Dr. Peredur Davies

Name:

Dr Peredur Davies

Position:

Welsh-medium Teaching Fellow

Email:

p.davies@bangor.ac.uk

Location:

M10, Main Arts Building

Phone:

+44 (0) 1248 382198

My undergraduate degree was in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic studies at Queens’ College, the University of Cambridge, where I specialised in medieval Welsh language and literature, and old Germanic language and literature, particularly Old English. I also completed an MPhil in this field in 2004, writing my dissertation on Old English semantics. After working briefly as a researcher in the School of Welsh at Bangor University, I started a PhD in (contemporary) linguistics at Bangor in 2005, supervised by Professor Margaret Deuchar, and graduated in 2010. The focus of my PhD research was on bilingualism and code-switching, which is the phenomenon of inserting words from one language into sentences from another language—something particularly common in informal Welsh speech.

I’ve been working as a lecturer in the School of Linguistics and English language since 2009, primarily in charge of providing Welsh-medium undergraduate and postgraduate tuition in all aspects of linguistics, although I also undertake some other tuition in the School. I am also the undergraduate admissions tutor for the School, and am thus the first port of call for anyone interested in applying to study with us here. I am funded by the Centre for Welsh-medium Higher Education.

My research interest is in bilingualism and in Welsh linguistics. I am particularly interested in the influence of the English language on Welsh, not only in the lexicon (words) but also in the grammar (syntax, word order and so on). Since all Welsh speakers in Wales are also English speakers, being bilingual must have an effect on the structure of Welsh, and this is something I hope to explore more in my researcher. I have also collected data in Argentina, from the Welsh-Spanish bilingual community there, and much of my current research involves comparing bilingualism in Wales with the Argentinian situation and others.

Publications:

Davies, P. and Deuchar, M. (2010) “Using the Matrix Language Frame model to identify word order convergence in Welsh-English bilingual speech” in Continuity and change in grammar, A. Breitbarth, C. Lucas, S. Watts and D. Willis (eds.), 77–96. Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Parafita Couto, M.C., Davies, P., Carter, D. and Deuchar, M. (submitted to International Journal of Bilingualism in 2010) “Factors determining the choice of matrix language by bilinguals in Wales and Miami: two contrasting communities.”

Carter, D., Davies, P., Parafita Couto, M.C. and Deuchar, M. (submitted to Sociedad Española de Lingüística in 2010) “A corpus-based analysis of codeswitching patterns in bilingual communities.”

Deuchar, M. and Davies, P. (2009) “Code-switching and the future of Welsh.” International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 195, 15–38.

Presentations (conferences, seminars, etc.):

2010

“Comparing code-switching in Wales and Florida: a Matrix Language approach.” University of Illinois at Chicago, May 14th 2010.

2009

“A shift to SVO? Auxiliary deletion in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals.” International Symposium on Bilingualism 7, University of Utrecht, Utrecht, July 2009. With M. Deuchar.
“Are Miami bilinguals like Welsh bilinguals? A Matrix Language Frame approach.” ESRC Centre for Research in Bilingualism Seminar Series (invited speaker), Bangor, March 2009. With M.C. Parafita.

2008

“Word order convergence in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals.” ESRC Centre for Research in Bilingualism Seminar Series (invited speaker), Bangor, September 2008.
“Dichotomous matrix languages: word order convergence in Welsh-English speech.” Continuity and Change in Grammar, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, March 2008. With M. Deuchar.

2007

“How English is Welsh? Identifying linguistic convergence in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals.” Celtic Linguistics Conference, Gregynog, September 2007. With M. Deuchar.
“Using the MLF model to identify convergence in the speech of Welsh-English bilinguals.” International Symposium on Bilingualism 6, Hamburg, July 2007. With M. Deuchar.
“How English is Welsh? Identifying language convergence using the Matrix Language Frame model.” Linguistics Circle, Bangor University, Bangor, 2007.

2006

“Using LIDES to test alternative models of code-switching.” International Sociolinguistics Symposium, Limerick, July 2006. With M. Deuchar.