Staff Profiles

Undergraduate

• U70029 Critical Linguistics
• U70030 Forensic Linguistics
• U70032 Analysing Spoken Discourse
• U70035 Research Methods for ELC
• U70070 Subject to Discourse

Reseach interests

• Discourse Analysis
• Forensic Linguistics
• Language and Ritual
• Language and Evolutionary Psychology
• Multimodal Communication
• Language and the Carnival

Journal articles

• Rizza C, 'Book review: John Olsson and June Luchjenbroers, Forensic Linguistics'
  Discourse and Society 27 (2) (2016) pp.240-242
  ISSN: 0957-9265
  Abstract No abstractWebsite 
• Rizza C, 'Death Row Statements: a Discourse of Play'
  Discourse and Society 26 (1) (2015)
  ISSN: 0957-9265
  Website 
• Rizza C, 'Death Row Statements: a Discourse of Play'
  Discourse and Society (2014)
  ISSN: 0957-9265
  Abstract In this article, I discuss Death Row Statements from the perspective of ludic language within the context of ritual. Beyond its role as a form of deterrent, means of punishment or manifestation of state power, execution can be seen to function as a form of community ritual, where individuals who are a threat to society are removed. Execution has many ritual features, from its liminal spatio-temporal context to the precise ordering of events and, with reference to Huizinga’s conception of ‘play’ (encompassing serious activities such as litigation, war and trade), can be considered a ludic activity. I argue that the ludic nature of execution is manifested in the language of the last words of the condemned. Employing Cook’s taxonomy of the features of Language Play (dealing with both serious and light-hearted uses of language), I discuss the effect that the ludic nature of state execution has on the formal, semantic and pragmatic nature of the language. I argue that Death Row Statements represent a discourse of play in relation to both the language of last statements and the character of the event.Website 
• Rizza C, 'The Carnival of Verbal Dueling'
  Text and Talk 32 (2012) pp.371-390
  ISSN: 1860-7330
  Abstract In this article I discuss an example of verbal dueling in Hip Hop culture from the perspective of Bakhtin's (1984) notion of the carnival. Both carnival and Hip Hop are subversive in that they seek to represent alternative realities to the dominant status quo. This is illustrated and embodied in a variety of ways in the datum: the discourse strategy of “Signifying” (a feature of duels within Hip Hop culture) is inherently carnivalesque in its focus on skillful, mocking uses of language; the alteration and patterning of the formal features of the language of the duel are representative of subversion on a larger social scale; manner of performance and display of one's linguistic skill and expertise are paramount and supersede propositional content in terms of importance; the identity of the performers is also altered. I argue that performance of verbal dueling within Hip Hop Culture bears close similarities to the ritual festivities, textual parodies, and Billingsgate language of carnival. Carnivalesque subversion, as embodied in the language of verbal dueling, is arguably a human universal.Website 
• Rizza C, 'Semantically Redundant Language: a Case Study'
  Applied Linguistics 30 (2009) pp.276-294
  ISSN: 0142-6001 eISSN: 1477-450X
  Website 

Conferences

Recent conference/ seminar papers

• 2014 - "The Ripper Documents: a Forensic Linguistic Perspective", Oxford Brookes Law and Crime Seminar Series
• 2011 - "The Carnival of Verbal Dueling", the American Association for Applied Linguistics; Chicago, USA
• 2008 - "Speech Act Theory: an Evolutionary Psychological Perspective"; Stellenbosch, South Africa
• 2007 - "An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective on the Interplay of Language, Rhythm and Dance"; Herstmonceux, England.