Dr Melani Schroeter

My interests in research and teaching are in the areas of political discourse analysis, (discourse) semantics, lexicology and word formation, pragmatics, (critical) discourse studies, sociolinguistics and cross-linguistic comparative language studies, as well as corpus-assisted methodologies.

I studied the use of silence as a means of communication, and how people make sense of silence and absence of communication especially in the public sphere. In 2013, I published a monograph “Silence and Concealment in Political Discourse” (John Benjamins) and in 2018 a co-edited volume “Exploring Silence and Absence in Discourse: Empirical Approaches” (Palgrave Macmillan).

I am also particularly interested in metalanguage and metadiscourse. Discourses about language use can help us explore language ideologies, i.e., people’s ideas about what language does and how it should (not) be used in various domains. These ideas need to be contextualised by asking whether and which agendas may be pushed when language is put out for debate.

I am currently investigating the anti-political correctness discourse so tirelessly perpetuated by the German New Right. I look at the wider context of reasoning about public discourse as well as, within this context, the strategic aims of the New Right’s claims to be silenced and forbidden to speak out.

Beyond this, I am interested in the various forms that metadiscourse can take and the various language phenomena it might focus on across different domains. This interest also links with my Final Year module where we look at debates about the German language in relation to national identity over time.

I undertake corpus-assisted and comparative analyses of keywords in public and political discourse, and I investigate the semantics and pragmatic adaptation of loanwords in and across recipient languages. I am also interested in comparative studies of lexical innovation, i.e., the way in which new words are created. This research partly informs my Part 2 module Lexicology and Word Formation.

Like many of my colleagues, I contribute to peer review for publishers, journals and research funding councils nationally and internationally, I supervise and examine PhD research students, organise or convene academic events, and present my research in talks and publications.