Nele presenterer seg her på engelsk.
Please tell us a little bit about your background and your education
I’m originally from Estonia, but I received my PhD in English Linguistics from Lund University, Sweden in 2019. My thesis was about spoken language and the dynamic negotiation of meaning in English conversation. During my PhD, I also initiated the compilation of the new London–Lund Corpus 2 of spoken British English, which is modelled on the same principles as the world’s first spoken corpus, the London–Lund Corpus 1. All my research studies to date have been based on data from these corpora. For example, during my time as a postdoctoral researcher in Lund in 2020, I looked at how the language of advice-giving and advice uptake has changed in recent history, if advice is given differently in different social groups, and whether or not we can predict the outcome of the advice depending on how it is presented.
What will be the focus of your work at ILOS, are you attached to a specific project?
In ILOS, I will be working on something quite different but very exciting. I am a Postdoctoral Fellow on the interdisciplinary project “Fakespeak – the language of fake news”, where my main task is to identify linguistic differences between fake and genuine news in order to contribute to the development of faster and more accurate fake news detection systems. I am particularly interested in differences in metaphorical language use, since metaphor has been shown to be a powerful tool for shaping public opinion and thought, and I expect metaphor to be used differently when the intention of the writer is to deceive.
How do you prefer to spend your free time?
During covid-19 times, I like to go for long walks and listen to my favourite podcasts. Ahead of my move to Oslo, I also spend many of my evenings learning Norwegian on Duolingo. At other times, I go travelling at every opportunity I get, whether that’s road-tripping across Europe or eating at food courts in Southeast Asia. As long as there’s good food and wine!