Dr Leszek Szymański, Professor at the University of Zielona Góra, has been awarded a prestigious Fulbright scholarship. The competition attracted 85 applicants. The winners were 16 scientists from all over Poland. The scientist from Zielona Góra won the scholarship in the discipline of linguistics.
The laureate’s research interests include: semantics and its interactions with syntax and pragmatics, with particular emphasis on the American variety of English, and language use in various contexts and communities.
As part of the fellowship, Dr Szymanski will carry out a research project on speech with two (or more) modal verbs. English textbooks do not describe these constructions or consider them incorrect and unacceptable, although they are characteristic of South American dialects, among others. The project will be carried out at the University of Georgia in Athens in collaboration with the eminent American dialectologist Professor William Kretzschmar.
