potential for working at the interface of different components of language.

Sociolinguistics:
Sociolinguistics is a broad field of investigation covering approaches such as Labovian quantiative sociolinguistics, the Sociology of language, and various approaches to the analysis of discourse. Central to research in sociolinguistics are the analysis of language variation and its social, cultural and linguistic conditioning. Research at UCD looks at how language interacts with social categories such as gender and social group or class, ethnicity and how linguistic practices are affected by migration, urbanization and other processes of social change including the media such as radio, TV, the internet and text-messaging etc.. There is a focus on so-called monolingual, bilingual and mutlingual settings. Another area that prominently features in sociolinguistic research at UCD is language contact or contact linguistics. While most research has focused on historical language contact dealing with issues such as the role of so-called substrate influence in creole genesis, including the process of creole formation itself, and in the emergence of varieties of the same language, such as varieties of English, there is currently a greater emphasis on contemporary language contact such as how migration, mobility and multilingualism affect language practices. Finally, research also explores how language and language practices are a crucial resource for shaping local social identities and relationships. 

Semantics:
Semantics explores aspects of meaning in language. Semantics can be generally divided into Lexical semantics, which looks at meaning of words, and Compositional/Propositional semantics which looks at the meaning of larger linguistic units such as sentences. Research in both of these areas can be undertaken from either a psychological or a philosophical viewpoint. A psychological would deal with such issues as how the lexicon is stored in the brain of a language user (the mental lexicon) and what conceptual systems allow for the combination of meaningful lexical units to form larger phrases (the syntax/semantics interface). A philosophical approach would explore how language can encode meaning about the world and how our knowledge of the world can be encoded in language. Both approaches are catered for in research in Semantics in UCD.

Syntax:
Over the last ten years, there have been various research projects in Syntax and related interface issues implicating the Lexicon, Meaning and Prosody. The projects have involved staff members and research students and culminated in various forms of dissemination, including publications, research dissertations and conference contributions. 

The research dissertations include the following: 

• Gordian, Emenyonu. 2012. Complex Predicates in Igbo: A Decomposition Approach. PhD dissertation. Supervisor: Prof. J. Ouhalla.
• Ó Donnchadha, Gearóid. 2010. Syntactic Structure Building and the Verbal Noun in Modern Irish: A Minimalist Approach. PhD dissertation. Supervisor: Prof. J. Ouhalla.
• Sheil (né Robinson), Christine. 2009. Agreement in Scottish Gaelic. MPhil dissertation. Supervisor: Prof. J.Ouhalla.
• Garcia-Ordiales, Nuria. 2008. Clitic-placement in Asturian: A Phase-based Approach. PhD dissertation. Supervisor: Prof. J. Ouhalla

Language and Philosophy:
Language has long been of interest to philosophers, but probably no more so that in the last 100 years. Linguists and Philosophers have come to very different conclusions about language and in many ways understand the nature of language differently. For this reason there are many areas in the intersection of language and philosophy that can be fruitfully explored: The nature of language, the role of learning in language, the nature of knowledge of language in humans, the interaction (if any) between language and the world, the instantiation of rules in language, and the use of metaphor in language.

Language impairment:
The study of Language Impairment can tell us a lot about the nature of language. Acquired impairments such as Aphasia reveal a lot about the way in which brain and language interact; how all aspects of language are stored in the brain as well as how they are accessed. Developmental impairments such as Specific Language Impairment (SLI) can show how genes and language interact; the genetic basis of language acquisition can be explored through the analysis of how children with SLI differ from other children in their mastery of language. There are many other areas that can be researched in Language impairment: Cognitive Deficits and Language, Dementias and Language, and Autism and Language.