Will Thurlwell

Research & Background

I am a DPhil candidate at Wolfson College. My research compares and contrasts the traceable decline of the remnant instrumental case in both Old High German and Old Saxon, focussing particularly on the morphological, syntactic, and semantic factors which affected case usage in the oldest surviving form of German. This research is kindly funded by an Oxford-Wolfson Marriott Linguistics Graduate Scholarship.

I previously completed my MSt in Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics at Jesus College, University of Oxford and hold an MA in Modern & Medieval Languages from Jesus College, University of Cambridge.

Teaching

  • Lecturer for German Paper V (i): Linguistic Studies II: Old High German, with Howard Jones, 2023-24.
  • Tutor for German Paper V (i): Linguistic Studies II: Old High German, 2023-24.
  • Tutor for German Paper IV: Linguistic Studies I: The Development of the German Language from 1170 to the present, 2022-24.
  • Tutor for General Linguistics (Prelims), 2024
  • Tutor for B6 Historical Linguistics, 2024

Publications

  • (Forthcoming) The [Oxford] Guide to Old High German and Old Saxon, due to be published by Oxford University Press, co-authoring with Howard Jones and Luise Morawetz.

Conferences

Presentations
  • Remnant Case Forms and Patterns of Syncretism in Early West Germanic, 30th Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference, Indiana University, Bloomington, IA, USA. [April 2024] – (link to PhilSoc blog post)
  • Case reanalysis after mit in Old High German and Old Saxon, 16th Forum for Germanic Language Studies, University of Cambridge, UK. [April 2024]
  • Instrumentality and the Instrumental Case in Old High German and Old Saxon, 29th Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference, Banff, Alberta, Canada. [April 2023]
  • Instrumentality and the Instrumental Case in Old High German and Old Saxon, 28th Germanic Linguistics Annual Conference, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia, USA. [April 2022]
Posters

Selected Talks

Seminars
  • Remnant Case Forms and Patterns of Syncretism in Early West Germanic, Comparative Philology Seminar Series. [May 2024] (handout)
  • Case reanalysis after mit in Old High German and Old Saxon, Oxford Historical Syntax Seminar. [May 2024] (slides)
  • Nominal Morphology of Old High German and Old Saxon, Comparative Philology Seminar Series, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, Oxford.  [January 2023] (handout) (slides)
  • Lexis of Old High German and Old Saxon, Comparative Philology Seminar Series, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, Oxford.  [February 2023] (slides)
  • A discussion of ‘Mith frethe to wasane ‘To be in Peace’’ (Versloot 2017), Germanic Linguistics Circle, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, Oxford. [February 2023]
  • A discussion of ‘After in the Heliand and the Instrumental Case in Old Saxon’ (Benjamin 1979), Germanic Linguistics Circle, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology, and Phonetics, Oxford. [January 2022]
Guest Lectures (Translation & Presentation)

Other

Subscribe to Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics