The primary theoretical orientation is functional and cognitive, rather than formal; the cognitively oriented research is concerned primarily with questions of categoriality, language variation and change, grammatical patterning in spoken language, and phonetics and phonology.
Another area of research focuses on language typology and the investigation of linguistic structure in contact situations, with the Romani language providing a significant source of material.
Principal issues in sociolinguistics and pragmatics include investigation of language minorities, language management (within society in general as well as in partial language communities, e.g. companies or specific language situations) and the social pragmatics of language contact.
