||JCA1. An analysis
of pilot - air traffic controller communications via radio telephony.
JCA2. An examination of air accidents records (publicly available on
aviation databases) to identify whether and to what extent language,
and in particular second language proficiency, is implicated in any
accidents or incidents.
JCA3. A study of the implementation plans of national civil aviation
authorities to see to what extent they are complying with the language
proficiency requirements of the International Civil Aviation
JCA4. A critical analysis of the ICAO's language proficiency rating
scale in order to make proposals for possible revisions and validation.
JCA5. Building a corpus of aviation spoken communications
arrange a meeting to speak with Charles before you choose
any of these topics, so you fully understand what is required for a
dissertation in this area. Anyone who chooses one of this
without speaking to Charles first will not be allocated it.
PB1. Corpus assisted discourse analysis of
PB2. Construction of gendered and/or sexual
identities in everyday talk
PB3. Sociolinguistic variation in the British
PB4. Diachronic change in British Corpora
PB5. Language use in computer mediated
See further details
about Paul Baker's topics
PC1. Compare and contrast the use of rhetoric in
two recent political speeches.
PC2. Analyse syntactic nominalization and its uses
in different kinds of text.
PC3. Is internet "chat" different from
PC4. Compare conceptual metaphor theory with
PC5. Using your knowledge of English and
one other language,
compare and contrast some
characteristics(s) of both languages, choosing from the following
of linguistic structure: (1) grammatical constructions and/or
tenses, modal verbs, conditional sentences…) (2) lexical
domains such as colour
terms, spatial prepositions, verbs expression movement and manner of
verbs expressing emotions…. (3) patterns of politeness usage.
Please see Paul for further information about
(Im)politeness analysis of confrontational interactions on TV
JC2. Pragmatic analysis of scripted dialogue, such as plays, films,
sitcoms. You will need to focus on a particular aspect, e.g.
characterisation, the creation of humour.
JC3. Historical corpus-based studies
JC4. Lexical explorations using the electronic Oxford English Dictionary
JC5. Corpus-based explorations of particular styles or genres
See further details about
Jonathan Culpeper's topics
AH1. Early modern journalism
word meaning using informants and corpus data
AH3. Corpus-based investigation of grammar
AH4. Part-of-speech, meaning, and metaphor
AH5. Corpus-based study of child language.
AH6. Creativity and the
further details about Andrew Hardie's topics
Normal and disordered acquisition of Phonology
FXK2. Phonology in second language
FXK3. Phonology of loanwords
FXK4. Topics in morphology (e.g. compounding, the
role of affixes, etc.)
FXK5. Pidgin and creole phonology.
FXK6. Tone languages.
The influence of English on the phonology, morphology and lexicon of
some other language
See further details of some of
Francis Katamba's topics
Communicating brands in traditional and new media.
VK2: Public perception of brands
VK3: Metaphors and religious/political/corporate
VK4: Studying an electronic corpus of corporate
VK5: Multimodality and gender: texts, visuals,
See further details
about Veronika Koller's topics
JK1. Investigating the
development of vocabulary
knowledge in second/foreign language learning
Investigating the motivation of learning modern
foreign languages in the UK
JK3. Investigating the motivation of learning
English in a
selected a country
JK4. Investigating the fluency of
JK5. Learning disabilities and foreign/second
See Judit for further
information about these topics
UP1. Literacy at home:
reading and writing in different
UP2. A critical
analysis of public media discourse about
UP3. An investigation
of literacy in schools.
UP4. Health literacy:
reading and writing in relation to
health and health care
UP5. The language of
tourism: an analysis of tourism brochures
or travel guides.
further information about Uta Papen's topics
||AR1. Analysing the role of interaction in second language acquisition
AR2. A study of instructed second language acquisition
AR3. Communicative tasks and second language acquisition
AR4. Cognitive processes in second language acquisition
AR5. Investigating individual differences in second language acquisition
Please speak to Andrea for further information about these topics
GAS1. A cross-cultural pragmatic investigation of
GAS2. Investigating speech acts in L2 teaching
GAS3. An investigation of pragmatics and research
GAS4. Investigating interlanguage pragmatic
GAS5. An investigation of language learners'
See further details
about Gila Schauer's topics
MS1. Study of a bilingual/multilingual household's
language and literacy practices.
MS2. Study of the language/literacy of a local
ethnic minority community in Lancaster (the town not the University),
e.g. the Gujarati, Polish or Chinese community.
MS3. Study of local adolescent graffiti including
the spelling and word
MS4. Study of the spelling and other language practices
on one or a related set of websites which display idiosyncratic use of language
or spelling, e.g. LOLcats http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/01/11/i-can-has-cheezburger-3/
OR a study of bilingual blogs.
MS5. Study of attitudes towards bilingualism in a
particular place (e.g.
in Wales or the west of Scotland) - could be based on a text analysis
(e.g. of newspaper articles) or interviews/questionnaires or a
combination. Alternatively could be about attitudes towards British
Extra option -
see Mark about this before you
MS6. Study of language practices in a temporary
community, e.g. seasonal farm workers who come from abroad to work in
the summer on a farm. How do they communicate with each other, and with
their supervisors? A good topic if you live on such a farm, or want to
get a job on one and do a participant study!
||ES1. Analysis of
the use of metaphor in a novel (with reference to authorial style,
characters mind styles, characterisation, or ideological point of
ES2. Analysis of the use of metaphor in the works
particular poet (with reference to authorial style, themes, concerns
and world view).
ES3. Analysis of the use of metaphor in politics
media (focusing on a coherent set of speeches or newspaper
ES4. Analysis of the use of speech and thought
presentation in a particular novel (with particular reference to
characterisation and point of view).
ES5. Analysis of the use of speech and thought
presentation in the media (with particular reference to a coherent set
of newspaper articles).
Please see Elena for more information about these
MHS1. Stylistic exploration of poetry, prose,
film (e.g. looking at a small set of poems by the same poet, comparing
first and final drafts of texts, comparing openings to dystopic novels,
analysing the linguistic and non-linguistic basis of characterisation
in a play or film).
MSH2. Testing the application of any particular
method (e.g. foregrounding theory, politeness analysis,
analysis) or methods of stylistic or pragmatic analysis to literary
data (poetry, prose drama or film ).
MSH3. Analysis of speech/writing/thought
presentation in a particular novel/short story (some data available for
MSH4. Analysis of speech/writing/thought
presentation in spoken English (some data available for analysis).
MSH5. Analysis of (extract(s) from) a dramatic
text to predict in detail (and test?) how it /they would be performed.
Please see Mick for more information about these
Variation in subject/verb agreement in English.
AS2. Impersonalization via active and passive constructions.
AS3. Variation in the use of prepositions in English
AS4. What determines word order variation?
AS5. The use of the first person plural in English or another language.
See further details about
|| KW1. Phonetic variation and ethnicity in the
north-west of England
KW2. An examination of the perception and/or
phonological 'mergers' in accents of English, e.g. 'nurse'/'square' in
KW3. Investigating Liverpool English plosives -
the effect of social class
KW4. An acoustic phonetic investigation of the
vowels of a north-western English
KW5. A study of dialect
levelling/supralocalisation in a locality of your choice
Please see Kevin for more information about these