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Dr. Jakob Neels

Research Fellow

Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft
Geisteswissenschaftliches Zentrum
Beethovenstraße 15, Room 4302
04107 Leipzig

Phone: +49 341 97-37328


Abstract

Jakob Neels is a cognitive-functional linguist and research fellow at Leipzig’s Institute of British Studies. He received a PhD from Leipzig University in 2020 and stayed at Bangor University, Wales, and at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, as a graduate student. His research focuses mainly on usage-based approaches to language variation and change. His current projects connect grammaticalisation research to World Englishes as well as to the topic of linguistic extravagance, next to a long-term project on socio-cognitive adaptiveness in adult speakers. He teaches on a broad range of linguistic topics, such as historical linguistics, the structure of conversation, prescriptivism and construction grammar. 

Professional career

  • since 01/2021
    Research fellow (post-doc) at the Institute of British Studies, Leipzig University (directed by Prof. Arne Lohmann)
  • 02/2018 - 12/2020
    Lecturer (LfbA) at the Institute of British Studies
  • 04/2013 - 09/2019
    Research associate at the Institute of British Studies
  • 02/2011 - 12/2011
    Student assistant in the Department of Linguistics at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

Education

  • 04/2014 - 01/2020
    Doctorate at the Faculty of Philology, Leipzig University (supervised by Prof. Doris Schönefeld and Prof. Martin Haspelmath)
  • 10/2007 - 03/2013
    BA and MA in English Studies (minor subjects: General Linguistics, Cultural Studies), Leipzig University
  • 01/2012 - 06/2012
    Erasmus exchange semester at Bangor University, Wales
  • Language change and grammaticalisation
  • Usage-based construction grammar
  • Corpus-linguistic approaches to language variation and change
  • Malleability of idiolects across the lifespan
  • The history of the English language
  • Cognitive linguistics and cognitive sociolinguistics
  • Refining frequency-effect explanations of grammaticalisation
    Neels, Jakob
    Duration: 01/2014 - 01/2020
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft
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  • Grammaticalisation and World Englishes
    Neels, Jakob
    Duration: 10/2020 - ongoing
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft
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  • Idiolectal variability in middle adulthood: Socio-cognitive factors and the medium-term dynamics of change
    Neels, Jakob
    Duration: 12/2021 - ongoing
    Involved organisational units of Leipzig University: Anglistische Sprachwissenschaft
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more projects

  • Neels, J.
    Lifespan change in grammaticalisation as frequency-sensitive automation: William Faulkner and the let alone construction
    Cognitive Linguistics. 2020. 31 (2). pp. 339-365
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2019-0020
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  • Neels, J.; Hartmann, S.
    Grammaticalisation, schematisation and paradigmaticisation: How they intersect in the development of German degree modifiers
    In: Diewald, G.; Politt, K. (Eds.)
    Paradigms regained: Theoretical and empirical arguments for the reassessment of the notion of paradigm. Berlin: Language Science Press. 2022. pp. 267-296
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5675855
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  • Neels, J.; Hartmann, S.; Ungerer, T.
    A quantum of salience: Reconsidering the role of extravagance in grammaticalization
    In: De Smet, H.; Petré, P.; Szmrecsanyi, B. (Eds.)
    Context, intent and variation in grammaticalization. Berlin: De Gruyter. 2023. pp. 47-77
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110753059-003
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more publications

  • Overcoming the Written Language Bias: How Conversation Works

  • African American English: Its Structure and Sociolinguistic History

  • Recent Developments in Standard English: The 20th Century, Today and Tomorrow

  • Linguistic Change Across the Lifespan

  • The Grammar of Conversation: Usage-Based Perspectives

  • English Usage and Style: From Prescriptivism to Corpus-Based Description

  • Written Academic Discourse I

  • Grammaticalisation and Related Processes of Language Change

  • English Phonetics and Phonology

  • Construction Grammar, or: "What's This Fly Doing in My Soup?"

  • Language Change: Attitudes, Motivations and Mechanisms

  • Early Modern English

  • Synchronic Linguistics: Morphology, Syntax, Semantics

  • Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics for American Studies

  • Working with Language Corpora (workshop together with Anne Lerche and Doris Schönefeld)