Professor Emma Moore
School of English
Professor of Sociolinguistics, British Academy Mid-Career Fellow (2019-2020)
+44 114 222 0232
Full contact details
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
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I am Professor of Sociolinguistics.
I joined the department in February 2004, following a Lectureship at the University of Manchester. My PhD research was also completed at Manchester. During the course of my PhD, I also studied at Stanford University, USA.
- Research interests
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My research explores how individuals and communities use language to construct social styles, differences, and affiliations. My work is interdisciplinary (drawing upon methodologies from anthropology and sociology, in addition to linguistics), often collaborative, and has evolved through Research Projects 1-4 below.
Research project 1 (1999-): Language, adolescence, and the social meaning of syntax
My PhD research on adolescent language employed an ethnographic methodology to examine the ways in which young people used language to reflect and construct social identity. Most significantly, it demonstrated that features of grammar can carry social meaning in ways that had only previously be proven for accent features. I collected a large corpus of data during my PhD, and I continue to analyse and publish on the linguistic phenomena in this dataset. I am currently working on a monograph that uses this data to examine how children exploit grammatical variation to communicate affiliations, attitudes, and stances. By examining the complex ways in which nonstandard grammatical variation functions, I aim to expose the problems with current methods used to teach children Standard English grammar at Key Stages 3 and 4.
External Funding: AHRC PhD student scholarship 1999-2002 (Ā£32,000 + fees); British Academy Small Grant 2007 (Ā£2782); British Academy Mid-Career Fellowship 2019-2020 (Ā£125,000)Research project 2 (2008-): Language and community identity
This project traces language variation and change on the Isles of Scilly. In addition to documenting an unstudied variety of English (which is of particular significance because of the islandsā geographical isolation and their peculiar history of language contact), the project developed methodologies for working with communities by using community fieldworkers and existing archive resources.
External Funding: AHRC Research Grant 2012-2015 (Ā£199,921)Research project 3 (2014-): Language and social inequality
This project has evolved from a long term interest in challenging ādeficitā views of the language of young people in areas which are considered to be deprived. It has included working with the Park Youth Club in Sheffield in collaboration with a practitioner (Dr. Sarah Spencer, a Speech and Language Therapist), and civic partners in Sheffield (Tracy Brown from the Manor and Castle Development Trust).
This work focused upon the ways in which young peopleās language serves to reflect allegiances to place and community. Most recently, I have been focused on challenging primary school educational policy in order to answer questions about the relationship between a childās dialect and their success at school. To this end, I am working towards a project with Dr. Julia Snell (Leeds), Dr. Sarah Spencer (Sheffield), and Dr. and Mr. Ian Cushing (UCL).
Research project 4 (2016-): Language perceptions
As part of Research Project 2, we developed a piece of software which can be used to test language perceptions. The research communityās interest in this product has resulted in the development of a collaborative project (PI Dr Chris Montgomery) to further test and develop this software as freeware.
- Publications
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Books
- Socio-syntax Exploring the Social Life of Grammar. Cambridge University Press.
Edited books
- . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- . Cambridge University Press.
- Language and a Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Analysing Older English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Journal articles
- . Language Variation and Change, 30(3), 337-360.
- . Language, 94(3), 629-661.
- . Language in Society, 45(1), 87-111.
- . Journal of Sociolinguistics, 19(1), 3-36.
- . Language and Literature, 21(1), 66-83.
- . Language Variation and Change, 22(3), 347-371.
- . Language in Society, 38(4), 447-485.
- . Journal of Sociolinguistics, 10(5), 611-640.
- . Journal of English Linguistics, 33(4), 389-394.
- . Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique, 49(3-4), 375-396.
- . The Canadian Journal of Linguistics / La revue canadienne de linguistique, 49(3), 375-396.
- āIt just sounds proper commonā: Exploring the social meanings expressed by nonstandard grammar. Linguistics and Education.
Chapters
- In Susan F (Ed.), Language in Britain and Ireland (pp. 238-248). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation: Theoretical Foundations, SOCIAL MEANING AND LINGUISTIC VARIATION (pp. 1-23).
- The role of syntax in the study of sociolinguistic meaning: Evidence from an analysis of right dislocation, Advancing Socio-grammatical Variation and Change: In Honour of Jenny Cheshire (pp. 73-90).
- The social meaning of syntax In Hall-Lew L, Moore E & Podesva RJ (Ed.), Social Meaning and Linguistic Variation: Theorizing the Third Wave Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- The dialect of the Isles of Scilly: Exploring the relationship between language production and language perception in a Southern insular variety In Wright L (Ed.), Southern English Varieties Then and Now (pp. 39-73). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
- In Montgomery C & Moore E (Ed.), Language and a Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region (pp. 258-280). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- 'Place' in Studies of Language Variation and Change Introduction, LANGUAGE AND A SENSE OF PLACE: STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND REGION (pp. 1-11).
- Adolescence In Chambers JK & Schilling N (Ed.), The Handbook of Language Variation and Change Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell.
- On the impossibility of historical sociolinguistics In Denison D, BermĆŗdez-Otero R, McCully C & Moore E (Ed.), Analysing Older English (pp. 121-125). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- 'Oh, they're top, them': Right dislocated tags and interactional stance In Gregersen F, Parrott JK & Quist P (Ed.), Language Variation - European Perspectives III (pp. 97-110). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
- Variation and Identity In Maguire W & McMahon A (Ed.), Analysing Variation in English (pp. 219-236). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- Communities of Practice and peripherality In Llamas C & Watt DJL (Ed.), Language and identities (pp. 123-133). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- , Analysing Older English (pp. 121-125). Cambridge University Press
- Socio-syntax Exploring the Social Life of Grammar. Cambridge University Press.
- Research group
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I currently supervise in the areas of variationist sociolinguistics, ethnography, dialectology, gender and sexuality, and ethnicity, and welcome PhD applicants who wish to undertake interdisciplinary work in language and linguistics. My PhD students include:
- Lucy Jones (now Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics, University of Nottingham): The construction of identity in a lesbian community of practice: A sociocultural linguistics approach
- Sam Kirkham (AHRC doctoral award; now Lecturer in Sociophonetics at Lancaster University): A sociophonetic ethnography of language variation and ethnicity in Sheffield
- Kate Burland-Gibson (now Associate Lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University) : Sociophonetic variation and change in a post-industrial, South Yorkshire speech community.
- Hannah Leach (Wolfson Scholarship, now Teaching Fellow in Phonetics and Phonology at Newcastle University): Language and identity in Stoke-on-Trent
- Isabelle van der Bom (Faculty studentship): Non-British identity and language use: A Text Word theory approach
- Cheryl Mahmoud: Dialect and identity in the Birmingham Grime Music scene
- Holly Dann (co-supervised with Chris Montgomery; WRoCAH scholarship): Language variation and change in Cornish English.
- Hielke Vriesendorp (co-supervised with Chris Montgomery; University Prize Scholarship): Locating sociolinguistic knowledge: how language users store and process the social meaning of linguistic variation.
- Nathaniel Dzuira (WRoCAH scholarship): Does involvement with British culture and the LGBTQ+ community affect the use of linguistic features in Polish second-language speakers of English?
- Teaching activities
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Iām committed to teaching innovation and, much like my research, my teaching tends to be data-led. I teach on both the BA in English Language and Linguistics and the MA in English Language and Linguistics. I contribute to āVarieties of Englishā, and convene āSociolinguisticsā, and āLanguage and Genderā at undergraduate level. I convene āLinguistics in Contextā and āLinguistics in Practiceā at graduate level.
I have supervised three University of Sheffield-funded Student Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) projects:
2014 Kate Moore, āHow do female performers use language to project authentic identities as rap artists in a male-dominated industry?ā
2014 Annabelle Jones, āThe role of language style in the maintenance of gender inequalities in the academic workplaceā
2009 Shivonne Gates, ā.ā
- Professional activities and memberships
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Editorial Board membership
Language in Society, Cambridge University Press (2015-)
Gender and Language, Equinox Publications (2011-2017)Funding Reviewing
I am a member of the AHRC Peer Review College (2017-). I also review regularly for the ESRC, and have reviewed for the National Science Foundation in the USA.
Publication Reviewing
Language Variation and Change journal; Journal of English Linguistics; Journal of Sociolinguistics; Edinburgh University Press; Wiley-Blackwell.
External Examining (taught programmes)
I was the external examiner for the MA in English Language at Lancaster University, UK (2013-2017).
Learned Societies memberships
Elected fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute (2014).
Member of the Linguistic Society of America (2017)
Member of the International Gender and Language Association (2003-).