Professor Susan M. Fitzmaurice

School of English

Vice President and Head of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Professor and Chair of English Language

English Susan Fitzmaurice
Profile picture of English Susan Fitzmaurice
s.fitzmaurice@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 222 0213
Humanities Research Institute

Full contact details

Professor Susan M. Fitzmaurice
School of English
Humanities Research Institute
Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7QY
Profile

Susan Fitzmaurice is currently Vice President and Head of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities. Her home academic department is the School of English where she is Professor and Chair of English Language

Fitzmaurice has been at the University of Sheffield since 2006; she served as Head of the School of English from 2011 till 2015. She was previously Professor of English and Head of Department, and then Dean of the College of Arts and Letters at Northern Arizona University until December 2005. From 1987 to 1995, she was University Lecturer in English and Fellow of St. Catharine´s College, Cambridge, and from 1984 to 1986, she was Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Cape Town.

Fitzmaurice is co-editor with Bernd Kortmann of the Topics in English Linguistics (TiEL) series for Mouton de Gruyter and she serves on the Council of the  .

Research interests

Fitzmaurice's research centres on the history of the English language, using methodological perspectives provided by historical pragmatics, historical sociolinguistics and computational linguistics. She is particularly interested in the methods and kinds of evidence employed in historical approaches to language study. She  focusses on semantic-pragmatic change and the utility of different frameworks for explaining such changes in time and space.

Fitzmaurice leads a digital humanities research group which uses concept modelling to explore meaning by identifying lexical and semantic patterns in very large text corpora. This work emerged from the AHRC-funded project: Linguistic DNA: Modelling concepts and semantic change in English 1500-1800 (AH/M00614X/1), which used high-performance computing and data visualisation to identify lexical and semantic patterns in early modern English texts. Linguistic DNA was a collaboration between colleagues at the Universities of Glasgow and Sussex and data specialists in the Humanities Research Institute (HRI).

For more information about the team and to follow the project’s progress, see the .

Fitzmaurice is also interested in using humanities approaches and methods in development research. With Patricia Cowell, Seth Mehl, Meesha Warmington and Sharron Hinchliffe, she collaborates with local South African NGO, Pala Forerunners, and colleagues at the University of Pretoria on GCRF-funded projects to train researchers and build research capacity in rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa.  For more information on this work, see the . 

Publications

Books

  • Fitzmaurice S & Minkova D (2008) . Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Fitzmaurice S & Minkova D (2008) Studies in the history of the English language IV: Empirical and analytical advances in the study of English language change.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2002) . John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Journal articles

  • Fitzmaurice S (2022) . Transactions of the Philological Society, 120(3), 489-506.
  • Fitzmaurice S & Mehl S (2022) . Transactions of the Philological Society, 120(3), 397-398.
  • Forcer S, Shutt H, Martin LS, Coetzee M-H, Ibrahim AF & Fitzmaurice S (2022) . Global Studies Quarterly, 2(4).
  • Fitzmaurice S & Mehl S (2022) . Corpus studies of language through time, 27(4), 428-450.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2021) . Historical Pragmatics today, 22(2), 282-300.
  • Fitzmaurice S & Williams GT (2020) . Multilingua, 39(1), 1-9.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2015) . Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 16(2), 315-320.
  • FITZMAURICE S (2015) . English Language and Linguistics, 19(2), 327-354.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2014) . Journal of English Linguistics, 42(3), 269-275.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2012) Social factors and language change in eighteenth- Century England: The case of multiple negation'. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, 113(3), 293-321.
  • Beal JC, Fitzmaurice S & Hodson J (2012) . ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS, 16, 201-207.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2011) Talking politics across transnational space: Researching linguistic practices in the Zimbabwe diaspora. Varieng(20).
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2010) . Historiographia Linguistica, 37(1-2), 221-225.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2010) . HIST LING, 37(1-2), 221-225.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2009) . J HIST PRAGMAT, 10(2), 215-237.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2009) . English Language and Linguistics, 13(1), 141-147.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2009) A history of the English language.. ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS, 13, 141-147.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2009) The English language: A linguistic history.. ENGLISH LANGUAGE & LINGUISTICS, 13, 141-147.
  • Major RC, Fitzmaurice SM, Bunta F & Balasubramanian C (2005) Testing the effects of regional, ethnic, and international dialects of English on listening comprehension. LANG LEARN, 55(1), 37-69.
  • Major RC, Fitzmaurice SF, Bunta F & Balasubramanian C (2002) . TESOL Quarterly, 36(2), 173-173.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2002) . English Language and Linguistics, 6(2), 239-265.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2002) . English Language and Linguistics, 6(1), 171-196.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2002) . Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 3(1), 31-60.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2002) . Language Sciences, 24(3-4), 247-260.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2001) . Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 2(2), 329-333.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2000) . Language Sciences, 22(3), 359-383.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2000) . Journal of Historical Pragmatics, 1(1), 1-6.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2000) . Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 9(1), 7-24.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2000) The great leveler: The role of the spoken media in stylistic shift from the colloquial to the conventional. AM SPEECH, 75(1), 54-68.
  • Fitzmaurice SW (1998) . Language in Society, 27(3), 409-413.
  • Fitzmaurice SM (1998) The commerce of language in the pursuit of politeness in eighteenth-century England. ENGL STUD, 79(4), 309-328.
  • Fitzmaurice SM, Hine IC, Robinson JA, Mehl S, Alexander M & Dallachy F () . Studia Neophilologica, 89(2).

Book chapters

  • Fitzmaurice S (2020) , Message and Medium (pp. 80-84). De Gruyter
  • Paternoster A & Fitzmaurice S (2019) In Paternoster A & Fitzmaurice S (Ed.), Politeness in Nineteenth-Century Europe (pp. 1-35). John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Fitzmaurice S (2019) , Language Policy Netherlands (pp. 193-209).
  • Fitzmaurice S (2018) Margaret Cavendish, the doctors of physick and advice to the sick, A Princely Brave Woman Essays on Margaret Cavendish Duchess of Newcastle (pp. 210-241).
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2018) In Patrick PL, Schmid MS & Zwaan K (Ed.), Language Analysis for the Determination of Origin: Current Perspectives and New Directions (pp. 193-209). Springer International Publishing AG
  • Fitzmaurice S, Robinson JA, Alexander M, Hine IC, Mehl S & Dallachy F (2017) , Advances in Historical Sociolinguistics (pp. 53-82). John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Starner JW & Fitzmaurice SM (2017) Shaping a drama out of a history: Elizabeth Cary and the story of edward ii, Ashgate Critical Essays on Women Writers in England 1550 1700 Elizabeth Cary (pp. 445-458).
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2016) In Chapman D, Moore C & Wilcox M (Ed.), Studies in the History of the English Language VII: Generalizing vs. Particularizing Methodologies in Historical Linguistic Analysis (pp. 173-202). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton .
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2016) , The Cambridge Handbook of English Historical Linguistics (pp. 256-270). Cambridge University Press
  • Fitzmaurice S (2015) In Auer A, Schreier D & Watts RJ (Ed.), Letter Writing and Language Change (pp. 156-184). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2014) In Taavitsainen I, Kyto M, Claridge C & Smith J (Ed.), Developments in English (pp. 200-223). Cambridge University Press
  • Fitzmaurice S (2013) White Zimbabwean English, Mouton World Atlas of Variation in English (pp. 483-492).
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2012) Sociability: Conversation and the Performance of Friendship in early eighteenth century letters In Busse U (Ed.), The Meta-communicative Lexicon of English Now and Then: A Historical Pragmatics Approach (pp. 21-43). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2011) , Benjamins Current Topics (pp. 37-59). John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2011) The sociopragmatics of a lovers' spat: The case of the eighteenth-century courtship letters of Mary Pierrepont and Edward Wortley In Culpeper J (Ed.), Historical Sociopragmatics (pp. 37-59). John Benjamins Publishing
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2011) Poetic collaboration and competition in the late seventeenth century: George Stepney’s letters to Jacob Tonson and Matthew Prior In Pahta P (Ed.), Communicating Early English Manuscripts (pp. 118-132). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2010) , Historical Pragmatics (pp. 679-704). DE GRUYTER MOUTON
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2010) Coalitions, networks, and discourse communities in Augustan England: The Spectator and the early eighteenth-century essay In Hickey R (Ed.), Eighteenth-Century English: Ideology and Change (pp. 106-132). Cambridge University Press
  • Fitzmaurice S (2010) , The Lesser-Known Varieties of English (pp. 263-285). Cambridge University Press
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2010) Changes in the meaning of politeness in eighteenth-century England: Discourse analysis and historical evidence In Culpeper J, Kádár DZ & Culpeper J (Ed.), Historical Impoliteness (pp. 87-115). Peter Lang Pub Incorporated
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2010) Mr Spectator, identity and social roles in an early eighteenth-century community of practice and the periodical discourse community (pp. 29-53).
  • Fitzmaurice SM (2010) Literary Discourse In Jucker AH (Ed.), Handbook of Historical Pragmatics (pp. 651-676). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2007) , Creating and digitizing language corpora (pp. 49-81). Palgrave Macmillan UK
  • Fitzmaurice S (2002) , Studies in Corpus Linguistics (pp. 227-247). John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Fitzmaurice S (2000) , Studies in Language Companion Series (pp. 171-186). John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Fitzmaurice S (1998) , Studies in the History of the Language Sciences (pp. 21-50). John Benjamins Publishing Company
  • Fitzmaurice S () (pp. 1-11). Wiley
  • Fitzmaurice S & Smith J () , The Oxford Handbook of the History of English (pp. 19-36). Oxford University Press

Conference proceedings

  • Aldihan H, Gaizauskas R & Fitzmaurice S (2022) . Proceedings of the The Seventh Arabic Natural Language Processing Workshop (WANLP) (pp 372-380), December 2022 - December 2022.
  • Fitzmaurice S (2004) . Discourse Studies, Vol. 6(4) (pp 427-448)
  • Fitzmaurice S (2003) (pp 107-131)

Dictionary or encyclopaedia entries

  • Fitzmaurice S (2025) Zimbabwe English. In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Malden: Wiley.
Research group

Fitzmaurice supervises doctoral projects on topics including semantic change and marginal vocabulary in eighteenth-century English, pragmatics and conversation analysis, historical discourse analysis, and cross-cultural discourse analysis.

She welcomes research students who are interested in the English language and the histories of English varieties, and who wish to pursue study in historical sociolinguistics, historical corpus linguistics, historical pragmatics, historical discourse analysis, and the history of the English language.