Gerard Steen has been appointed Professor of Language and Communication
Gerard Steen conducts research into figurative meaning in language and communication. He has developed various methods for the identification and analysis of metaphor, drawing on social science techniques to test their reliability.
Currently, Steen is also working on building an interdisciplinary metaphor processing model that will combine approaches from the fields of linguistics (structural-functional grammar, cognitive linguistics, relevance theory), psychology (psycholinguistics, cognitive psychology, social psychology) and the social sciences (communication science). Embedded in a more comprehensive approach to all language and communication, as based on genre knowledge and genre acts, the model will be used to investigate structures and processes of metaphorical meaning in their situated context of use and to tap the resulting knowledge for practical applications in language and communication – such as text design and editing. Beyond this, Steen is also studying applications in the fields of literature and stylistics.