Paul O'Neill
Paul's research focuses on variation and change in the Ibero-Romance Languages (Spanish, Catalan Portuguese, Galician, Austrian, Aragonese) and specifically on the varieties of Portuguese and Spanish spoken around the world. He is interested in detailing and explaining historical and current changes in these languages and using his data to address the big questions in linguistic theory – namely, how language is mentally represented and the interplay between storage and computation.He maintains that language should not be studied as a self-contained system without reference to its usage, history and structure and studied in isolation to other human cognitive and developmental skills. He views grammar as emergent and shaped by both internal and external linguistic factors. He is particularly interested in Word-and-Pattern models of Morphology and how such models can help in explaining linguistic change.
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Papers by Paul O'Neill
in Brazil from independence to modern times in order to establish why there is such
a gulf between the written official standard and actual linguistic usage. I reflect on
how language is often regarded as a problem within educational contexts and how
the response of academics in both linguistics and education studies has largely been
focused on combating linguistic prejudice against non-standard varieties of Portuguese.
I identify this as a recognition-oriented strategy aimed at changing attitudes towards
non-standard forms of the language and its speakers and I question the effectiveness
of such strategies. I argue that there are more fundamental structural problems with
language and education in Brazil. These are identified as (a) the linguistic distance
between the speech of the great majority of Brazilians and the official standard norm
and (b) the uncertainty whether the education system is designed to teach this standard
norm or, paradoxically, to assess the extent to which it is acquired. I conclude with an
analysis of modern education policy documents where I find no strong emphasis for
ensuring that students achieve active, advanced proficiency in the standard norm. I
argue that recognition-orientated strategies need to be accompanied by strategies
that advocate for structural changes in (a) the standard language to make it more
readily resemble the actual speech of Brazilians and (b) how this standard is used as a
means of instruction and assessment.
in Brazil from independence to modern times in order to establish why there is such
a gulf between the written official standard and actual linguistic usage. I reflect on
how language is often regarded as a problem within educational contexts and how
the response of academics in both linguistics and education studies has largely been
focused on combating linguistic prejudice against non-standard varieties of Portuguese.
I identify this as a recognition-oriented strategy aimed at changing attitudes towards
non-standard forms of the language and its speakers and I question the effectiveness
of such strategies. I argue that there are more fundamental structural problems with
language and education in Brazil. These are identified as (a) the linguistic distance
between the speech of the great majority of Brazilians and the official standard norm
and (b) the uncertainty whether the education system is designed to teach this standard
norm or, paradoxically, to assess the extent to which it is acquired. I conclude with an
analysis of modern education policy documents where I find no strong emphasis for
ensuring that students achieve active, advanced proficiency in the standard norm. I
argue that recognition-orientated strategies need to be accompanied by strategies
that advocate for structural changes in (a) the standard language to make it more
readily resemble the actual speech of Brazilians and (b) how this standard is used as a
means of instruction and assessment.