Projects per year
Personal profile
Biography
Chi-Hé Elder is an Associate Professor in Linguistics at the University of East Anglia. She specialises in theoretical pragmatics, with a particular interest in the cognitive processes involved in utterance comprehension. She completed her PhD in 2015 on the pragmatics of conditionals at the University of Cambridge, which has recently been revised as a monograph entitled Context, Cognition and Conditionals, published by Palgrave MacMillan in 2019. Her second research project, Pragmatics in interaction: An exploration of miscommunication, was supported by a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship (2015-18). This moved her work beyond that of the specific case of conditionals towards questioning the object of pragmatic theory at large, asking what counts as 'successful communication' and examining the extent to which an intention-based model of meaning is applicable to everyday interactions. Her current work is pushing the interactional account further, looking at how the discursive settings affect how people orient to, negotiate and/or ignore misunderstandings in communication.
Key Research Interests
Chi-Hé Elder's research lies in the field of pragmatics. Her key research interests are in how contextual factors affect and constrain the ways that people formulate what they say, as well as how context affects how meanings are interpreted. She is particularly interested in how misunderstandings arise in communication, and how they are negotiated and resolved - including cases where people choose to ignore misunderstandings or leave them unresolved. These issues involve looking at classic topics in pragmatics, including speech acts, politeness, and conversational maxims, as well as at the structure of interaction.
She is interested in supervising PhD projects in any area of pragmatics relating to meaning in context, including but not limited to issues around implicatures, speech acts, politeness, misunderstandings, and meaning in interaction.
Academic Background
After gaining a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Warwick in 2007, Chi-Hé moved to the University of Cambridge to commence her graduate studies in Linguistics. She was awarded an MPhil in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics in 2010, before completing her PhD 'On the forms of conditionals and the functions of if' in 2015. She moved to UEA in September 2015 as a Leverhulme Postdoctoral Research Fellow. She is now Associate Professor in Linguistics in the department of Language and Communication Studies in the School of PPL.
Education/Academic qualification
Doctor of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Award Date: 1 Mar 2015
Master of Philosophy, University of Cambridge
Award Date: 1 Jul 2010
Bachelor of Science, University of Warwick
Award Date: 1 Jul 2007
Keywords
- Linguistics & Philology
- pragmatics
- conditionals
- miscommunication
- dialogue
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When the joke misfires: Dealing with offensive humour in online interaction
1/01/22 → 31/12/23
Project: Research
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Protocol: A qualitative linguistic framework for analysing empathic and empowering communications in classical person-centered therapeutic interactions
Dawe, J., Elder, C-H. & Sanderson, K., 2023, In: Person-Centered and Experiential Psychotherapies. 22, 1, p. 77-95 19 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Protocol: A Qualitative Linguistic Framework for Analysing Empathic and Empowering Communications in Classical Person-Centred Therapeutic Interactions
Dawe, J., Elder, C-H. & Sanderson, K., 2022, Papers in Language and Communication Studies.Research output: Working paper
Open Access -
“We’re running out of fuel”: When does miscommunication go unrepaired?
Elder, C-H. & Beaver, D., 25 Nov 2022, In: Intercultural Pragmatics. 19, 5, p. 541-570 30 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Microaggression or misunderstanding? Implicatures, inferences and accountability
Elder, C-H., Jul 2021, In: Journal of Pragmatics. 179, p. 37-43 7 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile3 Citations (Scopus)7 Downloads (Pure) -
Speaker Meaning, Commitment and Accountability
Elder, C-H., Apr 2021, Cambridge Handbook of Sociopragmatics. Haugh, M., Kádár, D. Z. & Terkourafi, M. (eds.). Cambridge University Press, p. 48-68 21 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) › peer-review
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Philosophy and Comedy Ideas Festival
Eleni Kapogianni (Chair), Chi-Hé Elder (Invited speaker), Jennifer Young (Invited speaker) & Isabella Reichl (Invited speaker)
20 May 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Public lecture/debate/seminar
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Socio-Legal Studies Association (SLSA) conference
Eleni Kapogianni (Speaker) & Chi-Hé Elder (Speaker)
5 Apr 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference
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Dynamic Pragmatics Association
Chi-Hé Elder (Invited speaker) & Kasia M. Jaszczolt (Invited speaker)
25 Mar 2023Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Invited talk
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American Pragmatics Association (AMPRA) 2022
Chi-Hé Elder (Speaker) & Kasia M. Jaszczolt (Speaker)
4 Nov 2022 → 6 Nov 2022Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Participation in conference
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Concrete inter-subjectivity
Chi-Hé Elder (Invited speaker)
21 Sep 2021 → 30 Sep 2021Activity: Participating in or organising an event › Invited talk