Profile

Received his PhD and Dr. habil. (post-doctoral) degrees from Poznan, Poland.

Until 1993: Professor in the Department of English, University of Poznan, Poland
In 1993: professor in the Department of English, University of Trondheim, Norway
Since 1994: professor in the Department of English/Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen, Norway

He has taught as a guest at The American University, Washington, D.C. (USA), University of Tromsoe (Norway), University of Rostock, University of Hamburg (Germany).

His main research interests are: sociolinguistics, cognitive linguistics, philosophy of language, linguistics and real-life problems.

Current research project: Language and conflict

He has presented conference papers in most European countries, the USA, Canada, Mexico, Japan, South Korea and India. He has given guest lectures in the USA, Austria, Norway, Germany, Poland, Finland, Ukraine, Greece and Spain.

Major research grants

• State University of New York (SUNY research grant)
• Ruhr University Bochum (DAAD grant)
• University of Kiel (DAAD grant)
• University of Hamburg (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation grant - several times)
• University of Tromsoe (Norwegian Research Council for Science and Humanities grant)
• University of Oxford (Meltzer Foundation grant, twice)

Selected Recent Publications

• "Communication and understanding". 2011. Applied Folk Linguistics. AILA Review 24.
  Eds. Wilton, Antje and Martin Stegu . Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Pp. 68-77.
• Confusing discourse. 2010. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
• "Lay people's language problems". 2010. International Journal of Applied Linguistics. Vol. 20. No. 1. 73-94.
• "How cognitive linguists can help to solve political problems". 2008. In: Gitte Kristiansen and Rene Dirven (eds.)
  Cognitive sociolinguistics: Language variation, cultural models, social systems. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  517-541.
• Language misconceived. Arguing for applied cognitive sociolinguistics. 2006.
  London: Routledge.
• Standard British and American English. A brief overview. 2005.
  Copenhagen: Djoef Forlag.
• "The sociology of language". 2004. In: Ammon, Ulrich, Dittmar, Norbert, Mattheier, Klaus and Peter Trudgill (eds.)
  An International Handbook of the Science of Language and Society. HSK Volume 3.1. Berlin-New York: Walter de Gruyter. 67-75.
• "The ever-stifling essentialism: language and conflict in Poland (1989-1993)". 2003. In: Cuyckens, Hubert, Thomas Berg, Rene Dirven, and Klaus-Uwe Panther (eds). Motivation in language. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.273-295.

Editorial board membership

• International Journal of the Sociology of Language (1985-2009)
• Languages in Contrast (since 2002)
• Sociolinguistic Studies (2010-2012)

He has also authored other journal articles, book chapters, and some reviews in the area of sociolinguistics, contrastive linguistics, cognitive linguistics, and language teaching. His articles and book chapters have been published, for instance, with Mouton de Gruyter, John Benjamins, Blackwell, Pergamon, and Günter Narr.

Contact

Department of Foreign Languages
University of Bergen
P.O. Box 7805
5020 Bergen
Norway

Email: karol.janicki@if.uib.no