Overview
Background
I'm a Senior Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Queensland, where I use computational methods and large text and speech corpora to study how English is actually used — in everyday conversation, across social groups, and by learners.
My research focuses on features that traditional grammars overlook but that shape real communication: discourse markers (like, you know), general extenders, terms of address, vulgarity, and adjective amplification. I also work in corpus phonetics, particularly vowel production and voice-onset timing in first- and second-language English speakers.
Alongside my research, I hold several roles focused on language research infrastructure:
- Director of Research, School of Languages and Cultures, UQ
- Director of the Language Technology and Data Analysis Laboratory (LADAL), a free open-access hub for language data science (https://ladal.edu.au/)
- Chief Investigator on the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA), a national research infrastructure project (https://www.ldaca.edu.au/)
I'm also an advocate for reproducibility and open science in the humanities and social sciences, and I develop tools and workflows that make text and speech analysis more transparent and rigorous.
Research areas: applied linguistics, corpus linguistics, computational linguistics, sociolinguistics, language variation and change, learner corpus research, corpus pragmatics, reproducibility, digital humanities.
Availability
- Dr Martin Schweinberger is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Doctor of Philosophy, Universität Hamburg
Research interests
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Vulgarity and Swearing
I investigate how swear words and taboo language are used in everyday speech and online discourse. Contrary to popular belief, vulgar language follows systematic social and linguistic rules. My research uncovers how such expressions function in communication and what they reveal about speakers’ identities, emotions, and group memberships.
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Discourse Markers and Filler Words
I study words like like, you know, and well—terms often dismissed as meaningless. Using computational analysis, I show how these elements structure conversations and convey nuanced meanings. My work demonstrates that such "filler" words play important roles in signaling attitudes, managing interactions, and guiding listener expectations.
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Open Science and Research Transparency
I actively promote reproducible, open research practices in the humanities and social sciences. I provide practical training and resources to help language researchers adopt transparent workflows. My advocacy supports greater academic rigor and long-term trust in empirical research.
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Text Analytics and Computational Linguistics
I apply computational methods—like machine learning and statistical modelling—to large corpora to uncover hidden linguistic patterns. These tools help quantify language use in a way that supports replicable, empirical research. My work is at the intersection of computer science and linguistics, making it especially relevant in the digital age.
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Digital Infrastructure and Research Tools
As Director of LADAL and a lead in LDaCA, I am building accessible digital platforms that support large-scale language analysis. These initiatives democratize access to language data and computational tools for researchers, students, and educators alike. My infrastructure work enhances the capacity for advanced language research in Australia and beyond.
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Language Variation and Change
I explore how language evolves over time and across different social settings. By analyzing large-scale linguistic datasets, I identify subtle patterns of variation in how people speak, particularly in informal and digital contexts. This research helps reveal how social norms and technology influence the way we communicate.
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Learner Language and Second Language Acquisition
I analyze how learners of English produce sounds, manage fluency, and develop pronunciation over time. This includes examining features like vowel quality, voice-onset time, pauses, and accent intelligibility. By comparing learner and native speaker data, my research informs language teaching and helps improve learner outcomes.
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Corpus Phonetics
I use corpus-based methods to investigate the phonetic characteristics of spoken language, including pronunciation patterns among both native and non-native speakers. I focus on measurable acoustic features such as vowel production and timing cues. This approach allows for the large-scale, data-driven analysis of speech in real-life settings.
Research impacts
Public reach through media
My research on vulgarity and variation in World Englishes has generated over 96 media reports internationally, with an estimated combined reach exceeding 205 million. In 2025, coverage included national television (Channel 10 News, The Project), ABC Radio interviews across Australia, and international press including The Guardian, CNN, Der Spiegel, Deutsche Welle, Popular Science, and Yahoo News. My co-authored article in The Conversation — "201 ways to say 'fuck': what 1.7 billion words of online text shows about how the world swears" (with Kate Burridge) — prompted follow-up coverage across more than 20 outlets in Australia, the UK, Europe, and North America.
Building Australia's language data infrastructure
As Chief Investigator and Steering Committee member on the Language Data Commons of Australia (LDaCA), I contribute to building Australia's first national infrastructure for language data — enabling researchers, cultural institutions, and Indigenous communities to preserve, access, and analyse language collections that would otherwise remain fragmented or inaccessible.
Free global training in language data science
As founder and Director of the Language Technology and Data Analysis Laboratory (LADAL), I have built one of the most widely used open-access hubs for language data science training. Since 2021, LADAL has reached over 500,000 users worldwide, providing free, reproducible resources that lower the barrier to computational methods for students, researchers, and practitioners across the humanities and social sciences.
Shaping the field
I serve as Vice-President Profession of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE), board member of ICAME, Associate Editor of the Australian Review of Applied Linguistics, and book series editor for Bloomsbury's Language, Data Science and Digital Humanities.
Works
Search Professor Martin Schweinberger’s works on UQ eSpace
2024
Journal Article
Seeded topic modeling as a more appropriate alternative to unsupervised standard topic models
Schweinberger, Martin (2024). Seeded topic modeling as a more appropriate alternative to unsupervised standard topic models. Discourse Studies, 27 (4), 675-678. doi: 10.1177/14614456241293895
2024
Other Outputs
Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world
Schweinberger, Martin (2024). Vulgarity in online discourse around the English-speaking world. Bonn, Germany: University of Bonn.
2024
Book Chapter
A corpus-based comparative acoustic analysis of target-like vowel production by L1-Japanese learners and native speakers of English
Schweinberger, Martin and Komiya, Yuki (2024). A corpus-based comparative acoustic analysis of target-like vowel production by L1-Japanese learners and native speakers of English. Crossing Boundaries through Corpora: Innovative corpus approaches within and beyond linguistics. (pp. 41-61) edited by Sarah Buschfeld, Patricia Ronan, Theresa Neumaier, Andreas Weilinghoff and Lisa Westermayer. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing Company. doi: 10.1075/scl.119.03sch
2024
Book Chapter
An introduction to sociopragmatic variation
Ronan, Patricia and Schweinberger, Martin (2024). An introduction to sociopragmatic variation. Socio-pragmatic variation in Ireland: using pragmatic variation to construct social identities. (pp. 1-8) edited by Martin Schweinberger and Patricia Ronan. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110791457-001
2024
Book Chapter
Concluding remarks and future directions in studies on sociopragmatic variation
Schweinberger, Martin and Ronan, Patricia (2024). Concluding remarks and future directions in studies on sociopragmatic variation. Socio-pragmatic variation in Ireland: using pragmatic variation to construct social identities. (pp. 235-240) edited by Martin Schweinberger and Patricia Ronan. Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton. doi: 10.1515/9783110791457-012
2024
Book Chapter
Boring much? Semantic determinants of constructional attraction in Irish English
Schweinberger, Martin and Ronan, Patricia (2024). Boring much? Semantic determinants of constructional attraction in Irish English. Socio-Pragmatic Variation in Ireland. (pp. 107-130) Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110791457-007
2024
Conference Publication
Automated, Corpus-and Usage-Based Semantic Classification of Word Class using Word Embeddings
Schweinberger, Martin and Luo, Chang-Hao (2024). Automated, Corpus-and Usage-Based Semantic Classification of Word Class using Word Embeddings. ICAME45, Vigo, Spain, 18-21 June 2024.
2024
Other Outputs
Introduction to R for Social Science
Schweinberger, Martin (2024). Introduction to R for Social Science. Joensuu, Finland: University of Eastern Finland.
2024
Other Outputs
Introduction to Computational Text Analytics (Workshop)
Schweinberger, Martin and Hames, Sam (2024). Introduction to Computational Text Analytics (Workshop). Brisbane, QLD Australia: The University of Queensland.
2024
Journal Article
Corpus-based discourse analysis: from meta-reflection to accountability
Bednarek, Monika, Schweinberger, Martin and Lee, Kelvin K. H. (2024). Corpus-based discourse analysis: from meta-reflection to accountability. Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 20 (3), 1-28. doi: 10.1515/cllt-2023-0104
2024
Journal Article
A corpus‐based analysis of adjective amplification in Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English
Schweinberger, Martin (2024). A corpus‐based analysis of adjective amplification in Hong Kong, Indian and Philippine English. World Englishes, 44 (3), 456-473. doi: 10.1111/weng.12640
2024
Book Chapter
When natural language processing meets corpus linguistics
Schweinberger, Martin (2024). When natural language processing meets corpus linguistics. Digitally-assisted historical English linguistics. (pp. 73-88) edited by Carolina P. Amador-Moreno, Dagmar Haumann and Arne Peters. New York, NY, United States: Routledge. doi: 10.4324/9781003360285-6
2024
Book
Socio-pragmatic variation in Ireland: Using pragmatic variation to construct social identities
Martin Schweinberger and Patricia Ronan eds. (2024). Socio-pragmatic variation in Ireland: Using pragmatic variation to construct social identities. Trends in Linguistics. Studies and Monographs [TiLSM], Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter. doi: 10.1515/9783110791457
2023
Other Outputs
Introduction to Dimension Reduction Methods with R
Schweinberger, Martin (2023). Introduction to Dimension Reduction Methods with R. Tromsø, Norway: The Arctic University of Norway.
2023
Journal Article
On the L1-acquisition of the pragmatics of discourse like
Schweinberger, Martin (2023). On the L1-acquisition of the pragmatics of discourse like. Functions of Language, 30 (3), 255-286. doi: 10.1075/fol.20025.sch
2023
Other Outputs
F%$# Twitter. A corpus-based analysis of vulgar language on Twitter
Schweinberger, Martin (2023). F%$# Twitter. A corpus-based analysis of vulgar language on Twitter. Bayreuth, Germany: Bayreuth University.
2023
Journal Article
Research trends in corpus linguistics: a bibliometric analysis of two decades of Scopus-indexed corpus linguistics research in arts and humanities
Crosthwaite, Peter, Ningrum, Sulistya and Schweinberger, Martin (2023). Research trends in corpus linguistics: a bibliometric analysis of two decades of Scopus-indexed corpus linguistics research in arts and humanities. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 28 (3), 344-377. doi: 10.1075/ijcl.21072.cro
2023
Conference Publication
An introduction to the resources provided by LADAL - the Language Technology and Data Analysis Laboratory
Schweinberger, Martin (2023). An introduction to the resources provided by LADAL - the Language Technology and Data Analysis Laboratory. 7th Meeting of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE7), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 19 - 23 June 2023. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: University of Queensland.
2023
Conference Publication
Who swears most – and in what social settings?
Schweinberger, Martin, Fatemi, Masoud, Hames, Sam, Haugh, Michael, Laitinen, Mikko, Rautionaho, Paula and Takahashi, Marissa (2023). Who swears most – and in what social settings?. 7th Meeting of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE7), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 19-23 June 2023. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: University of Queensland.
2023
Conference Publication
A corpus-based acoustic analysis of vowel production by L1-Chinese learners and native speakers of English
Schweinberger, Martin and Yin, Ruihua (2023). A corpus-based acoustic analysis of vowel production by L1-Chinese learners and native speakers of English. 7th Meeting of the International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE7), Brisbane, QLD, Australia, 19 - 23 June 2023. Brisbane, QLD, Australia: University of Queensland.
Supervision
Availability
- Dr Martin Schweinberger is:
- Available for supervision
Looking for a supervisor? Read our advice on how to choose a supervisor.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
A multifactorial study of morpho-syntactic errors across different L1 backgrounds and language proficiency levels
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
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Doctor Philosophy
Enhancing Lexical Resources for Argumentative Essay Writing through Corpus Integration
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
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Doctor Philosophy
Corpus-based investigation of three-minute thesis presentations: Register perspective
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
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Doctor Philosophy
The Relationship Between Writing Tasks and Second Language Writers¿ Use of Metadiscourse
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
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Doctor Philosophy
A complex dynamic approach to learner engagement with GenAI-assisted written corrective feedback
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
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Doctor Philosophy
Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in TESOL: A Study on Personalised Learning and Impact on Student Engagement and Motivation in A Rural Indonesian University
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
Completed supervision
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2025
Doctor Philosophy
A corpus-based analysis of conspiracy theory discourse on Reddit: Understanding conspiracy-fuelled anomie and moral panics during COVID-19
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Ryan Ko
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
The acquisition of number marking: The case of Indonesian as a second language
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Peter Crosthwaite
Media
Enquiries
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