Webinar: The influence of pop culture on mainstream language by OUP Academic Marketing

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The influence of pop culture on mainstream language

About

Pop culture language commonly starts as specific to particular groups with shared interests, and is frequently adopted into mainstream vernacular.

Join OED editors Dr Catherine Sangster and Fiona McPherson, and guest speakers Prof Dr Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer, Dr Fraser Dallachy, and Dr Kerstin Richter for a discussion that will focus on the language of science fiction, fantasy, gaming, and other specific fandoms:

• How and why language that develops in these communities is adopted more widely
• How does the OED monitor these developments, and decide what should (or should not) be recorded
• Interesting examples
• Q&A time – bring your questions to the panellists or send them in advance to oed.uk@oup.com

Please note that this event will be recorded, and all registrants will be notified once the recording is available for viewing.

When

Thursday, November 21, 2024 · 5:00 p.m. London (UTC +0:00)

Presenters

Dr Catherine Sangster

Oxford Languages Executive Editor: Pronunciations

Dr Catherine Sangster is Executive Editor: Pronunciations at Oxford Languages. Before moving into lexicography, she headed the BBC Pronunciation Unit, and completed a D.Phil. in Sociophonetics.
Read Dr Sangster's blog: Looking back at Geek Dictionary Corner

Prof Dr Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer

Chair of English and digital linguistics, Head of department for English and American Studies, Chemnitz University of Technology

Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer has always taken great interest in popular culture and is very happy that being professor of English and Digital Linguistics at Chemnitz University of Technology allows her to investigate the language of films and texts she cherishes. She has carried out research on a large number of different topics (e.g. language in comics and fairy tales), and in her recent open access article 'The impact of Star Wars on the English language: Star Wars-derived words and constructions in present-day English corpora ', she used corpus linguistic methods to analyse to what extent words from the “Star Wars” franchise have become part of the English language and are now used in innovative contexts.
Visit Prof Dr Christina Sanchez-Stockhammer’s website.

Fiona Mcpherson

Senior Editor, OED New Words Team, Oxford University Press

Fiona has worked on the OED for over 20 years, initially working as part of the Revision team before moving on to New Words. As an undergraduate, she studied English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow, and her first taste of lexicography came after graduation when she began work for Chambers Dictionaries in Edinburgh on their 21st Century Dictionary. In addition to adding new words to the OED, she regularly undertakes media and publicity work on behalf of the dictionary.

Dr Fraser Dallachy

Lecturer, English Language & Linguistics, University of Glasgow

As well as a lecturer in historical linguistics and medieval literature, I am part of the editorial team for the Historical Thesaurus of English (University of Glasgow - School of Critical Studies ). I'm keen to engage with writing professionals about how they use the Thesaurus and ways in which is could be more useful to them; I have a strong relationship with the Chartered Institute of Editors and Proofreaders, and have spoken to writers at events celebrating genre fiction, including two Worldcons (world science fiction and fantasy conventions), and several European Researchers' Nights (Explorathon).

My research interests are in medieval educational literature, particularly the representation of authority and authoritative sources (who do you cite and how if you want someone to believe you?) and - by extension - what makes ideas appear believable/conventional or unconventional to their readers throughout history.

Dr Kerstin Richter

Postdoctoral Researcher in English Linguistics at the University of Regensburg

Dr Kerstin Richter has always been interested in the correlation of linguistic change and pop culture. Her postdoc research project focuses on diffusion and entrenchment processes of fictional neology. She is currently developing a corpus-based quantitative model for measuring to what extent words from popular fantasy and science fiction franchises (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek, Star Wars, and Harry Potter) have gained influence beyond their original scope of entertaining fans. Find Dr Richter's full academic profile here.

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