This post is part of our Research Initiation Scheme for 2024-2025
I recently had the pleasure of meeting with Dr Emma Humphries to find out more about her academic career and current areas of interest.
Currently a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow in the School of Arts, English and Languages at QUB, Emma began her academic career in Nottingham, where she studied French and Spanish at undergraduate level. Her love for the French language was piqued during her dissertation project relating to public reaction towards the long-awaited feminisation of professional titles in the 1990s. With support from her mentors, this love of French soon prompted Emma to embark on an MRes project examining prescriptivism on social media.
What is prescriptivism you might ask? Simply put, this is when someone corrects and critiques someone else’s use of language – whether in oral or written format. Emma has found that people can feel very strongly about the ‘correct’ use of language, suggesting that language is an intrinsic part of one’s identity and culture. Prescriptivism thus became the main focus of her academic career, with her PhD exploring language columns in the late 1800s in France in comparison to similar online sources. Interestingly, these publications were formatted much like a column in local newspapers so that members of the public could write to the author with specific language queries (i.e. how to spell/pronounce/use certain language) that would be addressed in the bi-weekly publication.
In a contemporary context, Emma places great emphasis on the influence of social media and how this has impacted the use of language – she stresses that with the advent of comment sections, we now have large bodies of empirical evidence of prescriptivism, data which we did not have access to before. This renders the study of prescriptivism more quantifiable and therefore feasible, allowing researchers such as Emma to truly shine a light on this phenomenon.
Acknowledging the current difficulties of pursuing a career in academia, Emma accepts there is an element of insecurity as her current position at QUB marks her fourth temporary contract since obtaining her PhD. However, her passion for her work and her skillset far outweighs potential employment anxiety. She further emphasises the transferable skills she has gained throughout her studies, skills that are highly sought after by any employer.
Emma offers this advice to any undergraduate students unsure of their next steps; if you have an academic interest, you should absolutely pursue this! Read and research as much as possible about your interests, as this can serve as inspiration for your own MRes project. Above all, regardless of what you study, the key is to enjoy it!
Years of knowledge and experience in this field have inevitably shaped Emma’s own perceptions of prescriptivism and the use of language, prompting her to notice examples of this all around her in her daily life. So much so that she has since created a very accessible, crowd-sourced website specifically exploring this issue. This website is open to all, as Emma would like to invite anyone who has witnessed prescriptivism in action to share their experiences on the submission form linked on the website! She is most fascinated by just how deeply entrenched these prescriptivist ideas are in society and the sheer strength of people’s judgements. Emma’s work aims to challenge notions of prescriptivism, and what is considered ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ in language use. However, she also stresses that most of us are guilty of being prescriptivists, even without realising it! She identifies that by nature of using language, we therefore feel ownership of it. Above all, the goal of Emma’s academic work is to leave a lasting positive impact on both francophone and anglophone society. In a world where we are facing the unprecedented (and somewhat frightening) rise of artificial intelligence and thus machine translation, it is refreshing to meet with talented researchers such as Dr Humphries who display such passion and dedication to their work.
Click this link to view Emma’s online project regarding prescriptivism: https://yourwrong.co.uk/
Interview by Máire Cáit Ní Mhathúna, final-year undergraduate in French and Spanish
Editor’s Note: Emma Humphries was previously a Research Fellow in Language Policy in the School of Arts, English and Languages, working on the AHRC Modern Languages Leadership Fellowship Language Policy Project ‘Foreign, indigenous and community languages in the devolved regions of the UK: policy and practice for growth’, led by Professor Janice Carruthers.