We research linguistic forms that resemble the meanings of the concepts they refer to. We focus on how these iconic forms are involved in language emergence, learning and processing. We also investigate the ways in which people use figurative language including metaphor and metonymy and conventionalised forms such as idioms. We explore the functions they perform in everyday language, and the ways in which they are learned and processed.
Research areas include:
- Comprehension and production of iconicity
- Conventionalised expressions and idioms
- Figurative competence and figurative processing
- Iconicity in speech, gesture, and sign
- Language evolution
- Metaphor and metonymy
- Multimodal metaphor
- Typological diversity
Senior Lecturer in Psycholinguistics
Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics
Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics
Acting Director of PGR for ELAL
Associate Professor in Cognitive Linguistics