Tatjana Juliana Shannon Schnellinger
About
Background
I am a PhD candidate in the Language and Linguistics programme at the Department of Language and Literature. I hold a BA and MA in English Studies as well as African Studies and Egyptology from the University of Cologne with a specialisation in linguistics. In addition, I have worked as a research assistant in the project 'Split ergativity in Tima' at the Collaborative Research Centre 'Prominence in Language' (CRC 1252) and as a live speaker at the Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum in Cologne. My main research interests include contact languages, in particular Pidgins and Creoles; pragmatic variation; multilingualism and gesture studies.
Research
Research Interests
- Anthropological linguistics
- Sociolinguistics
- Multimodality and gesture studies
- Multilingualism
- Pragmatics
- Contact linguistics
- Toursim and sustainability discourses
PhD Project
My dissertation project explores how language shapes, and is shaped by culture, following a multi-disciplinary approach that brings together anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, interactional linguistics, gesture studies and pragmatics to study linguistic practices of Afro-Surinamese communities. Building on the notion of translanguaging, the project investigates semiotic repertoires of Afro-Surinamese individuals and communities in Suriname. Specifically, the project investigates how two conventionalised gestures in interplay with other semiotic resources exemplify processes of meaning-making and communication, focussing on the visual gesture cut-eye and the sound gesture kiss-teeth, which are widely used in African and Black diasporic communities.
In order to examine the interplay of these gestures and multilingual speech, this research will investigate the gestures’ functions in diglossic interactions, combining ethnography, elicitation tasks and analysis of video recordings. By using a corpus-based discourse analytical approach, the study aims to generate spontaneous data that considers the multimodal and interactional aspects of plurilingual practices. The project is under the supervision of Professor Susanne Mohr (NTNU, Department of Language and Literature) and Prof. Susanne Mühleisen (University of Bayreuth).
Publications
2024
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Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon.
(2024)
Indexing pragmatic functions of kiss-teeth through embodiment and viewpoint construction: Insights from a Surinamese participant.
Interactional Linguistics
Academic article
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Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon.
(2024)
A multimodal perspective on communicative competence in multilingual Afro-Surinamese speaker communities.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Journal publications
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Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon.
(2024)
Indexing pragmatic functions of kiss-teeth through embodiment and viewpoint construction: Insights from a Surinamese participant.
Interactional Linguistics
Academic article
Part of book/report
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Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon.
(2024)
A multimodal perspective on communicative competence in multilingual Afro-Surinamese speaker communities.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Outreach
2025
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Academic lectureBrunner, Marie-Louise; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon; Mohr, Susanne. (2025) Multimodal And Multilingual Sustainability Discourses and Their Impact on Identity Construction in the Norwegian Cruise Tourism Industry. ABC Regional Conference 2025 , Bergen 2025-06-04 - 2025-06-06
2024
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Ackermann-Boström, Constanze; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon; Brunner, Marie-Louise. (2024) Under SCRUTINY – Exploring Multimodal Sustainability Discourses in Norwegian Cruise Tourism. Sustainability and Tourism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives 2024-05-14 -
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Brunner, Marie-Louise; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon. (2024) The semiotic landscape of cruise tourism in Norway - Stylistic considerations on multimodal sustainability discourses. Poetics and Linguistics Association conference , Sheffield 2024-06-26 - 2024-06-29
2023
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Academic lectureSchnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon. (2023) Making meaning through gesture: The multifunctionality of kiss-teeth in Afro-Surinamese communities. 9th European Conference on African Studies (ECAS 2023): “African Futures” , Cologne, Germany 2023-05-30 - 2023-06-02
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon; Andrason, Alexander; Fehn, Anne-Maria. (2023) Finding the needle in a haystack – sustainability in complex fieldwork practices. Sustainable linguistics: theories and methods , Helsinki 2023-08-24 - 2023-08-25
2022
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PosterSchnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon. (2022) Exploring semiotic repertoires in Afro-Surinamese speech communities. 72nd Student Conference on Linguistics (StuTS) , Hamburg 2022-11-01 - 2022-11-05
2021
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Academic lectureSchnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon. (2021) Impolite Gestures in Multilingual Interactions: Exploring language mixing and multimodal strategies in Ghana and Suriname through ethnographic methods. New Methods for Pragmatics of New Englishes Workshop , Online 2021-04-29 - 2021-04-29