Current position:

•  Professor (ausserplanmaessige Professorin) of English Linguistics and Medieval Studies at the Chair of English Linguistics, University of Bamberg (since 2008)

 Earlier positions:

• Professor at Adam-Mickiewicz-University Poznań, Poland (2006-2008)
• Associate Professor (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the Chair of English Linguistics, University of Bamberg (2003-2008)
• Erasmus Departmental Coordinator, Faculty of Human Sciences, University of Bamberg (2007/2008)
• Acting Professor of English Linguistics and Medieval Studies, University of Bonn (Lehrstuhlvertretung 2007)
• Acting Professor of English Linguistics, University of Bayreuth (Lehrstuhlvertretung; 2005/2006)
• Visiting Professor at the University of Innsbruck, Austria (2005)
• Acting Professor of English Medieval Studies, University of Jena (Lehrstuhlvertretung; 2000)
• Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the Chair of English Linguistics and Medieval Studies, University of Bamberg (1991-2003)
• Assistant Professor (Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin) at the Chair of English Linguistics and Medieval English Literature, University of Munich (1989/1990)

• Linguistic medievalism
• Historical linguistics in teacher education
• theory of language change, especially 'antilexicalization' phenomena
• historical phraseology and lexicology
• English language scholarship before 1800, in particular treatments of phraseology in collections of proverbs, handbooks of style, foreign language teaching, monolingual and bilingual lexicography, translation, the study of universal language, shorthand, English grammar
• rhetoric und grammar in Anglo-Saxon England
• rhetoric in Old English literature

• Habilitation (post-doctoral degree), University of Bamberg, 2003.
• Thesis published 2004 under the title: Idioms and Fixed Expressions in English Language Study before 1800: A Contribution to English Historical Phraseology. Frankfurt/Main: Lang.
• Scholarship for post-doctoral research (Habilitationsstipendium) of the University of Bamberg (Hochschulsonderprogramm III), 2000/2001
• PhD, University of Munich (LMU), 1994.
• Thesis published 1996 under the title: Traditionen der klassischen Rhetorik im angelsächsischen England. Heidelberg: Winter.
• PhD scholarship (Promotionsstipendium) of the University of Munich, 1990/1991
• Study of English and German at the universities of Gießen and Munich 1991-1989
• Magister Artium (Munich, 1988) and state examination (Munich, 1989)

All publications with downloads, where possible, are listed at https://fis.uni-bamberg.de/cris/rp/rp01515/publications.html

For a detailed list, please see /eng-ling/personen/knappe#cpanel-432180-3

Synchronic and diachronic linguistics:

• English Lexicology and Lexicography
• Word-Formation
• Semantics
• Phraseology
• Etymology
• Language Change
• Continuity and Change from Old English to Middle English
• Development of English Grammatical Categories
• English-Oriented Pidgins and Creoles
• Understanding English Dialects
• History of the English Language
• Old English
• Middle English
• Early Modern English

Old and Middle English language and literature:

• Linguistic Medievalism
• Reading Old English
• The Prose of Alfred's Reign
• The Old English Elegies
• The Old English Apollonius of Tyre
• Medieval English Animal Poetry
• Reading Middle English
• Chaucer's Canterbury Tales
• Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
• Troilus and Criseyde from Chaucer to Shakespeare
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Preparation for the Bavarian state examination: Middle English

• Organization and linguistic coaching of a medieval choir "Birds of one feather" on the occasions of the "Medieval Festival" of the Centre for Medieval Studies of the University of Bamberg on 12 July 2018 and the "Long Night of Love" on 10 May 2019.
• Study trips with groups of students to Oxford (Oxford English Dictionary) and London, 29 June - 4 July 2010, 17 July - 22 July 2014, 14-19 June 2017, 15-20 July 2018 and 17-22 May 2019
• Organization of a conference on "English Linguistics and Medieval Studies: Positions and Perspectives", University of Bamberg, 21-22 May 2004.
• Organization of and active participation in the dramatic performance of: "The Chester Mystery Cycle – Play 7: The Shepherds" in Middle English on the occasion of the Medieval Festival at the University of Bamberg, 16 June 2003 (organized by the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Bamberg). Further performances at the universities of Eichstätt and Munich, November 2003.
• Organization of the interdisciplinary series of lectures "Linguistisches Kolloquium" at the University of Bamberg:
  • Summer 2005: "Varietät und Norm" (with PD Dr. Ursula Goetz, Prof. Dr. Martin Haase)
  • Winter 1998/1999: "Grammatische Kategorien [Schwerpunkt: Nominalkategorien]" (with Dr. Monika Sokol)
  • Winter 1997/1998 (with Dr. Claudine Moulin-Fankhänel)
  • Summer 1997 (with Dr. Susanne Michaelis)
• Assistant to the Editor" of Dialectologia et Geolinguistica: Journal of the International Society for Dialectology and Geolinguistics, 1 (1993) – 8 (2000), 10 (2002) – 11 (2003)
• For more information, please see the German version of this page.