Elena Afros

I have been teaching courses in Linguistics, the Use of English, Varieties of English, Stylistics, and Academic Writing at St. Jerome's University, the University of Waterloo, and Renison University College since 2006. My teaching is informed by research on higher education and the latest developments in linguistics.

I have an active research agenda in two areas: Old Germanic languages (Old English and Gothic) and contemporary academic discourse. My recently completed project contextualized the linguistic evidence provided by the Taunton Fragment, an eleventh-century bilingual (Latin-Old English) collection of expositions of gospel pericopes, within the history of the English language and the culture of translation in Anglo-Saxon England. At present, I am examining the role that linguistic creativity plays in building consensus, construing opposition, and claiming agency in scholarly dialogue. This study continues my investigation into the discourse of academic debate.

The content that follows may only represent a portion of the CAS member’s work.

Books

Promotional (Meta) discourse in Research Articles: Language and Literary Studies in Focus. Saarbrücken: VDM Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009.

Chapters

"The functions of linguistic creativity in two written academic genres in language studies" in Multifunctionality in English Corpora, Language and Academic Literacy Pedagogy.  Zihan Yin and Elaine Vine, eds. (Routledge, 2022)

Articles

"Endings -s and -st in the 2nd Person Singular Present Indicative in Old English," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 84.4 (2024), 84.4 (2024), 496-523. https://doi.org/10.1163/18756719-12340340 

"The Old English Pronoun þæge: An Addendum to the Addendum," Notes & Queries, published online October 27, 2024. https://doi-org.proxy.lib.uwaterloo.ca/10.1093/notesj/gjae123

"Some Observations on the Copying Practices of Scribe 5 of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Tanner 10," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 83.4 (2024), 453-467.

"Lexical Glosses in Cambridge, University Library, Kk.3.18," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 82:4 (2022), 1-29.

"Some Distinctive Characteristics of the B Text of the Old English Bede," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 88:1 (2022), 1-24.

"The Verb-Initial Independent Declarative Clauses on which the Most Complete Witnesses to the Old English Bede Disagree," Studia Neophilologica (2022).

"The Old English Pronoun þæge: An Addendum to Michiko Ogura, 'Late West Saxon Forms of the Demonstrative Pronouns as Native Prototypes of They,'" Notes and Queries, 69:2 (2022), 55-62.

"Thrones and Dominions/Dominations in the Old English Version of the Homiliary of Angers," ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews (2022).

"The Old English Translation of the Homiliary of Angers: The Evidence of the Lexicon," Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 82:2 (2022), 1-25.

"Verbal negative contraction in four most complete witnesses to the Old English Bede," ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews (2021).

"The Old English Noun gebyrþen Revisited," ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews (2021).

"Is the Taunton Fragment his þ folc another instance of the Possessive + Demonstrative + Noun construction?" Studia Neophilologica (2021).

"The Taunton Fragment begihti," Notes and Queries, 64 (2017), 378-381.

"A Proposed Emendation for the Taunton Fragment 1.6," Notes and Queries, 63 (2016), 355-357.

"Is the Old English of the Taunton Fragment Idiosyncratic?" The Review of English Studies, 67 (2016), 203-219.

"What does the Form ðrowian in the Taunton Fragment Stand for?" Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 76 (2016), 1-14.

"Agreement within the Noun Phrase in the Taunton Fragment," Notes and Queries, 62 (2015), 199-203.

"Some Morphological, Lexical, and Syntactic Features of the English Text of the Taunton Fragment," Notes and Queries, 62 (2015), 12-16.

“Replying/Responding to Criticism in Language Studies,” English for Specific Purposes, 34 (2014), 79-89.

Review of H. F. Nielsen, & F. T. Stubkjær (Eds.), The Gothic language: A Symposium, Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 68 (2011), 259-263.

“Gothic Relative Clauses Introduced by izei and sei Revisited,” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 66 (2010), 5-20.

"Exeter Book Riddle 49: Linguistic Ambiguities Revisited," Notes and Queries, 56 (2009), 171-175.

Schryer, C. F., Afros, E., Mian, M., Spafford, M., & Lingard, L. “The Trial of the Expert Witness: Negotiating Credibility in Child Abuse Correspondence,” Written Communication, 26 (2009), 215-246.

Afros, E., & Schryer, C. F. “The Genre of Syllabus in Higher Education,” Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 8 (2009), 224-233.

Afros, E., & Schryer, C. F. “Promotional (Meta)discourse in Research Articles in Language and Literary Studies,” English for Specific Purposes, 28 (2009), 58-68.

“Is cyssað in Exeter Book Riddle 30a: 6b an Instance of Morphological Levelling?” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 63 (2007), 21-28.

“Gothic Explicative and Relative Clauses Introduced by the Enclitic ei,” Amsterdamer Beiträge zur älteren Germanistik, 61 (2006), 5-15.

“Linguistic Ambiguities in some Exeter Book Riddles,” Notes and Queries, 52 (2005), 431-437.

"Syntactic Variation in Riddles 30a and 30b," Notes and Queries, 52 (2005), 2-5.

“Sindrum begrunden in Exeter Book Riddle 26: The Enigmatic Dative Case,” Notes and Queries, 51 (2004), 7-9.

Others

Conference Papers

"Replying/Responding in Language Studies" presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Waterloo, ON (May 2012).

"The Genre of Syllabus in Higher Education" presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences, Saskatoon, SK (May 2007).

ARTS 130: Inquiry and Communication [Topic: Language Matters]

ENGL 140R: The Use of English

ENGL 305A: Old English Language and Literature

ENGL 306A: Introduction to Linguistics

Grants

Grant for conducting research “Metadiscourse in Academic Writing”

Grant for conducting research “Textual Study of the Exeter Book Riddles”

Jack Shindman Memorial Scholarship for completion of the "Teaching English as a Second Language" certificate

Grant for completion of the Ph.D. thesis Aspects of Old Germanic Hypotaxis: The Relative Clause in Focus

One-year scholarship for graduate studies at the University of Amsterdam

Awards

NCTE Technical and Scientific Communication award “Best article reporting historical research or textual studies in technical or scientific communication” for the co-authored article “The Trial of the Expert Witness: Negotiating Credibility in Child Abuse Correspondence”