The focus of research at the Chair of English Linguistics is on language use and interaction in context. Broadly put, we are interested

1. in how conventions of language use and interaction vary across varieties and cultures (Intercultural Pragmatics, Variational Pragmatics, Contrastive Genre Analysis)
2. in how pragmatic variation across varieties can be studied methodologically and theoretically
3. in the conventions of use Irish English, and particularly in how these conventions vary vis-à-vis other varieties (the Pragmatics of Irish English)
4. in how foreign and second language learners use language in context and how they develop such competencies over time (L2 Pragmatics). In this area, particular emphasis is placed on pragmatic development during stay abroad and on language use and interaction in the online telecollaborative context and
5. in how conventions of language use can be taught using corpora, text-books and telecollaboration.

In addition, major international editing projects, including The Routledge Handbook of Pragmatics (Routledge) and Pragmatics of Discourse: Handbook of Pragmatics III (De Gruyter, Mouton) have also been carried out.