Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr. Nikolaus Ritt

T: +43-1-4277-42424

nikolaus.ritt@univie.ac.at

Consultation hours: Tue 4-5pm

Summer term 2024

120024 OV Orientierungsveranstaltung Anglistik MA Literatures and Cultures & Language and Linguistics - Orientation & Welcome Session

120225 SE MA Seminar - Focus: Historical Linguistics / Linguistics Seminar - Exploring the history of English words: form, meaning, and use

122030 VO History of English

128123 AR Structural Analysis

128162 SE SE Thesis Seminar (MA M06)

128304 AR Philosophy of Language Science

420011 SE Linguistische Dissertationsprojekte

Winter term 2023

120024 OV Orientierungsveranstaltung Anglistik MA Literatures and Cultures & Language and Linguistics - Orientation & Welcome Session

Summer term 2023

120024 OV Orientierungsveranstaltung Anglistik MA Literatures and Cultures & Language and Linguistics - Orientation & Welcome Session

122222 SE Linguistics Seminar / BA Paper - Identifying Gender Bias in Word Use (using Corpora)

122250 AR MA+MEd Advanced Course in Linguistics - Focus: Historical - Learning (to read) Middle English

128123 AR Structural Analysis

128304 AR Philosophy of Language Science

Ritt, N. (2024). Sound change, naturalness, and the identifiability of word-forms. Manuscript submitted for publication. In W. U. Dressler, K. Dziubalska-Koɫaczyk, & P. Donegan (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Natural Linguistics Cambridge University Press.

Ritt, N., & Baumann, A. (2023). Doing Natural Linguistics the evolutionary way: Concepts and methods. Manuscript submitted for publication. In K. Dziubalska-Kołaczyk, P. J. Donegan, & W. U. Dressler (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Natural Linguistics Cambridge University Press.

Ritt, N. (Editorial Journalist), & Hofmann, K. (Editorial Journalist). (2023). SPEAM User Manual: Purpose, Description, and User Instructions. Web publication https://osf.io/9sgv4/

Ritt, N. (Editorial Journalist), & Hofmann, K. (Editorial Journalist). (2023). SPEAM: An agent based model of stress pattern evolution. Software or database https://osf.io/9sgv4/

Ritt, N. (2023). Markedness, Naturalness and Complexity. Manuscript submitted for publication. In E. Aldridge, A. Breitbarth, K. E. Kiss, A. Ledgeway, J. Salmons, & A. Simonenko (Eds.), Wiley Blackwell Companion to Diachronic Linguistics Wiley-Blackwell.

Ritt, N. (Accepted/In press). Collocational reflexes of gender binarism in published books have become less pronounced during the last 200 years. VIEW[Z] : Vienna English working papers, 31. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/365317127_Collocational_reflexes_of_gender_binarism_in_published_books_have_become_less_pro-_nounced_during_the_last_200_years

Fabiszak, M., Ritt, N., & Wacker, E. (2022). A Historical Dynamic Approach to Metaphor. Language, Mind, Culture, Society, 6, 68-95.

Matzinger, T., & Ritt, N. (2022). Phonotactically probable word shapes represent attractors in the cultural evolution of sound patterns. Cognitive Linguistics, 33(2), 415-446. https://doi.org/10.1515/cog-2021-0087

Matzinger, T., Ritt, N., & Fitch, W. T. S. (2021). The Influence of Different Prosodic Cues on Word Segmentation. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, [622042]. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.622042

Matzinger, T., Specker, E., Ritt, N., & Fitch, W. T. S. (2021). Aesthetic perception of prosodic patterns as a factor in speech segmentation. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society, 43, 2992-2998. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4tm94762

Ritt, N., Baumann, A., Zöpfl, A., & Zehentner, E. (2020). Reconsidering subjectification from the perspective of animal signalling. Evolutionary Linguistic Theory, 2(2), 138-152. https://doi.org/10.1075/elt.00020.rit

Matzinger, T., Ritt, N., & Fitch, W. T. S. (2020). Non-native speaker pause patterns closely correspond to those of native speakers at different speech rates. PLoS ONE, 15(4), [e0230710]. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230710

Baumann, A., Prömer, C., & Ritt, N. (2020). Reconstructing the diffusion of Middle English schwa deletion. Italian Journal of Linguistics, 32(1), 191-210.

Ritt, N., Baumann, A., & Prömer, C. (2020). The fall and rise of English any. In P. Núñez-Pertejo, M. J. López-Couso, B. Méndez-Naya, & J. Pérez-Guerra (Eds.), Crossing Linguistic Boundaries: Systemic, Synchronic and Diachronic Variation in English (pp. 61-80). Bloomsbury Publishing.

Ritt, N. (Ed.) (2019). Diachronic Phonotactics. De Gruyter Mouton. Folia Linguistica Historica: acta societatis linguisticae Europaeae Vol. 40 No. 1

Ritt, N. (2019). Introduction. Folia Linguistica Historica, 53(1), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2019-0001

Baumann, A., Prömer, C., & Ritt, N. (2019). Word form shapes are selected to be morphotactically indicative. Folia Linguistica Historica, 53(1), 129-151. https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2019-0007

Fehér, O., Ritt, N., & Smith, K. (2019). Asymmetric accommodation during interaction leads to the regularisation of linguistic variants. Journal of Memory and Language, 109(109), [104036]. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2019.104036

Baumann, A., & Ritt, N. (2018). The basic reproductive ratio as a link between acquisition and change in phonotactics. Cognition, 176, 174-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2018.03.005

Baumann, A. (Author), Prömer, C. (Author), & Ritt, N. (Author). (2018). ECCE database – user manual. Web publication https://ecce.acdh.oeaw.ac.at/user-manual/

Research interests

English linguistics
History of English
Phonology, Morphology, Morphonology,
Middle English, Early Modern English

Linguistic theory
Language as a historical system
Language and identity
Language transmission and evolution
Memetics
Complex adaptive systems and generalized Darwinism
Connectionist competence modeling
Language and cognition
Evolutionary epistemology
Constructivism

CV

1978-1985	Student of English and German Philology at the University of Vienna
January1985	Graduation to Magister Philosophiae (Mag. Phil.)
March 1985	Promotion to University Assistant (English Department, Vienna University)
1985/86	Teacher Training at a Viennese Grammar School
1987/88	Foreign Language Lecturer (German), Durham University
June1990	Graduation to Doctor Philosophiae (Dr. Phil.)
1991	Community Service at a Neurological Clinic in Gugging, Lower Austria
1992	(Summer term) Visiting Professor, Eötvös Lorand University, Budapest
April 1994	Promotion to Assistant Professor
1994-2000	Work on Habilitation Thesis on an evolutionary framework for the study of linguistic history
2001	Venia Docendi for English Linguistics, Promotion to Associate Professor
Nov 2001-Jan 2002	Visiting Professor, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan
Oct 2002-Jan 2005	Head of the English Department of Vienna University
Oct-Nov 2006	Visiting Professor, University of Santiago de Compostela
Jan 2007	Visiting Fellow, University of Edinburgh
October 2004-2012	Vice-Dean of the Faculty for Philological and Cultural Studies
February 2009	Professor for English Historical Linguistics, University of Vienna
Oct 2016-Oct 2018	Head of the English Department of Vienna University