30.1642, Rising Stars: Meet Sarah Lapacz!

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-1642. Mon Apr 15 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.1642, Rising Stars: Meet Sarah Lapacz!

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Editor for this issue: Everett Green <everett at linguistlist.org>
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Date: Mon, 15 Apr 2019 15:21:51
From: LINGUIST List [linguist at linguistlist.org]
Subject: Rising Stars: Meet Sarah Lapacz!

 

Dear Readers,

This year we will be continuing our Rising Stars Series where we feature up
and coming linguists ranging from impactful undergraduates to prolific PhD
candidates. These rising stars have been nominated by their mentors for their
exceptional interest in linguistics and eager participation in the global
community of language researchers.

Selected nominees were asked to share their view of the field of linguistics:
what topics they see emerging as important or especially interesting, what
role they see the field filling in the coming decades, and how they plan to
contribute. We hope you will enjoy the perspectives of these students, who
represent the bright future of our field.

For today’s post we proudly present the thoughtful work of Sarah Lapacz. She
is currently an MA student at the University of Bonn in Germany. Her research
interests range from forensic linguistics to teaching English as a foreign
language and she is very active in the community. Sarah has already
co-authored a published article, written blogs on various linguistic topics
and presented papers and posters at several conferences and workshops. As a
member of the LETS (Linguistics of English and Translation Studies) team, she
is also currently assisting with research on sociocultural impact on recent
language change in the UK, US and Germany. As is always the case with our
Rising Stars, Sarah’s list of accomplishments is much longer than we have room
for in this post so let’s move on and hear what she has to say!

******************************************************************

I have always been fascinated by languages other than my mother tongue,
German. Whenever we went on vacation, I was puzzled by the local languages and
the people who spoke them. All these strange sounds and melodies intrigued me.
Even though no one in my family spoke the local language, my mother was able
to converse with people in English to order food, buy medicine, or ask for
directions. Only later, during my BA studies, did I realize that I was indeed
not fascinated by languages, but rather by language itself and how it works,
or sometimes simply just does not work.

I was fortunate enough to have been accepted into the MA Applied Linguistics
program at the University of Bonn where I found myself in the position to
answer my questions while receiving the best support and guidance. It did not
take long for me to identify my research interest in taboo language and
forensic linguistics. While one field is hopefully finally able to overcome
its own taboo status, the other one is a rather young field, that is
increasingly gaining importance though.

Taboo language makes a lot of people feel uncomfortable. Yet it can be found
in every culture and language and is part of daily life, as it is, e.g., a
means of venting our emotions. Taboo terms and their effect intrigue me. Most
of my research projects so far have focused on these terms and their use and
perception, which took me from looking into responses to insults from a
cross-cultural viewpoint, to the use, perception, and code-switching of taboo
terms by English as Lingua Franca speakers, or the translation of taboo terms
by language learners. Previous research by Jean-Marc Dewaele, Jonathan
Culpeper, and Benjamin Bergen has greatly inspired me along the way. I was
able to present my research at various conferences, nationally and
internationally, something for which I am most grateful. All this made me
realize that there are so many more questions to be answered.

As I mentioned, I am also interested in the area of forensic linguistics. At
the start of my MA studies, I was introduced to the Germanic Society for
Forensic Linguistics (GSFL) which led me to become more actively interested in
the field. The GSFL has also enabled me to participate in the Continuing
Professional Development (CPD) course in Forensic Speech and Audio Analysis at
the University of York on a scholarship. This experience has sparked an
additional interest in forensic phonetics in me. I will investigate taboo
language in a legal context for my PhD project where I will have a closer look
at hate speech at the intersection of forensic linguistics and forensic
phonetics.

My current MA thesis under the supervision of Gaby Axer and Prof. Svenja
Kranich, however, focuses on another matter close to my heart. As we linguists
are aware, language shapes our world. With this in mind, it becomes clear that
this could pose a problem when an extralinguistic context depends on the
language we use to describe an action or situation. This is the case in legal
settings. For my MA thesis, I try to gain some more insight into the
linguistic side of the phenomenon of victim blaming in rape cases and the
effect it might have, especially when it appears in witness statements.

I think that with current movements such as #metoo and the overall political
climate, research in the areas outlined above will increasingly gain relevance
and importance. The goal with all my research projects is to raise more
awareness towards the complexities of taboo language (especially its
perception), the influence of specific linguistic behavior which discriminates
others and puts them at a disadvantage, and the need for a more reliable and
effective framework when it comes to hate crimes. I hope that I will have
plenty of opportunity to get immersed in the necessary research and I am
excited about the amazing insights the future may bring.

After another cup of tea.

******************************************************************

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