Dr Gabriella Rundblad
Lecturer in Applied Linguistics
PhD  Post-Graduate Teachers' Qualification  BA
Gabriella

Research

My current research projects are in the areas of Cognitive Linguistics (with special focus on the Semantics and Pragmatics of Health Communication) and Typical/Atypical Language Development using a combination of Psycholinguistic and Discourse Analysis approaches, whereas my earlier research was on Semantic & Lexical Variation and Change in English, using a Corpus Linguistic approach. If you are considering doing an MRes, an MPhil or a PhD or a Post-Doc in one of these areas or a related area, please contact me.

Cognitive Linguistics & Health Communication:
   Conceptualisations of authority and factuality in lay and professional health discourse, especially immunisation as portrayed on government and non-government websites.
   Impersonalisation, persuasion and identity in medical research articles.
   Semantics, pragmatics and risk behaviour, in particular, communication about drinking water - The impact of language and cognition on compliance during a natural disaster (Leverhulme Trust) and Improving communication on Cryptosporidium and 'Boil Water' notices: Lessons from Pitsford (DWI/DEFRA)- with Paul Hunter at UEA.
   Cognitive and cultural elements of folk-etymology (with David Kronenfeld at UC Riverside).
   Implications of Semantic/Pragmatic Impairments on Cognitive Linguistic Theory.

Typical/Atypical Language Development:
   Figurative Language in typically developing children and adults (with Dagmara Annaz at Middlesex University).
   Figurative Language in children with autism (with Dagmara Annaz at Middlesex University, and Anna Ferdenzi at Livingstone Primary School).
   Figurative Language in children and adults with Williams Syndrome (with Dagmara Annaz at Middlesex University, Jo Van Herwegen at KCL, Michael Thomas at Birkbeck, Roza Fishman at Birkbeck, and Annette Karmiloff-Smith at Birkbeck).
   Gender and Plural form assignment in Swedish: L1 and L2 (funded by a British Academy grant).
   The effect of English as a Lingua Franca (ELF) on Swedish morphology.
   Bilingual Access and Storage (with Sarah Tashkandy and Joanna John at KCL).

current and recent MPhil/PhD students:
   Sarah Tashkandy: Word Order Effects in Arabic-English Bilinguals living in Britain and Saudi (funded by a four year Saudi Cultural Bureau studentship - 2006-2009)
   Jo Van Herwegen: Figurative Language in children/adolescents with Williams Syndrome (funded by a three year ESRC Open Competition studentship and grants from the Williams Syndrome Foundation, UK, and the University of London Central Research Fund - 2007-2009)
   Joanna John: Patterns of Activation in Punjabi-English and French-English bilinguals in Britain (funded by a grant from the University of London Central Research Fund)
   Svenja Von Holt: Categorisation and Relation Detection in Autism (funded by a four year ESRC Quota studentship)
   Olivia Knapton: The language used by children and young people with early-onset versus late-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder (nominated for a three year ESRC Quota studentship)


visiting MPhil/PhD students:
   Nina Tudjman Vukovic: Cognitive analysis of English and Croatian verbs of speaking (visit funded by the British Academy)
   Zhao Ying: A corpus-based study of the use of conjuncts in Chinese and British undergraduates' writing in English (visit funded by the Tianjin University of Science & Technology)


Publications

in preparation:

Rundblad, G. Debating vaccine preventable diseases and vaccines online.

Rundblad, G., Annaz, D., and Van Herwegen, J. Comprehension of lexicalised metaphors and metonyms: a developmental study of typically developing children and children with Williams Syndrome.

submitted:

Van Herwegen, J., Rundblad, G., Davelaar, E., and Annaz, D. Variability and standardised tests in typically developing children and Williams Syndrome.

Rundblad, G. Why some messages speak better: child immunisation in media and on the internet.

Knapton, O., Hunter, P., and Rundblad, G. Do the causes and circumstances of water incidents impact consumer behaviour?

under revision:

Rundblad, G., Knapton, O., and Hunter, P. Communication, perception and behaviour during a natural disaster involving a ‘Do Not Drink’ and a subsequent ‘Boil Water’ notice: a postal questionnaire study.

published/in press:

Rundblad, G., and Annaz, D. 2010. The atypical development of metaphor and metonymy comprehension in children with Autism. Autism 14: 29-46.

Annaz, D., Van Herwegen, J., Thomas, M., Fishman, R., Karmiloff-Smith, A., and Rundblad, G. 2009. The comprehension of metaphor and metonymy in children with Williams syndrome. International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders 44.6: 962-978.

Rundblad, G., and Annaz, D. 2009 (corrected proofs online). Metaphor and metonymy comprehension: receptive vocabulary and conceptual knowledge. British Journal of Developmental Psychology.

Rundblad, G. 2008. The semantics and pragmatics of water notices and the impact on public health. Journal of Water and Health 6.S1: 77-86.

Rundblad, G. 2008. We, ourselves and who else? Differences in use of passive voice and metonymy for oneself versus other researchers in medical research articles. English Text Construction 1: 23-40.

Rundblad, G. 2007. Impersonal, General and Social: The use of metonymy versus passive voice in medical discourse. Written Communication 24: 250-277.
Winner of Best Article Reporting Qualitative or Quantitative Research in Technical or Scientific Communication. Awarded in 2008 by the the National Council Teachers of English (NCTE).

Rundblad, G., Chilton, P., and Hunter, P. 2006. An Enquiry into Scientific and Media Discourse in the MMR Controversy: Authority and Factuality. Communication and Medicine 3.1: 69-80.

Rundblad, G., and Kronenfeld, D. 2003. The Inevitability of Folk Etymology: A Case of Collective Reality and Invisible Hands. Journal of Pragmatics 35.1: 119-138.

Kronenfeld, D., and Rundblad, G. 2003. The Semantic Structure of Lexical Fields: Variation and Change. In Eckardt, R., von Heusinger, K., and Schwarze, C. (eds.), Words in Time. Diachronic semantics from different points of view, 67-114. Berlin; New York: Mouton de Gruyter.

Rundblad, G. 2000. On the Correlation between Lexical Stability and Word Creation Device. Journal of Quantitative Linguistics 7.1: 31-41.

Rundblad, G., and Kronenfeld, D. 2000. Folk-Etymology: haphazard perversion or shrewd analogy. In Coleman, J., and Kay, C. (eds.), Lexicology, Semantics and Lexicography. Selected papers from the Fourth G. L. Brook Symposium, 19-34. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Rundblad, G. 2000. Regularity and Regular Irregularity? In Falk, J., Magnusson, G., Melchers, G., and Nilsson, B. (eds.), Contrasts in Language, 167-187. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Rundblad, G., and Kronenfeld, D. 2000. Meaning in the Lexicon: Cultural implication. In Eckardt, R., and von Heusinger, K. (eds.), Meaning Change - Meaning Variation, 161-171. Konstanz: Konstanz University.

Rundblad, G. 1998. Shallow Brooks and Rivers Wide - A Study of Lexical and Semantic Change in English Nouns Denoting 'Watercourse'. Stockholm: Almqvist & Wiksell International.

Rundblad, G. 1998. Stability in the Theory of Language Change. In Haukioja, T. (ed.), Papers from the 16th Scandinavian Conference of Linguistics, 369-380. Turku: Turun yliopisto.



Symposia

Cross-Modal Mapping, Metaphor and Language: Lessons from Atypical Development. Lived Experience, Metaphor and Multimodality: Implications in Communication, Education, Learning and Knowledge, Crete 2008.



Talks

'Children and adolescents’ understanding of metaphors and metonyms: Issues in current theory, evidence and methods'. 3rd Conference of the UK Cognitive Linguistics Association, Hertfordshire 2010

'Communication about drinking water safety: A cognitive discourse analysis approach'. Joint with Olivia Knapton. 3rd Conference of the UK Cognitive Linguistics Association, Hertfordshire 2010

'Communicating safe behaviour to the general public: A comparison of the different stages of a natural disaster'. Joint with Olivia Knapton. Communication, Medicine and Ethics, Boston 2010

'Media communication during a natural disaster'. Joint with Olivia Knapton. Society for Risk Analysis-Europe conference, London 2010

'Why risk behaviour and compliance during natural disasters differs significantly from human error events and what we can do about it'. Joint with Olivia Knapton and Paul Hunter. American Public Health Association Conference, Philadelphia 2009

'Risk behaviour and compliancy following boil water notices due to a natural disaster versus a human error incident'. Joint with Olivia Knapton and Paul Hunter. Health Protection Agency Conference, Warwick 2009

'Explaining development of comprehension of novel metaphors and metonyms in Williams Syndrome'. Joint with Jo Van Herwegen and Dagmara Annaz. BPS Developmental Psychology Section Conference, Nottingham 2009

'Linguistic Aspects of Vaccine Safety Publications'. Invited talk, Brighton Collaboration, London 2008.

'Language dominance as an influence on bilinguals’ word order reliance in written Comprehension'. Joint with Sarah Tashkandy. Models of Interaction in Bilinguals, Bangor 2008.

'Dissemination and Communication: "Selling" Vaccines to Peers and the General Public'. Invited talk, Ehrlich II – 2nd World Conference on Magic Bullets, Nürnberg 2008.

'Precursors to Metaphor: Theoretical Implications'. Lived Experience, Metaphor and Multimodality: Implications in Communication, Education, Learning and Knowledge, Crete 2008.

'Embodiment, Metaphor and Language: Problems and Potentials'. Joint with Jordan Zlatev. Lived Experience, Metaphor and Multimodality: Implications in Communication, Education, Learning and Knowledge, Crete 2008.

'Metaphor processing in Autism'. Joint with Dagmara Annaz. Lived Experience, Metaphor and Multimodality: Implications in Communication, Education, Learning and Knowledge, Crete 2008.

'Metaphor processing in Williams Syndrome'. Joint with Dagmara Annaz. Lived Experience, Metaphor and Multimodality: Implications in Communication, Education, Learning and Knowledge, Crete 2008.

'How does word order and age of acquisition affect sentence comprehension in English-Arabic bilinguals?'. Joint with Sarah Tashkandy. Language, Communication & Cognition, Brighton 2008.

'Is metaphor comprehension in Williams Syndrome normal, delayed or impaired?'. Joint with Jo Van Herwegen and Dagmara Annaz. Language, Communication & Cognition, Brighton 2008.

'Relating metaphor and metonymy in autism'. Joint with Dagmara Annaz. 10th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference, Krakow 2007.

'Differences in use of passive voice and/or metonymy for oneself versus other researchers in medical discourse'. Annual Conference of The Belgian Association of Anglicists in Higher Education (BAAHE), Leuven 2006.

'Making Meaning: developing an understanding of figurative language in children with Autism'. Invited talk, Department of Human Communication Science, University College London 2006.

'The understanding of metonymy and metaphor in children with autism'. Joint with Dagmara Annaz and Anna Ferdenzi. 5th International Meeting For Autism Research (IMFAR), Montreal 2006.

'Language Comprehension: From Face Recognition to Mind Reading'. Invited talk, School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University 2006.

'From Brain to Mind: Evolution, Break Down and Language'. Invited talk, School of Education and Communication, Jönköping University 2006.

'Communication Strategies: communicating with professional and lay audiences'. Invited talk, Water Contamination Events: Communication with Consumers, Houston 2006.

'We, ourselves and who else? The role of self versus others in conceptualisation of authority in scientific discourse'. 1st New Directions in Cognitive Linguistics conference, Brighton 2005.

'Mental Representations of Authority: the roles played by professionals vs lay people in medical discourse'. Invited talk, School of Humanities, King's College London 2005.

'Mental Representations of Authority in Medical Discourse: the roles played by professionals vs lay people'. Invited talk, English Department, Stockholm University 2005.

'We, ourselves and who else? The role of self versus others in conceptualisation of authority in scientific discourse'. 3rd International Conference on Discourse, Communication and Enterprise (DICOEN), Rio de Janeiro 2005.

'A psycholinguistic study of the English -s plural in Swedish: Or how high proficiency in English among Swedes may have paved the way for the English -s plural to become the regular plural form in Swedish'. 37th Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL), London 2004.

'Authority in Conceptual Space: a cognitive discourse analysis approach'. International Conference on Language, Culture and Mind, Portsmouth 2004.

'Communication on Immunisation in Health Protection: a cognitive discourse analysis approach'. Joint with Paul Chilton. Communication, Medicine and Ethics (COMET), Linköping 2004.

'Health Protection Communication'. Joint with Paul Chilton. Invited talk, Health Protection Agency, Norwich 2004.

'Relating Metaphor and Metonymy: from comprehension and communication to the lack thereof'. Mind, Language and Metaphor (EURESCO), Granada 2004.

'From observation to evidence: granting objectivity and authority to subjective viewpoints in discourse on medical research'. 8th International Cognitive Linguistics Conference. Cognitive Linguistics, Functionalism, Discourse Studies: Common Ground and New Directions, Logroño 2003.

'Natural language, evidence and causation: medical journal reporting of MMR-related research'. Joint with Paul Chilton and Paul Hunter. Communication, Medicine and Ethics (COMET), Cardiff 2003.

'How quality came to lose to quantity: Diachronic change in a semantic and lexical field'. Invited talk, Department of Linguistics, University of Manchester 2001.

'Meaning in the Lexicon: Collective Inference and Change'. Joint with David Kronenfeld. 21st Annual Meeting of the German Society of Linguistics, Konstanz 1999.

'Folk-Etymology: haphazard perversion or shrewd analogy'. Joint with David Kronenfeld. 10th International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, Manchester 1998.

'Changes in the English Language – Past, Present and Future'. Invited talk, ABF, Stockholm 1998.

'Culture and markedness as factors in the survival of Proto-Germanic and Old English nouns'. History of English in a Social Context, Tulln, 1997.

'Semantic Change: Stability and Change in Lexical Fields'. International Conference of Historical Linguistics, Düsseldorf 1997.

'A study of nouns for "watercourse" in English place-names'. Invited talk, Nordic Department, Uppsala University 1997.

'Lexical fields and English Placenames'. Symposium on Writing in Nonstandard English, Helsinki 1996.

'Stability in the Theory of Language Change'. 16th Nordic Conference of Linguistics, Turku 1996.



Organisations

University Council of General and Applied Linguistics (UCGAL), currently member of the governing board (NB. website still under construction)

United Kingdom Cognitive Linguistics Association (UK-CLA), founding member and currently member of the governing board

ViVI Implementation Working Group (formerly Brighton Collaboration Implementation Working Group), member of international group working on vaccine safety standards and communication to the general public

Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines (CADAAD), member of international editorial board

Psychology and Cognitive Processes (PCP), co-founder and currently group leader of KCL research group

Current Issues in Psychology and Cognitive Processes, co founder and co-organiser of KCL seminar series



This website is designed and maintained by Gabriella Rundblad.
© 2000-2009 Gabriella Rundblad.
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