June Luchjenbroer - Research Interests

Overview

My research focuses on Forensic Linguistics / Language and the Law (in particular: linguistic analyses of the language used to and by adult (generally women) and child victims of rape and physical assault). Current data also includes email communications between (convicted) paedophiles. My research uses methodologies and conceptual strategies from two main fields of linguistic enquiry: cognitive semantics and discourse analysis, while additional areas of relevance include Language and Gender, and gestural analysis.

Detail

Since commencement of the Master's Prelim in 1986, I have focused my research efforts on investigations into online discourse comprehension and the pragmatic function of inference generation (namely, how interlocutors bring additional information to bear in the communication process). This interest has most found expression in the investigation into the linguistic experiences of child and rape victims with the police and in court; as well as the representations of children and rape victims by those on trial. This research is jointly conducted with Dr Michelle Aldridge (Cardiff University, Wales) while forensic applications are in collaboration with Dr John Olsson (Forensic Linguistics Institute).

The theoretical underpinnings of my research stem from the early days of my postgraduate training (at La Trobe University, Melbourne Australia). The investigations that led to my PhD dissertation and a visiting scholarship to the Cognitive Science Dept at University of California, at San Diego (1991) have involved a consideration of the nature of cognition, which sparked a keen interest in the issue of (whether or not) modularity, and (more specifically) the nature of the information processing systems of the human mind that enable people to attribute meaning to incoming information and integrate such information with existing knowledge in memory.

I intend to continue research in basically two areas: (i) further investigation into the schematic nature of the mind, and the extent to which this is evident and revealed in discourse. This direction includes many facets of central interest to cognitive linguists, such as metaphor, conceptual blends, and frame based knowledge, but also requires a comprehensive treatment of functionalist approaches to discourse structure which also play a part in the comprehension process. Additional to this path of research is natural data collection under reselected conditions. And secondly, (ii) continued data analysis of language in the professions, such as the language of the law, and negotiated talk.

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