Dr. Theresa Neumaier
Habilitation project: Threatening language in the history of English
With Sven Leuckert (TU Dresden): English in Madeira
With Sven Leuckert (TU Dresden): Non-Canonical Syntax in English as a Lingua Franca (as part of the scientific network Syntax Beyond the Canon: Cutting-edge Studies of Non-Canonical Syntax in English (funded by the German Research Foundation, DFG))
- Historical pragmatics
- Threatening speech
- Conversation Analysis/Interactional Linguistics
- World Englishes
- English in Madeira
- Non-canonical syntax
Since 10/2020 : Akad. Rätin a. Z. (‘Assistant Professor’), Chair of English Linguistics (Prof. Dr. Patricia Ronan), TU Dortmund University
Work on habilitation project “Threatening language in the history of English”, TU Dortmund University
10/2019 - 09/2020: Research assistant (Postdoc), Chair of English Linguistics (Prof. Dr. Edgar W. Schneider), Regensburg University
07/2019: PhD (Dr. phil., summa cum laude) in English Linguistics, Regensburg University
Dissertation: Patterns of Conversational Interaction in Varieties of English
10/2018 - 09/2019: Research assistant, Chair of English Linguistics (Prof. Dr. Claudia Claridge), Augsburg University
02/2015 - 12/2018: Research assistant, Chair of English Linguistics (Prof. Dr. Edgar W. Schneider), Regensburg University
09/2014 - 02/2015: Teacher training, Wilhelmsgymnasium, Munich
07/2014: Magister Artium (M.A.), English Linguistics and Medieval Literature, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Abschlussnote: 1,21)
1. state examination in English and German (“Lehramt an Gymnasien in Bayern”), Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich
Monographs:
Neumaier, Theresa. (2023). Conversation in World Englishes: Turn-Taking and Cultural Variation in Southeast Asian and Caribbean English. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Reviewed in: English World-Wide (Susanne Mühleisen), ICAME Journal (Karin Aijmer), English Language & Linguistics (Lisa Lehnen), LINGUIST List (Marine Riou)
Edited Collections and Special Issues:
Rüdiger, Sofia, Theresa Neumaier, Sven Leuckert, & Sarah Buschfeld, eds. (2025). World Englishes in the 21st Century: New Perspectives and Challenges to the Dynamic Model. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Reviewed in: Folia Linguistica (Michael Westphal)
Buschfeld, Sarah, Theresa Neumaier, Patricia Ronan, Andreas Weilinghoff, & Lisa Westermayer, eds. (2024). Crossing Boundaries through Corpora: Innovative Corpus Approaches within and beyond Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Reviewed in: English Language & Linguistics (Hanna Schmück), Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (Zeyuan Jiang, Jiahao Chen, & Zhanting Bu)
Journal Articles (peer-reviewed):
Neumaier, Theresa. (acc.) Move structure variation in Late Modern English threatening and extortion letters. Journal of Historical Pragmatics.
Neumaier, Theresa & Sven Leuckert. (acc.) Colloquial Portuguese for English health tourists: A sociolinguistic investigation of a 19th century Portuguese-English language guidebook. Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics.
Pham, Teresa, Sven Leuckert, Gea Dreschler, Sandra Götz, Christine Günther, Kathrin Kircili, Claudia Lange, Theresa Neumaier, Louise Mycock, & Sofia Rüdiger. (2025) Defining non-canonicity: An integrated approach to modelling syntactic variation. Anglistik 36(3), 177-209. https://doi.org/10.33675/ANGL/2025/3/15
Neumaier, Theresa. (2025). “I have come to the conclusion that you must die”: Threats in Late Modern English threatening letters. Journal of Historical Pragmatics 26(2), 262–287. https://doi.org/10.1075/jhp.23016.neu
Neumaier, Theresa. (2025). Representation of threatening speech in Late Modern English Trials. Journal of Pragmatics 237, 55–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2025.01.004
Leuckert, Sven, Theresa Neumaier, & Asya Yurchenko. (2023). English in Madeira: History and features of a lesser-known variety in the Atlantic: Exploring English as the dominant language of tourism in a former quasi-colony. English Today 39(1), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0266078421000328
Contributions to Edited Collections (peer-reviewed):
Neumaier, Theresa & Sven Leuckert. (2025). Non-Canonical Syntax in English as a Lingua Franca: Minus-Features between Language Contact and Emergent Grammar. In: Sven Leuckert & Teresa Pham, eds. Non-canonical English Syntax. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 307–330. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108863858.017
Neumaier, Theresa. (2023). New Englishes and Conversation Analysis: Turn-taking as a factor in explaining syntactic variation. In: Guyanne Wilson & Michael Westphal, eds. New Englishes, New Methods: Methodological Considerations for the Study of New Englishes. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g68.04neu
Other Contributions:
Neumaier, Theresa, Sven Leuckert, Sofia Rüdiger, & Sarah Buschfeld. 2025. Introduction: Twenty years of the Dynamic Model. In: Sofia Rüdiger, Theresa Neumaier, Sven Leuckert, & Sarah Buschfeld, eds. World Englishes in the 21st Century: New Perspectives and Challenges to the Dynamic Model. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 3–21. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399527866-006
Leuckert, Sven, Sofia Rüdiger, Theresa Neumaier, & Sarah Buschfeld. (2025). Synopsis: The present and future of the Dynamic Model. In: Sofia Rüdiger, Theresa Neumaier, Sven Leuckert, & Sarah Buschfeld, eds. World Englishes in the 21st Century: New Perspectives and Challenges to the Dynamic Model. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 379–388. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781399527866-025
Ronan, Patricia, Sarah Buschfeld, Theresa Neumaier, Andreas Weilinghoff, & Lisa Westermayer. Introduction: Crossing discipline boundaries with corpus-linguistic methods. In: Sarah Buschfeld, Patricia Ronan, Theresa Neumaier, Andreas Weilinghoff, & Lisa Westermayer, eds. Crossing Boundaries through Corpora: Innovative Corpus Approaches within and beyond Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.119.01ron
Neumaier, Theresa. 2019. Patterns of conversational interaction in varieties of English. Dissertation, Universität Regensburg: http://epub.uni-regensburg.de/40436.
Reviews:
Neumaier, Theresa. 2022. Book review of Klumm (2021): Nominal and Pronominal Address in Jamaica and Trinidad: Variations and Patterns. English World-Wide 43(3), 397–401. https://doi.org/10.1075/eww.22004.neu
01/2026
So I conclude that this town will soon be In Ruins – how to threaten in Late Modern English, Freie Universität Berlin (invited talk)
12/2025
Beware of bombs and vitriol – threats in Late Modern English letters, Universität Heidelberg (invited talk)
09/2025
Asymmetries in the 19th-century courtroom – talking about spoken threats in Old Bailey trials, ISLE8, Santiago de Compostela
07/2025
The role of English in Madeira: A pilot study of language attitudes, IAWE26, Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen (with Sven Leuckert)
06/2025
Understanding pragmalinguistic choices in appellative letters – focus on early 20th-century business and extortion letters, ICAME46, Vilnius (with Ninja Schulz & Lisa Lehnen)
05/2025
Transformative processes in an illicit genre – changes in the rhetorical structure of Late Modern English threatening letters, Advancing Research in English Linguistics, Universität Regensburg (invited talk)
06/2024
One of these things must be done – move structure variation in Late Modern English threatening letters, ICAME45, Vigo
03/2024
I will be revenged upon you – forms and functions of threatening letters in Late Modern English, Survey of English Usage Seminar Series, University College London (invited talk)
01/2024
Threatening letters in Victorian England, Universität zu Köln (invited talk)
12/2023
Malicious letters and bad language – threatening communication in Late Modern English, Universität Bielefeld (invited talk)
09/2023
He did not threaten me, but I was frightened – negotiating threats in historical trial discourse, Language as a social practice: Constructing (a)symmetries in legal discourse, Universität Bonn (invited talk)
07/2023
I only wrote that to frighten her – threatening speech in the Late Modern English period, 18th International Pragmatics Conference, Brussels
07/2023
I have come to the conclusion that you must die – performing threats in Late Modern English letters, 22nd International Conference on English Historical Linguistics, Sheffield
03/2023
Lesser-Known Variety of English – Madeira as a case in point”, TU Dresden (invited talk)
01/2023
Threatening letters in Late Modern English, Universität Augsburg (invited talk)
09/2022
English in Madeira or English in Portugal? A corpus-based study of lexical and morphosyntactic variation, 9th Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English (BICLCE), Ljubljana (with Sven Leuckert & Asya Yurchenko
02/2022
Is turn-taking culturally sensitive?, Philipps-Universität Marburg (invited talk)
06/2022
Turn-taking in World Englishes, WWU Münster (invited talk)
10/2021
Turn-taking and cultural variation – patterns of conversational interaction in varieties of English, Brown Bag Speaker Series, Universität Duisburg-Essen (invited talk)
06/2021
A historical perspective on threatening speech acts, 17th International Pragmatics Conference, Winterthur
06/2021
We all speak at the same time – using CA to investigate World Englishes, ISLE6, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu
06/2021
Less is more? Zero person and number marking in Asian and European ELF, ISLE6, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu (with Sven Leuckert)
06/2021
English in Madeira: A lesser-known variety – at the grassroots?, BAELc10: Tenth Annual Bonn Applied Linguistics Conference, Universität Bonn (with Sven Leuckert & Asya Yurchenko)
06/2021
Turn-taking in World Englishes – conversational patterns in Southeast Asian and Caribbean English interactions, Universität Duisburg-Essen (invited talk)
04/2021
Turn-taking and emerging grammar: Using Conversation Analysis to study World Englishes, New Methods for Pragmatics for New Englishes, Universität Trondheim, Norwegen, und Universität Paderborn (invited talk)
07/2018
Analysing talk-in-interaction-in-culture – conversational patterns in varieties in English, ISLE5, University College London
07/2018
Let me tell you somethin’! Turn-claiming and turn-holding in Southeast Asian and Jamaican English conversations, 5th International Conference of Conversational Analysis (ICCA), Loughborough University
05/2018
Interaction and culture – conversational patterns in Caribbean and Southeast Asian varieties of English, ICAME 29, University of Tampere
10/2017
You guys are not listening! – Are conversational patterns culturally sensitive?, ISLE Summer School 2017: Variation in World Englishes: Advanced issues in theory and methodology, Universität Regensburg
09/2017
Feature omission in ELF interactions, New Perspectives on Non-Canonical Syntax in English, TU Dresden (with Sven Leuckert).
06/2017
Turn-claiming and turn-holding strategies in Outer and Expanding Circle Englishes, IAWE22, Syracuse University, NY
09/2016
Turn-taking in Outer and Expanding Circle English conversations, FJUEL (Forum Junge Englische Linguistik in Bayern) 6.0, Julius-Maximilians-Universität, Würzburg
06/2016
Patterns of interaction in Southeast Asian ELF conversations, Universität Bielefeld (invited talk)
12/2015
Analysing conversation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (invited talk)
10/2015
Patterns of conversational interaction in an English variety, IAWE21, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul
2022: Seed funding : Digital Workshop on Methods in Historical Pragmatics (with Prof. Dr. Sofia Rüdiger, FU Berlin) (German Association for the Study of English/Deutscher Anglistikverband, 500€)
2021: Dissertation award: German Association for the Study of English/Deutscher Anglistikverband (1.500€)
2021: Dissertation award: Forschungspreis der Fakultät Sprach-, Literatur- und Kulturwissenschaften, Regensburg University (500€)
2020: Dissertation award: Dr. Katharina-Sailer-Preis, Regensburg University (1.000€)
2020: Travel bursary, International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE) (300€)