Elena Smirnova
Université de Neuchâtel
I am a Professor of German Linguistics at the University of Neuchâtel in Switzerland, holding both a PhD and a Habilitation degree in German Linguistics from the Leibniz Universität Hannover, Germany. My primary research focus is on the dynamics of language change, a topic that has captivated me from the start. I am fascinated by the fact that linguistic changes are not chaotic but follow specific regularities that mirror patterns of language use. My background in grammaticalization theory naturally led me to explore usage-based constructionist approaches to grammar. My research interests encompass historical linguistics, construction grammar, cognitive grammar, and corpus linguistics.