https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1878-4232
What motivates me?
How did we get from Shakespeare to Snapchat? If we’re more connected now than ever, why don’t we all sound the same? Why can’t I swear in class? Why do Maritimers breathe in when they say “yes”? Do I sound gay?
Who Am I?
I’m a Canadian sociolinguist working in the United Kingdom. Sociolinguistics is the study of the intersection of language and society, and, as a sociolinguist, I try to figure out how these two relate.
I work with large language datasets using statistical modelling to find patterns of grammatical variability and trajectories of grammatical change in multiple varieties of English in order to establish the genetic relationship between those varieties. Using the same methods, I also look at how multiple varieties adopt supra-local innovations and how those innovations variably enter and spread in pre-existing grammars. Broadly, I aim to better understand how and why grammatical systems diverge and converge. My research spans all levels of the grammar, though I have mostly focussed on phonological and morphological change.
I have worked on varieties of North American, British, Australian English and Filipino English, and have collaborated with students on French, SerBoCroatian, Chinese languages, and German. I am always seeking new collaborators, post-docs, and graduate students.
What do I do?
Most recent employers (FULL CV)
Wolfson College, UNIVERSITY of Oxford
September 2023 - Present
Research Fellow
University of Oxford — Faculty of Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics
January 2022 - Present
Departmental Lecturer in Sociolinguistics
Departmental Lecturer in English Language
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KU Leuven — Quantitative Lexicology & Variational Linguistics Research Group
November 2019 - December 2022
Post-Doctoral Researcher
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Saint Mary’s University — Linguistics Programme
September 2018 - April 2019
Assistant Professor
Languages
Major Research Interests
The interplay of Phonetics and Phonology, and how variation or change for one influences variation and change for the other.
How variability is embedded in the grammatical system, and how this embedding interacts with sociolinguistic variation and shapes linguistic change.
The history and trajectory of North American English varieties, with a focus on the peripheral varieties of the Canadian Maritime provinces and their connection to Scottish and Irish English varieties.
Linguistic homogenization and supralocal/pan-varietal/global linguistic change. Transmission, diffusion, and drift.
The relationship between grammatical variability and speech processing.
Sociolinguistic research in the digital space.
Education
University of Toronto
PHD LINGUISTICS
Graduated November 2017
Dissertation: Grammatical Variation and Change in Industrial Cape Breton
Memorial University of Newfoundland
MA LINGUISTICS
Graduated October 2010
Thesis: Oat and a Boat: Diphthongs and Identity in Post-industrial Cape Breton
University of King’s College
BA FRENCH
Graduated May 2006
Université Aix-Marseille III
DIPLÔME NIVEAU IV
Graduated June 2003
Key Publications
Gardner, Matt Hunt and Viktorija Kostadinova (2024). “Gettin’ Sociolinguistic Data Remotely. Comparing Vernacularity During Online Remote vs. In-Person Sociolinguistic Interviews”. In: Linguistics Vanguard. DOI: 10.1515/lingvan-2022-0069.(PDF)
Kostadinova, Viktorija and Matt Hunt Gardner (2023). “Getting “good” data in a pandemic. (An introduc- tion to) Part 1: Assessing the validity and quality of data collected remotely”. In: Linguistics Vanguard 9 (s4), 329–34. doi: 10.1515/lingvan-2023-0170. (PDF)
Rodríguez-Louro, Celeste, Glenys Collard, Madeleine Clews, and Matt Hunt Gardner (2023). “Quotation in earlier and contemporary Australian Aboriginal English”. In: Language Variation and Change 35.2, 129–52. doi:10.1017/S0954394523000169 (PDF)
Gardner, Matt Hunt and Rebecca Roeder (2022). “Phonological Mergers have Systematic Phonetic Consequences. PALM, trees, and the Low Back Merger Shift.” In: Language Variation and Change 34.1, pp. 29–52. DOI: 10. 1017/S0954394522000059. (PDF)
Gardner, Matt Hunt, Derek Denis, Marisa Brook and Sali A. Tagliamonte. (2021). “Be like and the Constant Rate Effect. From the Bottom to the Top of the S-Curve.” In: English Language and Linguistics 25.2, pp. 281–324. DOI: 10.1017/S1360674320000076 (PDF)
Gardner, Matt Hunt, Eva Uffing, Nicholas Van Vaeck and Benedikt Szmresanyi (2021). “Variation Isn’t That Hard. Morphosyntactic Choice Does Not Predict Production Difficulty.” In: PLOS ONE 16.6, e0252602. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0252602 (PDF)
Gardner, Matt Hunt and Sali A. Tagliamonte (2020). “The Bike, the Back, and the Boyfriend. Confronting the ‘Definite Article Conspiracy’ in Canadian and British English.” In: English World Wide 41.2, pp. 226–255. DOI: 10.1075/eww.00047.gar (PDF)
Denis, Derek, Matt Hunt Gardner, Marisa Brook and Sali A. Tagliamonte (2019). “Peaks and arrowheads of vernacular reorganization.” In: Language Variation and Change 31.1, pp. 43–67. DOI: 10.1017/S095439451900005X (PDF)
Gardner, Matt Hunt (2013). “The Acoustic and Articulatory Characteristics of Cape Breton Fricative /t/.” In: Dialectologia et Geolinguistica 21.1, pp. 3–19. DOI: 10.1515/dialect-2013-0001 (PDF)
Roeder, Rebecca and Matt Hunt Gardner (2013). “The Phonology of the Canadian Shift Revisited. Thunder Bay and Cape Breton.” In: U. Penn Working Papers in Linguistics 19.2: Selected Papers From NWAV 41, Article 18. (PDF)