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DPhil candidate in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics

My sociolinguistic DPhil thesis investigates the use of feminine gender-marked forms in English to index contemporary cisgender gay male identities. I consider how these feminine-coded linguistic resources have changed in form and/or function over time, as well as some of the reasons why gay men's indexing of femininity remains a controversial linguistic practice, both inside and outside of the LGBTQ+ community.

My research is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (Grand Union DTP).                                                         

Research interests: language, gender and sexuality; sociolinguistics; (critical) discourse analysis; pragmatics.

 

Teaching

  • Lecturer for Prelims Paper VIII: General Linguistics (Sociolinguistics), 2023–2025
  • BA Thesis Supervisor, 2024–2025
  • Tutor for Prelims Course II Paper 4: Introduction to English Language and Literature (Faculty of English Language and Literature), 2025
  • Tutor for FHS Paper B5: Sociolinguistics, 2023

Conference Presentations

  • O'Neill, C. (2023, Oct. 13). It’s GIFing gay: Reaction images and GIFs on gay Twitter. New Ways of Analyzing Variation Conference 51, City University of New York (Queens College), New York City, NY, United States.
  • O'Neill, C. (2023, Mar. 9). GIF you're happy and you know it: Reaction GIFs and images in a gay male Twitter community of practice. Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference 29, Boise State University, Boise, ID, United States.

Book Notes

  • O'Neill, C. (2022). Sylvia Shaw, Women, language and politics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. 334. Hb. £85. Language in Society, 51(1), 180–181. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740452100097X