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Evie Coussé

Researcher

Department of Languages and Literatures
Telephone
+46 31-786 45 89
Mail
evie.cousse@sprak.gu.se
Visiting address
Renströmsgatan 6
41255 Göteborg
Room number
G416
Postal address
Box 200
40530 Göteborg

About Evie Coussé

I am a linguist specializing in Germanic languages. In 2008, I obtained my PhD in Linguistics at Ghent University (Belgium). I have been employed at the University of Gothenburg since 2010, and became Associate Professor of Linguistics at the same university in 2014.

Overview

My research focuses on language change in the Germanic languages, especially Swedish, English, German and Dutch. Currently, I am involved in two research projects exploring ongoing language change in Swedish and Dutch:

I am also the coordinator of the research area Linguistic Structures and responsible for the faculty-wide research seminar Linguistic Forum.

My teaching covers linguistics courses at different levels, including the undergraduate course in English, the Master's program in Language and Intercultural Communication, and the department's doctoral program.

In addition to my research and teaching duties, I am also the department's environmental representative and a member of the faculty's Environment and Sustainability Council. In the past, I have also held the position of Vice Head of Department for Internationalization and Outreach, which means that I was part of the department's management team.

Research

I investigate how Germanic languages have evolved over time, how they have become more diverse, but also how they can turn out to be incredibly similar. My research focuses on changes in the grammar of these languages, particularly changes in word order and the development of auxiliary verbs (also known as grammaticalization).

I explore these grammatical changes in a variety of text genres, from medieval Bible translations to contemporary social media. In collaboration with Språkbanken Text, I have created a corpus of 36 historical Bible translations in English, Dutch, German and Swedish from the 1450s to the 2000s (EDGeS corpus).

My research takes a functional-cognitive perspective on language, with a particular focus on Grammaticalization Theory and Construction Grammar. As a member of the West Swedish Network for Construction Grammar, I am co-organizing the 13th International Conference on Construction Grammar, which takes place in Gothenburg on 24-26 August 2024.

Recent research presentations (2023-2024)

  • “Historical translated texts meet corpus linguistics. Exploring a diachronic parallel corpus of Dutch Psalm translations”. Presentation at Seminariet Språk i samhällskontext. Göteborg, 28 May 2024.
  • “Combining auxiliaries in Old West Germanic. The role of the wider constructional network”. Presentation at Université de Liège. Liège (Belgien), 13 May 2024.
  • “Connecting the dots. Building a network of verb constructions in Dutch”. Presentation at the workshop Language and Networks. Göteborg, 23 November 2023.
  • “The emergence of complex verb constructions in Old West Germanic. The role of the wider constructional network”. Presentation vid English Language and Linguistics Research Seminar. Lund, 18 October 2023.

Past research projects (2013-2022)

Science outreach

I have lectured about my research to a wide audience in various contexts, including the Grammar Festival and the Gothenburg Book Fair. Together with colleagues at Språkbanken, I have contributed to the ongoing debate on the Swedish dom spelling with an opinion piece in Svenska Dagbladet and a corpus study on the topic in the journal Språk och stil.