Esme Winter-Froemel

Prof. Dr. Esme Winter-Froemel holds the Chair of Romance Linguistics at Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg. Her research focuses on language contact, language change, lexicology, linguistic ambiguity, and wordplay. She leads the Tübingen Graduate School 1808 'Ambiguity: Production and Reception' and previously directed the research network 'Dynamik des Wortspiels' (2013–2018). Her recent work examines the pragmatics of lexical borrowing and the communicative negotiation of linguistic innovations. Current projects address semantic and pragmatic aspects of loanwords, multilayered addressing phenomena, and historical scenarios of linguistic innovation in medieval French scientific texts.

• Key Research Areas: Lexical Borrowing, Historical Linguistics, Pragmatics
• Current Projects: Analysis of 12th-15th century French scientific terminology using the Dictionnaire du Français Scientifique Médiéval
• Interdisciplinary Focus: Linguistics intersects with Literary Studies, Rhetoric, and Philosophy of Language