Raffaela Baechler
Visitor
- Linguistics and English Language
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Tel: 0131 650 3597
- Email: raffaela.baechler@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room 2.14, Dugald Stewart Building
- City
- 3 Charles Street, Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9AD
Background
I studied German and Slavic language and literature (BA) at the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) and at the University of Bamberg. I hold an MA and a PhD in German linguistics from the University of Freiburg (Germany). Previously, I worked as a research and teaching assistant at the University of Freiburg as well as at the University of Munich. Currently, I work on a project about the emergence of new systems in the nominal inflection of Early Middle English dialects (funded by the DFG).
The attached CV also contains the list of publications and talks.
CV
69680.pdf
Research summary
I am interested in:
- Morphology, in particular non-concatenative morphology, inferential-realisational morphology and Lexical-Functional Grammar
- Historical linguistics and language change: Emergence of new morphological structures, change and interplay of the different parts of speech within noun and prepositional phrases
- Structural complexity in the grammar and language-internal and language-external (e.g. contact und isolation) explanations
- Areal linguistics: Emergence and spread of linguistic features and topographical and sociolinguistic explanations
- Micro-typology: Germanic standard and non-standard varieties
Current project grants
Currently, I work on a project about the Early Middle English nominal inflection. The project is funded by the DFG (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft).
The nominal parts of speech lose their inflection from Old English to Middle English. However, this is not a linear process but it can be expected that new systems emerge. The goal of the project is to uncover, explore, and explain these new systems. Some questions:
- Language-internal questions: How can the emergence of the new systems be explained, what do they encode, why did these systems emerge? What impact do changes in the nominal parts of speech have on the nominal and prepositional phrase?
- Language-external questions: Do the same systems emerge in different dialects and/or do new systems spread? Are there more of less innovative dialects and how can this be explained?