Instructor

Stefan Th. Gries (STG) is Full Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) and a 25% Chair of English Linguistics (Corpus Linguistics with a focus on quantitative methods) at Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany.

Methodologically, STG is a quantitative corpus linguist at the intersection of corpus linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and computational linguistics, who uses a variety of different statistical methods to investigate linguistic topics such as morpho-phonology, syntax, the syntax-lexis interface, semantics, and corpus-linguistic methodology, as well as first and second language acquisition. Occasionally, he also uses experimental methods (acceptability judgments, sentence completion, priming, self-paced reading times, and sorting tasks).

Theoretically, he is a cognitively-oriented linguist (with an interest in Construction Grammar) in the wider sense of seeking explanations in terms of cognitive processes without being a cognitive linguist in the narrower sense of following any one particular cognitive-linguistic theory. The researchers who have influenced his work most are (in alphabetical order) R. Harald Baayen, Douglas Biber, Nick C. Ellis, Adele E. Goldberg, and Michael Tomasello.

STG has authored four books – one research monograph, an introduction to statistics with R for linguists (two editions), a book on corpus linguistics with R (two editions), and an overview of corpus methods in cognitive linguistics. He has also co-edited six volumes – two on corpora in cognitive linguistics, two on frequency effects in language, one on corpus linguistics, and one on cognitive linguistics.

Since 1999, he has (co-)authored more than five dozen articles in the leading peer-reviewed journals of his fields (Cognitive Linguistics and International Journal of Corpus Linguistics) as well as in many other peer-reviewed journals, plus another 70 or so articles in edited volumes, proceedings, etc. He is founding general editor of the international peer-reviewed journal Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, co-editor of Journal of Research Design and Statistics in Linguistics and Communication Science, associate editor of Cognitive Linguistic Studies, academic editor of PLOS ONE , and performs editorial functions for more than ten international peer-reviewed journals and book series. Since the beginning of 2007, he has given more than 150 talks and workshops at national and international venues, nearly half of them invited.

For further information, visit his personal webpage.