معرفی
Dr. Simone Busley serves as a Lecturer for special tasks at the German Institute of Historical Linguistics within the Department of Philosophy and Philology at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (50% position since April 2021), while also working as a Research Associate at the Institute for Historical Regional Studies Rhineland-Palatinate eV (50% position since March 2020). Her academic profile centers on historical linguistics with specialized expertise in German dialectology and gender-related linguistic phenomena.
Dr. Busley earned her doctorate from the University of Mainz in February 2020 with her dissertation "Women in the Neuter. Empirical Studies on Middle and Low German Dialects." Her educational background includes German, Philosophy, and Educational Sciences, culminating in the 1st State Examination for Teaching at Grammar Schools. Prior to her current positions, she contributed to multiple DFG-funded research projects including "Anna and Her Dog. Female Neuter Names" and the "Digital Surname Dictionary of Germany."
Her research explores the complex relationship between grammatical gender, sociopragmatic factors, and cultural contexts in German dialects, particularly focusing on instances where feminine referents receive neuter grammatical gender assignment. This work bridges theoretical linguistics with empirical sociolinguistic analysis, examining how language reflects and shapes social attitudes toward gender. Her publications reveal consistent investigation into name usage patterns, historical shifts in personal reference systems, and the sociocultural dimensions of linguistic variation.
Dr. Busley's scholarly output demonstrates a clear trajectory examining gender assignment in German dialects, with increasing attention to historical documentation and cross-regional comparisons. Her work combines meticulous textual analysis with sociolinguistic theory to explain seemingly anomalous grammatical patterns as reflections of deeper social structures and historical developments.
- 2023: Analysis of onymic personal reference evolution in early modern court records
- 2022: Examination of gender-sex discordances in German dialects as reflections of social roles
- 2021: Investigation of sociopragmatic gender assignment in German dialects
- 2021: Monograph on women in the neuter across Middle and Low German dialects
- 2020: Study of supra-regional neutral gender assignment patterns when referring to women
As an educator, Dr. Busley has taught extensively at the University of Mainz since 2013, offering courses including "Introduction to Historical Linguistics," "Language Variation," "Linguistic Doubtful Cases," and "Empirical Work in Variational Linguistics." Her teaching spans both undergraduate and graduate levels, with recent courses scheduled through 2025. She has also presented her research at numerous national and international conferences, including the German Society for Linguistics Annual Meeting and the Mainz Name Conferences.
