Сorpus linguistics and… fashion in Birmingham: experience of cooperation within the framework of the Erasmus+ programme

In 2021-2023, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv cooperated with one of the leading British universities – Birmingham City University – within the framework of the Erasmus+ academic exchange programme. The cooperation agreement provided for student and faculty members exchanges.

In April-May 2023, faculty members of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology Hanna Chernenko, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Ukrainian Philology for Foreigners and Iryna Alieksieieva, Candidate of Philological Sciences (PhD), Associate Professor at the Department of English Philology and Intercultural Communication underwent a traineeship at Birmingham City University within the framework of the large-scale interdisciplinary project “Language and Fashion” (2021-2023) headed by Nataliia Rozhyn, lecturer at the Faculty of Design at the Birmingham City University.

Hanna Chernenko, Doctor of Philological Sciences, Associate Professor at the Department of Ukrainian Philology for Foreigners, tells more about her unique academic experience, international cooperation, and unforgettable memories.

“The goal of the project is to study the relation, intersection and interaction of language and fashion. The fashion industry encompasses more than just clothing, architecture and other artifacts that become markers of time. Language is a tool that serves the fashion industry providing it not only with terminology, but also with resources for communication with and between consumers. The language of comments, responses, reviews, discussions accompanying events in the world of fashion and changes in its trends is another link that firmly connects the two phenomena mentioned in the name of the project.

The project began before the war, but the fashion industry has shown that it is very sensitive to modern events. Nowadays we can see how Ukrainian designer brands work to ensure the interests of the front: they sew military uniforms, body armor, support the economy, employ the unemployed, donate for the army, popularise Ukrainian national symbols, spread true information about the war during international shows.

The “Language and Fashion” project included the preparation of a collective interdisciplinary monograph with the participation of specialists from Ukraine and Britain, linguists and designers. It also provided for the mobility programme with participation of not only faculty members mentioned, but also students, namely, Viktoriia Romanchuk, Master’s student of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology.

On April 26, the first interdisciplinary seminar “Language of Fashion: Research Methods” took place with both Ukrainian and British scientists taking part. The issues of modernity in modern fashion (N. Rozhyn, Birmingham), the semiotics of the mask (I. Alieksieieva, KNU), the possibility of applying corpus linguistics methods to research the language of fashion (S. Buk, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv), prospects for creating an electronic dictionary of the language of fashion (S. Fokin, KNU), the impact of war on fashion discourse (H. Chernenko, KNU), peculiarities of the language of the so-called ecological fashion (V. Romanchuk , KNU) were considered.

The seminar showed the high productivity of statistical and computer methods, in particular corpus linguistics and discourse analysis, in the study of language and fashion problems. After the seminar, there was a meeting with linguist colleagues from Birmingham City University during which they shared their experience of using these methods, in particular, when preparing advertising campaigns in the fashion industry.

During the traineeship, the participants of the Programme had the opportunity to visit the premises of Birmingham City University with comfortable desks on every floor and fast internet enabling students and faculty members to sit down with a laptop just in the corridor and work at any moment. It was interesting to visit the University library with the opportunity to examine its card catalogue and archives. And of course, it was exciting to pay a symbolic visit to Shakespeare during one of the excursions to Stratford-upon-Avon where he was born.”