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School of Linguistics & English Language

Staff Profile of Jakob Leimgruber

image of Jakob Leimgruber

Name:

Jakob R. E. Leimgruber

Position:

Lecturer in Sociolinguistics

Email:

Location:

M7c

Phone:

+44 (0)1248 382198

Biography

I studied English Linguistics, English Literature, and Geography at the University of Fribourg in my native Switzerland, where I graduated with a licence ès lettres in 2005. My mémoire, supervised by Prof. Peter Trudgill, was on the influence of the interviewer in Labovian sociolinguistic interviews. My research then continued at the University of Oxford, where I am completing a D.Phil thesis titled 'Modelling variation in Singapore English', under the supervision of Prof. Suzanne Romaine.

Research interests

My research interests are in variationist sociolinguistics and contact linguistics, primarily in the analysis of multilingualism in various speech communities. My research so far has focused mainly on Singapore English and the way best suited to analyse the variation between its Standard and local varieties. Other interests include regional variation in Swiss German dialects, contact varieties and their social bases for language selection, language policy, and World Englishes.

Publications

  • (2008) From post-creole continuum to diglossia: the case of Singapore English. Kokkonidis, M. et al (eds) The Proceedings of LingO 2007. Oxford: Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, 149–156.
  • (2008) English in Singapore: diglossia or continuum? Angouri, J. et al (eds) LangUE 2007: Proceedings of the 2nd Language at the University of Essex Postgraduate Conference. Colchester: Department of Language and Linguistics.
  • (2008) Discourse particles and the Singaporean diglossia. Donakey, A. et al (eds) Papers in Linguistics from the University of Manchester (PLUM), Proceedings of the 16th International Postgraduate Linguistics Conference, 20 April 2007. Manchester: School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures, 47–59.
  • (2007) Variation in Singapore English as reflected in aspectual constructions. Hilton, N. et al (eds) CamLing 2007: Proceedings of the Fifth University of Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research held on 20–21 March 2007. Cambridge: Institute of Language Research, 162–168.

Conference papers

  • (2009) Ethnicity as a variable in Singapore English. ICLCE3: The Third International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English, Institute of English Studies, University of London, 15-17 July 2009
  • (2008) Sociolinguistic variation in Singapore: towards a new model. NWAV 37: New Ways of Analysing Variation, Houston: Rice University, 6–9 November 2008.
  • (2008) ‘Singlish’, ‘Good English’, and what’s in between: a model for sociolinguistic variation in Singapore. First Biennial Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English, Freiburg i.B.: English Department, 8–11 October 2008.
  • (2008) Modelling sociolinguistic variation in Singapore English. SWELL 2008: Swiss Works in English Language and Linguistics, Geneva: Department of English, 7 March 2008.
  • (2007) From post-creole continuum to diglossia: the case of Singapore English. LingO 2007: 2nd Oxford Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics, Oxford: Centre for Linguistics and Philology, 21–22 September 2007.
  • (2007) English in Singapore: diglossia or continuum? LangUE 2007: 2nd Language at the University of Essex Postgraduate Conference, Colchester: Department of Language and Linguistics, 13 July 2007.
  • (2007 – poster) Discourse particles and the Singaporean diglossia. 16th International Postgraduate Linguistics Conference, Manchester: Department of Linguistics, 20 April 2007.
  • (2007 – poster) Variation in Singapore English as reflected in aspectual constructions. CamLing 2007: 5th University of Cambridge Postgraduate Conference in Language Research, Cambridge: Institute of Language Research, 20–21 March 2007.
  • (2006) Diglossia in Singapore? English Graduate Conference, Oxford: Faculty of English, 9 June 2006.