Blog CRC1646

Szilvia Daczó, a PhD student from project A01, is now in the thick of her one-year research stay at the University of Edinburgh. Incidentally, she is being supervised by one of A01’s very own Co-PI, András Bárány, who is a lecturer at the University in Edinburgh. Here, Szilvia gets to traverse between especially the Linguistics & English Language and Psychology departments in the School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences. As a visiting member of the School, Szilvia can sit in on lectures, attend and present at research group meetings, and be a part of the student body in general. For instance, she learned about Bayesian rather than inferential statistics for the first time and regularly hears about research pertaining to language structure (morphology, syntax) and meaning (semantics, pragmatics). There is even the Centre for Language Evolution, which is unique to this university. Their talk series often includes A01-related notions such as verb generalisation and conditioned variation.

In Szilvia’s impression, linguistics is quite wide-ranging at the department, which is perfect for discussing her work with linguists who bring in different perspectives and who ask questions about the project that have not been asked before. Furthermore, these discussions may not only be formal, since everyone seems open to a lunch-break or post-talk informal conversation. Regarding psycholinguistics, Szilvi is part of a group led by two of the most prolific researchers in the field: Martin Pickering and Holly Branigan.

The number of academic events, professional contacts, and regular as well as other visiting students foster making connections that will hopefully last beyond her physical presence at the University.

The Linguistics & English Language department is conveniently located on the main campus, in the newer Dugald Stewart Building which overlooks the quintessential older buildings of the University. Furthermore, higher floors provide a wonderful view of the city of Edinburgh itself, with the Firth of Forth estuary in the background. A pleasant sight for lunch or for looking into the distance while thinking in the meeting room!

Indeed, a research stay at a ‘buzzing’ School is a great boost for successful and effective career development, especially when the city has many (too many?) coffee shops to keep us going!

The view from the Dugald Stewart Building, with McEwan Hall pictured (Photo: Szilvia Daczó, SFB 1646)

Christmas at the Old College, where the Law faculty and a museum are still functioning today. (Photo: Szilvia Daczó, SFB 1646)

Szilvia Daczó (A01), photo: Sascha Hermannski ©SFB 1646

Project A01, photo: Sascha Hermannski ©SFB 1646

from left to right: Jutta M. Hoffmann, András Bárány, Fabian Zöfelt, Szilvia Daczó