Torben Juel Jensen

Fields of interest

Sociolinguistics, functional/cognitive grammar, corpus linguistics, language variation and change

Teaching

Danish morphology, syntax and text linguistics

Language variation and change

CV

Education

PhD, University of Copenhagen 2005

MA in Danish and Biology, University of Copenhagen 2000

Employment

2009- Associate professor in Danish Language, Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics, University of Copenhagen

2008-2009 Associate professor in spoken Danish, The LANCHART Centre, University of Copenhagen

2005-2008 Postdoc fellow, The LANCHART Centre, University of Copenhagen

2001-2005 PhD fellow, Department of Nordic Philology, University of Copenhagen

2000-2001 Part-time lecturer in Danish language, Department of Nordic Philology, University of Copenhagen

2000 Research assistant, Department of Nordic Philology and Danish Dialectology, University of Copenhagen

1999-2001 Part time teacher in Danish and communication, The Danish National Police College

Knowledge of languages

Danish and English

Primary fields of research

Danish grammar, variation and change in 20th century Danish

Current research

My current research is part of the LANCHART Centre's project on variation and change in 20th century Danish - aiming at formulating and testing a model of language change. My part of the project concerns Danish grammar, and at present this includes studies of developments in the use of personal pronouns, participles and word order in dependent clauses in spoken Danish during the last four decades. The focus in these studies is diffusion of linguistic innovations in space and time,
intra-individual variation (in lifespan perspective as well within an
individual conversation), and the interplay between social/interactional and functional/semantic factors in explaining linguistic variation and change.

I also participate in the project Creativity and Dynamics in the Processes of Language Conventionalization. The aim of this project is to demonstrate the mechanisms behind language creativity and diversity and to develop theory and methods to investigate how language conventions are created, sustained and changed through concrete communication processes.

Impact

At the Faculty of Humanities my research is used as an example of the impact the humanities researchers have on society.
Read the case: Spoken language is a dynamic entity.