Skip to main content
Das Profilbild von Dr. Arne Peters

Dr. phil. habil. Arne Peters

Assistant Professor

 

Campus Am Neuen Palais
Am Neuen Palais 10
Building 19, Room 1.12
14469 Potsdam

 

consulting hours
Please contact me via e-mail.

About 

  • Assistant Professor at the Chair for Development and Variation of the English Language at the University of Potsdam, Germany (since 01/2016).
  • Extraordinary Researcher in the research focus area 'Understanding and Processing Language in Complex Settings' (UPSET) at North-West University Vaal, South Africa (since 06/2020).
  • Habilitation (German post-doctoral degree): "Black South African English: Language, culture, and cognition" (2023).
  • Doctor philosophiae (PhD): “Linguistic change in Galway City English: a variationist study of (th) and (dh) in urban western Irish English” (2015).
  • Visiting researcher at Universitet i Bergen, Norway (08/2019-09/2019).
  • Visiting researcher at North-West University Vaal, South Africa (07/2016-09/2016).
  • Guest lecturer at Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Hong Kong (02/2011-04/2011).
  • Akademischer Mitarbeiter (research and teaching position) as well as PhD student at the Chair for Development and Variation of the English Language at the University of Potsdam, Germany (10/2009-12/2015).

Current research projects

“Black South African English: Language, culture, and cognition” (Post-Doc/Habilitation)

"Exploring the interplay of language and body in South Africa, Namibia, The Netherlands, and Germany" - with Susan Coetzee-van Rooy (North-West University Vaal), Anne Schröder (Universität Bielefeld) & Rias van den Doel (Universiteit Utrecht)

Research interests 

  • Variationist Sociolinguistics / Cognitive Sociolinguistics
  • (Applied) Cultural Linguistics
  • Anthropological Linguistics
  • Corpus Linguistics
  • Sociophonetics
  • (Cognitive) Contact Linguistics
  • Theories of Language Change
  • Forensic Pragmatics: The socio-cultural and cognitive bases of threatening as a speech act
  • Languages in Ireland and Great Britain / Celtic Englishes / English in Galway City / Geographical and social variation of Irish (Gaeilge)
  • Development and variation of English in rural and urban settings in Ireland, North America, Africa, Asia
  • Multilingualism in South Africa

Teaching (BA/MA)

  • Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics / Diachronic Linguistics / Sociolinguistics
  • Old English / Middle English / (Early) Modern English / Present-day English
  • Language(s) in Britain and Ireland
  • Celtic Englishes
  • Varieties of English in Ireland / Africa / Asia / Postcolonial settings
  • Methods in qualitative and quantitative research
  • Variationist Sociolinguistics / Cognitive Sociolinguistics
  • Cultural Linguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
  • Theories of Language Change
  • Forensic Pragmatics
  • Language of Drag

Conferences organised

(2022) Universität Landau - International Symposium (with Neele Mundt, Frank Polzenhagen and Monika Reif): Metaphor Variation in Englishes Around the World 4

(2021) Universität Bielefeld - International Workshop (with Prof. Dr. Gigi Adair, Prof. Dr. Barbara Job, Prof. Dr. Joachim Michael and Prof. Dr. Anne Schröder): Southern Futures

(2018) Universität Potsdam & Universität Bielefeld - International Conference (with Marion Schulte): New Perspectives on Irish English 5

(2015) Universität Potsdam - Workshop (with Hans-Georg Wolf and Charles Marfo): English Studiesin an International Perspective

(2012) Universität Potsdam - Workshop (with Paula Orzechowska): Phonetics, Phonology, PRAAT Guest speaker: Prof. John Harris (University College London)

Publications

Monographs

Peters, A. (in preparation) Black South African English: Language, culture, and cognition.

Peters, A. (2016) Linguistic change in Galway City English: a variationist study of (th) and (dh) in urban western Irish English. [Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 116]. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.

Edited works

Peters, A. & Mundt, N. (2021) Cultural linguistics applied: Trends, directions and implications. [Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 127]. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.

Wolf, H.-G., Polzenhagen, F. & Peters, A. (2017) Cultural Linguistic contributions to World Englishes.Special issue of International Journal of Language and Culture 4(2).

Book chapters and articles

Peters, A. & Siebers, L. (in preparation). "A re-analysis of left dislocation in Black South African English"

Peters, A. (accepted). "Cultural conceptualizations in Irish English", In K. Bolton (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peters, A. (accepted). "Cultural conceptualizations in Black South African English", In K. Bolton (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peters, A. & Polzenhagen, F. (accepted). “World Englishes in advertising in Africa," In K. Bolton (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peters, A. (2023, fc.). "English in Galway City", in R. Hickey (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Irish English. Oxford: OUP.

Peters, A. (2023) "Review of The dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety, edited by Anne Schröder." Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.

Peters, A. (2022). "Corpus-linguistic and cultural-cognitive perspectives on SILENCE in Black South African English.", in: M. Mayar & M. Schulte (eds.) Silence and its derivatives: Conversations across disciplines. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wolf, H.-G. & Peters, A. (2022b). "African witchcraft revisited: new cognitive-sociolinguistic findings from a comparative perspective", In A. Ngefac, H.-G. Wolf & T. Hoffmann (eds.) World Englishes and creole languages today. Vol. I. Sociolinguistic paradigms and current trends in action. München: Lincom Europe.

Wolf, H.-G. & Peters, A. (2022a). "Cognitive Sociolinguistic studies of African English(es): A methodological review and outlook", In G. Kristiansen, K. Franco, S. De Pascale & L. Rosseel (eds.) Cognitive Sociolinguistics Revisited, 457-466. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Peters, A. (2021). "Lexical evidence for ancestral communication in Black South African English.", in: H.-G. Wolf, D. Latic, & A. Finzel (eds.) Cultural-linguistic explorations into spirituality, emotionality, and society, 23-39. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Peters, A. (2021) "Cultural conceptualisations of WITCHCRAFT and TRADITIONAL HEALING in Black South African English herbalist classifieds", in: F. Sharifian & M. Sadeghpour (eds.) Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, 333-359. Singapore: Springer.

Coetzee-Van Rooy, S. & Peters, A. (2021). "A portrait-corpus study of language attitudes towards Afrikaans and English". Language Matters 52(2), 3-28.

Mundt, N. & Peters, A. (2021) "Cultural linguistics applied: status quo and new directions". in: A. Peters & N. Mundt (eds.) Exploring cultural linguistics: Trends, directions and applications. [Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 127], 13-27. Berlin: Peter Lang.

Peters, A. & Polzenhagen, F. (2021) “Genres and text-types from a cross-varietal and cognitive-cultural perspective: A case study on the contextualisation of classified adverts”, in: M. Callies & M. Degani (eds.) Metaphor in Language and Culture across World Englishes. London: Bloomsbury.

Peters, A. & Van Hattum, M. (2021). “Pseudonyms as carriers of culture-specific threat in 19th-century Irish threatening notices”. English World-Wide 42(1), 29-53.

Peters, A. & Coetzee-Van Rooy, S. (2020). “Exploring the interplay of language and body in South African youth”.Cognitive Linguistics 31(4), 579-608.

Peters, A. (2018) "Review of Ugandan English - Its sociolinguistics, structure and uses in a globalising post-protectorate, edited by Christiane Meierkord, Bebwa Isingoma, and Saudah Namyalo. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Anglistik - International Journal of English Studies 29(1), 185-188.

Peters, A. (2017) "FAIRIES, BANSHEES, and THE CHURCH: Cultural conceptualisations in Irish English" International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 127-148.

Wolf, H.-G., Polzenhagen, F. & Peters, A.  (2017) "Cultural linguistic contributions to World Englishes" International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 121-126.

Peters, A. (2016) "Urban development, language contact, and sociolinguistic transformations in Galway City" 10plus1 - Living Linguistics, 106-117.

Peters, A. (2013): “We had things then that they don't have now - The Case of Dental Fricatives in Galway City English”, in: C. Schlaak / A. Hennemann (eds.), Korpuslinguistische Untersuchungen: Analysen einzelsprachlicher Phänomene, 163-174. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Peters, A. (2012): “Linguistic change in Galway City English: A study of phonological features in the district of Bóthar Mór”, in: B. Migge & M. Ní Chiosáin (eds.), New Perspectives on Irish English, 29-45. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Memberships