Nora Dörnbrack

Doctoral Research Fellow - Britisk-amerikansk
Image of Nora Dörnbrack
Norwegian version of this page
Phone +47 22858618
Room 623
Username
Visiting address Niels Henrik Abels vei 36 Niels Treschows hus 0851 Oslo
Postal address Postboks 1003 Blindern 0315 Oslo
Other affiliations Faculty of Humanities (Student)

Academic interests

Historical sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language variation and change, language contact, English, Norwegian and other Germanic languages.

Background

I am a Doctoral Research Fellow in English historical linguistics at the Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages, University of Oslo. I have a bachelor's degree in Scandinavian studies and English and American studies from the University of Greifswald, Germany, and a master's degree in Scandinavian linguistics from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. In my master's thesis, I examined the multilingual practices of the Schleswigian immigrant Herman Hoë and his family in Trondheim, Norway, during the eighteenth and nineteenth century.

I am currently the first deputy representative for temporary academic staff at the faculty board at the Faculty of Humanities.

Dissertation project

My dissertation project explores the linguistic practices in the private writings of the Scottish emigrant to America, Mary Ann (Wodrow) Archbald (1762–1841). Her journals, letter books and a handful of original letters that document her language use for more than 40 years, both prior to and following emigration, form the starting point for an investigation of longitudinal intra-writer variation within the framework of a language history ‘from below’. More specifically, I investigate how Archbald's use of the modal verbs shall and will, levelled preterite and past participle forms, strong preterite forms, verbal -s for all persons and -ED verb forms vary over time and in relation to contemporary efforts to standardize written English on both sides of the Atlantic.

Courses taught

Between autumn 2019 and spring 2020, I contributed to the following courses at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology:

At the University of Oslo, I contribute to the following courses:

Positions of trust

  • 2023 Deputy representative of temporary academic staff at the Faculty Board (Faculty of Humanities)
  • 2022 Deputy representative of temporary academic staff at the Department Board (ILOS)
  • 2021 Representative of temporary academic staff at the Department Board (ILOS)

Positions held

  • July 2020:  Independent contractor, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, United States of America. – Transcription and archival research services in Norway for professor Sophus A. Reinert.
  • 2019–2020: Research assistant, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.

Workshop Organization

  • 2023: The (polite) letter writer in Late Modern English Times. University of Lausanne, Switzerland, and University of Oslo, Norway. Speakers: Arja Nurmi, Tino Oudesluijs, Erik Smitterberg, and Ingrid Tieken-Boon van Ostade. May 8, 2023. Organizer.
  • 2022: Varieties of Scots in Late Modern Times. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Speakers: Christine Elsweiler, Joanna Kopaczyk, Derrick McClure, and Jeremy Smith. June 7 and 8, 2022. Lead organizer.
  • 2021: Migrant Ego-Documents in Late Modern English. University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Speakers: Anita Auer, Marina Dossena, Raymond Hickey, and Robert McColl Millar. May 10, 2021. Lead organizer.

 

Tags: Historical sociolinguistics, Multilingualism, Language variation, Language Contact and Language Change, English

Publications

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  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2023). “[F]or a man to Write well is an accomplishment which I could not dispense with”: Tracing metalinguistic comments and the influence of prescriptive advice in Mary Ann (Wodrow) Archbald’s (1762-1841) private writings.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2023). Longitudinal variation in the ego-documents of Mary Ann (Wodrow) Archbald (1762-1841): Case studies of levelled past participle forms and first-person singular shall.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2022). Prescriptive tendencies and the writing practices of Mary Ann Wodrow Archbald (1762-1841).
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2021). ‘he neither eat nor sleeped but watched my sleepless hours’ - Verbal inflection patterns in the private writings of Mary Ann Wodrow Archbald (1762-1841).
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2021). Multilingual practices in British women’s private correspondence.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2021). Longitudinal variation in verb inflection in the writings of the Scottish migrant Mary Ann Wodrow Archbald (1762-1841) .
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2021). Longitudinal variation in verb inflection in Mary Ann Wodrow Archbald’s writings .
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2021). Tracing language contact and multilingual resources in the writings of three nineteenth-century women migrants.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2019). Fra skrift til tale - brevmateriale fra dansketiden som utgangspunkt for forskning på historisk flerspråklighet.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2019). Flerspråklige Trondheimere på 1700- og 1800-tallet i Trondheim. Om bruken av brevmateriale fra Statsarkivet i språkhistorisk forskning.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora (2019). Flerspråklighet og språkkontakt på 1700- og 1800-tallet i Trondheim.
  • Buerskogen, Linnea Eirin Timmermann; Dörnbrack, Nora & Segtnan, Thea (2017). Oversettelse eller en "klønete bearbeidelse". Om en uautorisert oversettelse av "Samfunnets støtter". Mellom Tidsskrift for omsett litteratur. ISSN 2387-4880. 2, p. 114–121.
  • Dörnbrack, Nora & Berg, Ivar (2019). Flerspråklighet og språkkontakt på 1700- og 1800-tallet i Trondheim. Institutt for språk og litteratur, NTNU.

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Published Aug. 17, 2020 9:50 AM - Last modified Feb. 1, 2024 2:05 PM