Silke Brandt

Professor Silke Brandt is a faculty member at Lancaster University's School of Social Sciences. Her research investigates language acquisition, syntax processing, and cognitive development through experimental studies and corpus analysis. She serves as a member of the ESRC International Centre for Language and Communicative Development (LuCiD), leading projects on communicative development from 2014 to 2025.

Her research interests include:

• Language acquisition and processing of complex syntax
• Interactions between linguistic development and social cognition (Theory of Mind)
• Syntactic priming and implicit learning mechanisms
• Information structure and word order effects in language development
• Cognitive/usage-based linguistics and construction grammar

Professor Brandt actively supervises PhD students, including Xiao Ke, and welcomes applications in first language acquisition, sentence processing, and language-Theory of Mind interactions. Her outreach includes school engagement programs like 'Linguistics in the City' at institutions such as Cardinal Newman College and Loreto College.