Talk: ‘The Unspoken Rules of Spoken English Dialects’

Posted on 19 May 2023

Linguistics talk at the York Festival of Ideas 2023

Dr Claire Childs (Department of Language and Linguistic Science) will take part in this year’s York Festival of Ideas Festival (2-15 June 2023) of over 150 mostly free in-person and online events inviting audiences to ‘Rediscover, Reimagine, Rebuild. As part of the festival, Dr Childs will present a lecture entitled ‘The Unspoken Rules of Spoken English Dialects’ on Monday 12 June 2023, 6pm to 7pm at York Explore Library, Library Square, Museum Street, York.

The Unspoken Rules of Spoken English Dialects by Claire Childs
People are often criticised for using non-standard grammatical constructions such as ‘I didn't see nobody’ instead of ‘I didn't see anybody’. However, these constructions are widely used in dialects of English spoken around the world and, like standard grammatical constructions, they are just as much governed by rules! It is time to reconsider these non-standard grammatical forms and people’s often negative attitude towards them. Join University of York linguist Claire Childs to explore the diversity of grammatical variation in dialects of English and to find out how dialects follow their own sets of rules.

Book free tickets for Dr Childs’ talk here: York Festival of Ideas -The Unspoken Rules of Spoken English Dialects by Claire Childs

This year’s programme also includes a number of other events related to language and linguistics.

The full programme can be found on the official website: yorkfestivalofideas.com.

You can also follow the festival on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, #YorkIdeas