
- Position:Senior Research Fellow : Family Names of the United Kingdom
- Telephone:+4411732 86316
About me
I am a lexicographer, corpus linguist, and onomastician. I currently hold two research professorships: one at the Research Institute of Information and Language Processing in the University of Wolverhampton, the other at the Bristol Centre for Linguistics in the University of the West of England (UWE, Bristol). From 1990 to 2000 I was chief editor of current English dictionaries at Oxford University Press. In the 1980s I was project manager of the first edition of the Cobuild dictionary and chief editor of Collins English dictionaries.
My research interests are:
a) lexical analysis: mapping meaning onto phraseological patterns;
b) analysis of intentional lexical irregularities i.e. creative and innovative use of language;
c) similes, comparisons, and metaphors;
d) personal names: origin and history of family names; convention and creativity in name giving.
With colleagues based at UWE, I am currently working on an AHRC-funded database of all the family names in the UK (FaNUK), with information about their linguistic and social origins, history, and geographical distribution.
Publications
