Charalampos Themistokleous
Visiting Fellow
- ConcentrationEnglishAffiliationUniversity of CyprusResearch Project:Prosodic Variation and Prosodic Change: Evidence from Greek
Charalambos Themistocleous specialises in Phonetics, Phonology, Prosody,and Computational Linguistics. He holds an MA in Applied Linguistics (University of Athens) and an MSc in Computational Linguistics (University f Skövde). His doctoral thesis entitled “Prosody and Information Structure in Greek” provides an all-encompassing analysis of Modern Greek prosody. He received scholarships for excellence by the Cyprus State Scholarship Foundation and the Public Welfare Foundation ”Alexander S. Onassis”. Charalambos participated in various research programs funded by the Academy of Athens, the Leventis Foundation, and the Open University of Cyprus. He presented his work in peer-reviewed journals, book volumes, and international scientific conferences. He is also the author of the books Experimental Methodology and Statistics in Linguistics. Using R (in Greek) and the editor—in collaboration with Georgia Fragaki and Athanasios Georgakopoulos—of the volume Current Trends in Greek Linguistics, which was published by the Cambridge Scholars Publishing. He is also a member of the International Phonetic Association (IPA), International Speech Communication Association (ISCA), and the Cyprus Linguistics Association (CyLing). His current research focuses on Information Structure, Sociophonetics, Variational Sociolinguistics, and Socioprosody.
About the Research Project
Prosodic Variation and Prosodic Change: Evidence from Greek
My research project explores “prosodic variation and change in Greek”. Prosody is an important component of human speech; it refers to the use of speech melody for linguistic purposes: Prosody marks constituents in speech as prominent, designates the boundaries of prosodic domains (such as the prosodic word and the prosodic phrase), and conveys different melodies (as in questions, statements, and commands). The Ancient Greek prosodic system underwent severe changes that turned Greek from a pitch-accent language into a stress language. By investigating the factors that led prosodic variation and change in Greek, this project aims to provide answers to the following questions: (a) What phonological and prosodic processes were involved in Greek prosodic change? and (b) What were the effects of prosodic change on other linguistic domains (e.g. morphology and sytax)? –To address these questions, I am employing an innovative approach that combines evidence from prosodic typology, experimental research on Modern Greek and other languages, and evidence from ancient grammarians, commentators, papyri and inscriptions.