Mike Pearce on the BBC

On Thursday 18th July Dr Mike Pearce appeared on BBC Radio Newcastle's 'Alfie and Charlie at breakfast' to talk about attitudes towards accents and dialects. He discussed the reasons underlying the prejudice that Steph McGovern - the BBC Breakfast business correspondent - claims she has faced because of her Teesside accent.

Canny article

In all varieties of a language there are words which possess particular kinds of symbolic power or iconic status. In North East England, one such word is canny, the subject of an article published in the journal English Studies by Dr Michael Pearce. Although canny occurs in varieties of English around the world it is particularly associated with Scots and Scottish English. But it also has a long, well-attested history as a feature of dialect in North East England. Indeed, many people both within and beyond the region regard it as a lexical shibboleth. It is an epithet for the region’s major city (“Canny Newcastle”); it appears in the titles of traditional songs (“Hi Canny Man, Hoy a Ha’Penny Oot”), and even in the names of shops and businesses (“Canny Carpet Clean”). According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word is not found before the seventeenth century, having apparently developed from the verb can (“to know how”, “be able”) and/or the derived Scots noun can (“skill, knowledge”).  In the North East canny has acquired an extensive range of meanings. Michael's article outlines its northern English history, considers its significance as a cultural keyword and explores its usage in contemporary speech, literature and online discourse.

Michael Pearce (2013). "That word so fraught with meaning": The History, Cultural Significance and Current Use of Canny in North East England. English Studies. 94(5): 562-581. 

Spectral Visions II online

Keynote lectures from the Spectral Visions II conference can be viewed below.

Dr Alison Younger (Sunderland University) on 'Gothic Monstrosities'

Professor John Strachan (Bath Spa University) on 'Gothic and Surrealism'

Why Wittgenstein Matters

Dr Ian Ground has been invited by Bloomsbury to contribute a monograph on Why Wittgenstein Matters to their new high profile series “Why Philosophy Matters” edited by Constantine Sandis. As part of the promotion of the series, Ian has been invited to give a public lecture in 2014, on the impact of Wittgenstein, under the auspices of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

On 14th May 2013 Ian gave the Tenth Annual British Wittgenstein Society lecture. You can read a report of it by Neil O'Hara here.