Table Of ContentCOMMUNICATING LINGUISTICS
Increasingly, academics are called upon to demonstrate the value of linguistics
and explain their research to the wider public. In support of this agenda,
Communicating Linguistics: Language, Community and Public Engagement provides
an overview of the wide range of public engagement activities currently being
undertaken in linguistics, as well as practically focused advice aimed at helping
linguists to do public engagement well. From podcasts to popular writing, from
competitions to consultancy, from language creation to community projects,
there are many ways in which linguists can share their research with the public.
Bringing together insights from leading linguists working in academia as well as
non-university professions, this unique collection:
• Provides a forum for the discussion of challenges and opportunities of public
engagement in linguistics in order to shape best practice.
• Documents best practice through a summary of some of the many excellent
public engagement projects currently taking place internationally.
• Celebrates the long tradition of public engagement in linguistics, a discipline
which is often misunderstood despite its direct and fundamental importance
to everyday life.
Breaking down long-standing divisions between universities and the wider
community, this book will be of significant value to academics in linguistics but
also teachers, policy makers and anyone interested in better understanding the
nature and use of language in society.
Hazel Price is a Lecturer in English Language at the University of Salford, UK.
Dan McIntyre is Professor of English Language at Uppsala University, Sweden.
COMMUNICATING
LINGUISTICS
Language, Community
and Public Engagement
Edited by
Hazel Price and Dan McIntyre
Designed cover image: © Getty Images
First published 2023
by Routledge
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© 2023 selection and editorial matter, Hazel Price and Dan McIntyre;
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British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Price, Hazel (Linguist) editor. | McIntyre, Dan, 1975- editor.
Title: Communicating linguistics: language, community and public
engagement/edited by Hazel Price and Dan McIntyre.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon; New York, NY: Routledge, 2023. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022043459 (print) | LCCN 2022043460 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367560126 (hardback) | ISBN 9780367560119 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003096078 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Outreach programs in linguistics. | Linguistics–Public
relations. | LCGFT: Essays.
Classification: LCC P53.6122 .C66 2023 (print) | LCC P53.6122
(ebook) |
DDC 410.1/4–dc23/eng/20221104
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022043459
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022043460
ISBN: 978-0-367-56012-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-367-56011-9 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-09607-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003096078
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An electronic version of this book is freely available, thanks to the
support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched (KU). KU is
a collaborative initiative designed to make high quality books Open
Access for the public good. The Open Access ISBN for this book is 978-
1-003-09607-8. More information about the initiative and links to the
Open Access version can be found at www. knowledgeunlatched. org.
CONTENTS
Contributors viii
Introduction 1
1 Public linguistics 3
Hazel Price and Dan McIntyre
PART 1
Popularising linguistics 15
2 Principles of good research communication 17
Hannah Little
3 Podcasting: The Vocal Fries podcast 28
Carrie Gillon and Megan Figueroa
4 Blogging and microblogging linguistics for the lay reader 38
M. Lynne Murphy
5 Engaging the public and enriching language education
through Babel: The Language Magazine 49
Dan McIntyre and Lesley Jeffries
6 On engaging the radio listener 60
Laura Wright
vi Contents
7 Writing a ‘popular science’ book 70
Jane Setter
8 Linguistics for schools 80
Richard Hudson
9 Linguists in schools 93
Billy Clark
PART 2
Communicating linguistics 107
10 Communicating lexicography 109
Danica Salazar
11 E xploring the impact of figurative communication and
advertising: Reflections on a collaboration between
linguistics researchers and a Midlands-based marketing agency 121
Samantha Ford and Jeannette Littlemore
12 Community projects 131
Natalie Braber
13 Communicating research on metaphor and illness 143
Elena Semino
14 P ublic engagement via consultancy: Communicating the
language of mental illness 156
Hazel Price
15 Developing resources for Modern South Arabian languages 168
Janet C. E. Watson and Abdullah al-Mahri
16 P ublic engagement in audiovisual translation: The case of
respeaking 180
Zoe Moores
17 Dialect coaching and linguistics 197
Brendan Gunn
Contents vii
18 Language creation and engagement: A how-to guide 208
Christine Schreyer
19 Engaging with public engagement: A personal retrospective 220
David Crystal
References 233
Index 248
CONTRIBUTORS
Abdullah al-Mahri is an expert in, and native speaker of, Mehri, a Modern South
Arabian language spoken in southern Arabia. He has worked as a researcher on the
syntax of Mehri, the documentation and ethnolinguistic analysis of Modern South
Arabian, and the sounds of Mehri. He has presented at numerous international aca-
demic and public venues and collaborated on delivering international workshops.
Natalie Braber is Professor of Linguistics at Nottingham Trent University, UK.
Her research focuses on sociolinguistics, in particular language variation in the East
Midlands and ‘Pit Talk’ of East Midlands miners. Much of her work engages local
communities, and she has worked collaboratively with writers, artists and musicians
to engage people with language as heritage.
Billy Clark is Professor of English Language and Linguistics at Northumbria
University, UK. He has a long-standing interest in connections between work at
school and at university, including as a member of the UK Linguistics Olympiad
committee (http://uklo .org) and as a coordinator of the Integrating English project
(http://integratingenglish .org).
David Crystal is Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Bangor,
Wales, and works from his home in nearby Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, edi-
tor, lecturer and broadcaster. He was previously Professor of Linguistic Science at
the University of Reading, UK.
Megan Figueroa is a developmental psycholinguist and research scientist at the
University of Arizona, USA, and the co-host of The Vocal Fries, a podcast about lin-
guistic discrimination. Her perspective is shaped by her experience growing up in a
working-class, Mexican American home. She recognised her family in deficit-based
Contributors ix
descriptions of language development in the literature, and she endeavours to inter-
rupt this narrative and broaden our collective understanding of language through
outreach to the public.
Samantha Ford is a Doctoral Researcher in the Department of English Language
and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham, UK. With a Collaborative
Doctoral Award from the Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, funded
by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), Samantha researches figu-
rative language (including metaphor and metonymy) and creativity in advertis-
ing, and consumer attitude, behaviour and memory in collaboration with Big Cat
Advertising Agency.
Carrie Gillon is the co-host of The Vocal Fries podcast and the Language Commission
Coordinator for the Squamish Nation. She is the author of The Semantics of
Determiners (2013) and the co-author of Nominal Contact in Michif (2018). She is
currently co-authoring two books: one about linguistic discrimination in all its
forms and one about languages in Canada.
Brendan Gunn completed his PhD in Sociolinguistics while teaching at the
University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, after working on the ‘Tape Recorded
Survey of Hiberno-English’ and the Jim and Lesley Milroy Sociolinguistic Survey
of Belfast. Subsequently he left academia to work in the film, TV and theatre sector
as a dialect coach, and for over 30 plus years he has coached some of the world’s
most well-known actors, including many Oscar and other award winners.
Richard (‘Dick’) Hudson is a retired Professor of Linguistics at University College
London, UK, and an enthusiast for educational linguistics as well as for grammatical
theory. He currently chairs the UK Linguistics Olympiad and is a founding mem-
ber of the Committee for Linguistics in Education; he is also a Fellow of the British
Academy and author of a linguistic theory called Word Grammar.
Lesley Jeffries was for many years Professor of English Language and Linguistics
at the University of Huddersfield, UK. Now retired, she is co-editor of Babel: The
Language Magazine, her latest book is The Language of Contemporary Poetry (2022),
and she leads the AHRC-funded project Hansard at Huddersfield (hansard .hud. ac
.uk) which aims to make the language of the UK parliament easier to search.
Hannah Little is a Lecturer in Communication and Media at the University of
Liverpool, UK. Originally a linguist, her research currently investigates cognitive
aspects of research communication and storytelling, and the use of science fiction and
comedy as tools for public engagement. A keen science communicator herself, she
is often found on stage, on the radio and in print communicating about linguistics.
Jeannette Littlemore is Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics in the
Department of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Birmingham,
