Dr Nuria Yáñez-Bouza
Lecturer in English Language
Address: Room N.1.2, Samuel Alexander Building
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
Phone: +44-(0)161-275 8905
Email: nuria.yanez-bouza@manchester.ac.uk
Office Hours: Monday 11-3 p.m.
Research specialisation
- English Historical Sociolinguistics
- Prescriptivism and the Eighteenth-Century Grammatical Tradition
- Language Variation and Change
- Corpus Linguistics
My main research interests lie in the field of historical sociolinguistics (mainly syntax). I am particularly interested in the prescriptive movement and the English grammatical tradition, with special focus on the long eighteenth century from a linguistic, social and literary perspective. Other topics of research include the role of women in language variation and change.
Projects and Research Groups
- ECEG-database (Eighteenth-Century English Grammars Database) , with María Esther Rodríguez-Gil (University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain). British Academy Research Grant (July 2008 - December 2010).
- ARCHER (A Representative Corpus of Historical English Registers), international project, phase 3.
- The Teaching of English Grammar in the Present-Day (with Victorina González-Díaz, University of Liverpool, based on the LLMC Corpus)
- Language Variation and Textual Categorisation (University of Vigo, Spain)
- English Linguistics Circle (University of Vigo and University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain)
- Semtracks: 'Tracking Meaning on the Surface: A Data-Driven Approach to Semantic Imprints of Texts' ('Bedeutungsspuren an der Oberfläche Maschinelle Analyse der semantischen Prägung von Texten'). Co ordinated by Noah Bubenhofer and Joachim Scharloth). Funded by the 'Innovationsfonds FRONTIER' at the University of Heidelberg.
Recent Publications
Books
- I am working on a monograph on preposition stranding and prescriptivism from 1500 to 1900.
- (2006) Papers in Linguistics of the University of Manchester (PLUM). Proceedings of the 14th Postgraduate Conference of Linguistics at the University of Manchester, 4 March 2005. Manchester: Department of Linguistics and English Language.
- (2005) Papers in Linguistics of the University of Manchester (PLUM). Proceedings of the 13th Postgraduate Conference of Linguistics at the University of Manchester, 20 March 2004. Manchester: Department of Linguistics and English Language.
Articles
- 2009. Mapping eighteenth-century grammar-writers in the British Isles (and beyond). Studies in Variation, Contacts and Change in English (VARIENG). Special Issue Making the best of bad data in the history of English. http://www.helsinki.fi/varieng/journal/people/index.html
- 2009. ECEG-database: A bio-bibliographic approach to the study of eighteenth-century English grammars. In Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade & Wim van der Wurff (eds), Current Issues in Late Modern English (Linguistic Insights), 141-170. Bern: Peter Lang. [Co-authored with María Esther Rodríguez-Gil]
- (2008) To end or not to end a sentence with a preposition: An eighteenth-century debate. In Joan Beal, Carmen Nocera & Massimo Sturiale (eds), Perspectives on prescriptivism, 237-264 (Linguistic Insights 73). Bern: Peter Lang.
- (2008) Preposition stranding in the eighteenth century: Something to talk about. In Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade (ed.), Grammars, grammarians, and grammar-writing in eighteenth-century England , 251-278. (Topics in English Linguistics 59). Berlin & New York. Mouton de Gruyter.
- (2006) Preposition stranding in eighteenth-century prose. Historical Sociolinguistics and Sociohistorical Linguistics. Volume 6. (contents, articles).
- (2005) A sociohistorical approach to preposition stranding in early Modern English. Papers in Linguistics of the University of Manchester (PLUM). Proceedings of the 13th Postgraduate Conference of Linguistics at the University of Manchester, 20 March 2004., ed. Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 141-152, Manchester: Department of Linguistics and English Language.
- (2005) The use of preposition stranding in early Modern English. CamLing 2004. Proceedings of the University of Cambridge Second Postgraduate Conference in Language Research, 19 March 2004, ed. Evangelia Daskalaki et al., 115-121, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Conference Presentations
- If Scotsmen and Irishmen were to fix a standard & Attitudes to preposition stranding in 18th-century codifiers. Paper presented at the conference Prescriptivism and Patriotism, Toronto, 17-19 August 2009.
- ' Prescriptivism and education practices in late 20th-century British schools.' Joint paper with Victorina González-Díaz (University of Liverpool). Workshop on Normative Linguistics, part of the First Triennial Conference of the International Society for the Linguistics of English, 8-11 October 2008. University of Freiburg (Germany).
- Placing prepositions in early and late Modern English texts: Genre variation and idiolectal preferences. 9th Triangle Colloquium, 27 September 2008. Manchester (UK).
- ' A disparate band of independent entrepreneurs'? What the ECEG-database can tell us about eighteenth-century grammarians. Joint paper with María Esther Rodríguez-Gil (University of Las Palmas, Spain). 15th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL), 24-30 August 2008. Munich (Germany). Supported by the British Academy.
- A bibliographic approach to the study of eighteenth-century English grammars. Joint paper with Mara Esther Rodríguez-Gil (University of Las Palmas, Spain). Third Late Modern English Conference (LMEC3), 30/31 August - 1 September 2007. Leiden (The Netherlands).
- Preposition stranding in the social history of English from 1500 to 1900: A corpus-based approach. Second Research Seminar of the English Linguistics Circle, 30 May 2007. Vigo (Spain).
- Never use a preposition to end a sentence with - The rule and the usage. 14th International Conference of English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL), 21-25 August 2006. Bergamo (Italy).
- To end or not to end a sentence with a preposition: An eighteenth-century debate. Second International Conference Perspectives on Prescriptivism, 20-22 April 2006. Ragusa (Catania, Sicily). Re-visited version presented at The Triangle Colloquium (Manchester-Leeds-Sheffield), 30 September 2006. Sheffield (UK).
- Preposition stranding in eighteenth-century works: Something to talk about. Workshop on Grammars, Grammarians, and Grammar Writing (VICI-project), 9 December 2005. Leiden (The Netherlands).
- Gender variation and syntactic variation: Preposition stranding in Modern English. Language History from Below - Linguistic Variation in Germanic Languages from 1700 to 2000, 6-8 April 2005. Bristol (UK).
- Prescriptivism and preposition stranding in eighteenth-century prose. Second International Conference on the English Language in the Late Modern Period 1700-1900 (LMEC2), 18-20 November 2004. Vigo (Spain).
- Preposition stranding in early Modern English: A corpus-based approach. 13th International Conference of English Historical Linguistics (ICEHL), 23-27 August 2004. Vienna (Austria).
- A socio-historical approach to preposition stranding in early Modern English. 13th Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics at Manchester, 20 March 2004. Manchester (UK).
In preparation
- Mapping 18th-century English grammars in the British Isles.
- Joshua Poole (c.1616-c.1656): Schoolmaster, grammarian and rhetorician.
- Tracing the stigmatisation of end-placed prepositions: John Dryden and the prescriptive tradition.
Professional biography
I did my first degree in English Philology at the University of Vigo (Spain). I moved to the University of Manchester in autumn 2002, where I took my MA in English Studies in the Department of English & American Studies (An Historical Approach to Preposition Stranding in Early Modern English, 2004) and completed my PhD thesis in the Department of Linguistics & English Language (Preposition Stranding and Prescriptivism in English from 1500 to 1900: A Corpus-based Approach. July 2007). I took up the post as a Lecturer in English Language, with specialisation in the history of English, in August 2007.
Membership
- AEDEAN (Spanish Association of English and North-American Studies)
- EAAS (The European Association for American Studies)
- ESSE (The European Society for the Study of English)
- HiSoN (Historical Sociolinguistics Network)
- ISLE (International Society for the Linguistics of English)
- LAGB (Linguistic Association in Great Britain)
- The Henry Sweet Society
- The Philological Society
Administration:
Organisation of Conferences/Seminars -
- Linguistics Association in Great Britain (LAGB, Manchester, 7-10
September 2011) - Directions in English Language Studies (DELS, Manchester (UK), April 2006).
- The Second Late Modern English Conference (LMEC, Vigo (Spain), November 2004).
- The 13th International Conference on English Renaissance Studies (SEDERI, Vigo (Spain), March 2002).
- The 11th Triangle Colloquium on Literature, Language and Linguistics
(Manchester, 18 September 2010). - The 9th Triangle Colloquium on Literature, Language and Linguistics (Manchester, September 2008).
- Langwidge Sandwidge (co-organised with Prof. David Denison).
- Corpus Linguistics: Diachronic and Synchronic (one-day seminar for staff and postgraduate students, March 2004. The four sessions were run by Dawn Archer, Joan Beal, Geoffrey Leech and Gerald Nelson).
- Since 2003 I have been involved in the organisation of the Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics at Manchester.
Service to the Department/School:
Exams Officer (2008-09)
Library Co-ordinator (2007-08, 2009-10)
Teaching Areas
Undergraduate level:
- Fundamental Issues in the Study of Language (Year 1)
- Introduction to the History of the English Language (Year 1)
- Introduction to Middle English Language (Year 2)
- Attitudes to Language (Year 2)
- World Englishes (Year 2)
Postgraduate level:
- MA module on the history of English normative grammars from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries
- postgraduate seminar on 'Attitudes to Language', Department of English Philology at the University of Seville (Spain), 28-29 May 2008
Research students
I would be happy to supervise students interested in topics related to the history of the English language, such as:
- syntactic and/or morphological change in the Modern English period (mainly 1500-1900)
- the interface between language and literature in the Early and Late Modern English periods
- the normative grammatical tradition
- the role of women in language variation and change
- attitudes to (English) language
PhD students:
- Ayumi Miura, "Verbs of emotion and impersonals in Old and Middle English: A diachronic study in the syntax-semantics interface". [joint supervision with David Denison]
- Marije van Hattum, "A corpus study of Irish English verbal constructions from the 13th to the 19th centuries". [joint supervision with David Denison]
- Rob Drummond, 'The influence of local accent on the pronunciation of non-native English speakers in Manchester'. [Member of the Research Panel]