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Chris Cummins is Professor of Experimental Pragmatics in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at the University of Edinburgh's School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences (PPLS). His academic career spans multiple institutions with significant contributions to experimental semantics and pragmatics research.
His research interests focus on experimental semantics and pragmatics, particularly how speakers choose to use specific linguistic forms to communicate about quantity, and how hearers interpret these forms to make decisions in high-stakes contexts such as financial and medical interactions. He investigates how listeners infer additional features of situations, including speaker knowledge states and potential argumentative agendas, from linguistic utterances, and how this information influences decision-making processes. His work also explores speech act recognition and the production/comprehension of non-asserted content.
Analysis of his recent publications reveals a strong trend toward interdisciplinary research combining linguistic theory with practical applications in medical communication, particularly in emergency contexts like cardiac arrest resuscitation. His work increasingly examines how numerical expressions function argumentatively in social media and medical contexts, with growing attention to cross-linguistic and developmental perspectives on pragmatic reasoning.
Professor Cummins has collaborated extensively with researchers including Gareth Clegg, Hannah Rohde, Holly Branigan, and Ernisa Marzuki on medical communication projects, and with Michael Franke, Alex Lorson, and others on experimental pragmatics research. He has received support for his work through research studentships and collaborative projects.
Beyond his formal academic role, Cummins actively engages with the public through the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas at the Edinburgh Fringe (discussing topics like misleading language and slurs in 2023-2024) and Bright Club Edinburgh. He previously co-presented the New Books in Language podcast series as part of the New Books Network.
