Allan is Emeritus Professor of Language and Communication at Auckland University of Technology as well as being affiliated to Laidlaw College. Before retiring from AUT in 2019, he was Director of the Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication. For many years he led a dual career combining academic research in sociolinguistics with journalism and communications consultancy.

His research interests include media language and discourse, the theory of language style, New Zealand English, multilingualism in New Zealand, performance language, language and identity, and social and linguistic aspects of the internet. He has led major research projects on these, and is Editor Emeritus of the Journal of Sociolinguistics, the leading journal in the field, which he co-founded in 1997 and edited until 2017.

At Laidlaw, Allan’s research is focusing on aspects of biblical language and discourse, including the languages of the Gospels and their tradition, and a re-evaluation of Babel as blessing not curse, and of Pentecost as a language event. He is a member of St Luke’s Anglican Parish, Mt Albert.

BOOKS

Bell, Allan & Janet Holmes (eds), 1990. New Zealand Ways of Speaking English. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, and Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Bell, Allan, 1991. The Language of News Media. Oxford: Basil Blackwell (reprinted 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2001).

Bell, Allan & Peter Garrett (eds), 1998. Approaches to Media Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.

Bell, Allan & Koenraad Kuiper (eds), 2000. New Zealand English (Varieties of English Around the World). Wellington: Victoria University Press; and Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Bell, Allan, Ray Harlow & Donna Starks (eds), 2005. Languages of New Zealand. Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Bell, Allan, 2014. The Guidebook to Sociolinguistics. Malden, Mass. & Oxford, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell.

PAPERS

Bell, Allan, 1982. ‘Radio: the style of news language.’ Journal of Communication 32: 150-64.

Bell, Allan, 1982. ‘This isn’t the BBC: colonialism in New Zealand English.’ Applied Linguistics 3: 246-58.

Bell, Allan, 1983. ‘Broadcast news as a language standard.’ In Gerhard Leitner (ed.), Language and Mass Media (International Journal of the Sociology of Language 40). Amsterdam: Mouton. 29-42.

Bell, Allan, 1983. ‘Telling it like it isn’t: inaccuracy in editing international news.’ Gazette 31: 185-203.

Bell, Allan, 1984. ‘Good copy - bad news: the syntax and semantics of news editing.’ In Peter Trudgill (ed.), Applied Sociolinguistics. London: Academic Press. 73-116.

Bell, Allan, 1984. ‘Language style as audience design.’ Language in Society 13: 145-204.

Bell, Allan, 1985. ‘One rule of news English: geographical, social and historical spread.’ Te Reo 28: 95-117.

Bell, Allan, 1988. ‘The British base and the American connection in New Zealand media English.’ American Speech 63: 326-44.

Bell, Allan, 1991. ‘Audience accommodation in the mass media.’ In Howard Giles, Nikolas Coupland & Justine Coupland (eds), Contexts of Accommodation - Developments in Applied Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 69-102.

Bell, Allan, 1991. ‘Hot air: media, miscommunication and the climate change issue.’ In Nikolas Coupland, Howard Giles & John M Wiemann (eds),‘Miscommunication’ and Problematic Talk. Newbury Park, California: Sage. 259-82.

Bell, Allan & Janet Holmes, 1991. ‘New Zealand.’ In Jenny Cheshire (ed.), English around the World: Sociolinguistic Perspectives. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 153-68.

Bell, Allan, 1992. ‘Hit and miss: referee design in the dialects of New Zealand television advertisements.’ Language & Communication 12: 1-14.

Bell, Allan & Janet Holmes, 1992. ‘H-droppin’: two sociolinguistic variables in New Zealand English.’ Australian Journal of Linguistics 12: 223-49.

Holmes, Janet & Allan Bell, 1992. ‘On shear markets and sharing sheep: the merger of EAR and AIR diphthongs in New Zealand English.’ Language Variation and Change 4: 251-73.

Bell, Allan, 1994. ‘Climate of opinion: public and media discourse on the global environment.’ Discourse & Society 5: 33-63.

Bell, Allan, 1994. ‘Media (mis)communication on the science of climate change.’ Public Understanding of Science 3: 259-75.

Bell, Allan, 1995. ‘News Time.’ Time & Society 4: 305-28 (Special issue on ‘Time, culture & representation’, ed. Stuart Allan). London: Sage.

Bell, Allan, 1996. ‘Text, time and technology in news English.’ In Sharon Goodman & David Graddol (eds), Redesigning English: New Texts, New Identities (The English Language, Past, Present and Future, Book 4). Milton Keynes & London: Open University & Routledge. 3-26.

Bell, Allan, 1997. ‘The phonetics of fish and chips in New Zealand: marking national and ethnic identities.’ English World-Wide 18: 243-70.

Bell, Allan & Gary Johnson, 1997. ‘Towards a sociolinguistics of style.’ University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in Linguistics 4: 1-21.

Bell, Allan, 1998. ‘The discourse structure of news stories.’ In Allan Bell & Peter Garrett (eds), Approaches to Media Discourse. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers. 64-104.

Bell, Allan, 1999. ‘Styling the other to define the self: a study in New Zealand identity making.’ Journal of Sociolinguistics 3 (theme issue on ‘Styling the other’, edited by Ben Rampton): 523-41.

Bell, Allan, 2000. ‘Maori and Pakeha English: a case study.’ In Allan Bell & Koenraad Kuiper (eds), New Zealand English (Varieties of English Around the World). Wellington: Victoria University Press; and Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 221-48.

Bell, Allan, 2001. ‘Back in style: Re-working Audience Design.’ In Penelope Eckert & John R Rickford (eds), Style and Sociolinguistic Variation. New York: Cambridge University Press. 139-69.

Bell, Allan, 2001. “‘Bugger!’ Media language, identity and post-modernity in Aotearoa/New Zealand.’ New Zealand Sociology 16/1 (Symposium on Sociolinguistics in New Zealand, eds Dianne Beatson and Peter Beatson): 128-50.

Starks, Donna, Karen Davis, Melenaite Taumoefolau & Allan Bell, 2001. ‘Pasifika languages in the Manukau region at the 1996 Census.’ New Zealand Studies in Applied Linguistics 7: 99-106.

Bell, Allan, 2002. ‘Dateline, deadline: journalism, language and the reshaping of time and place in the millennial world.’ In James E. Alatis, Heidi E. Hamilton & Ai-Hui Tan (eds), Georgetown University Round Table on Languages and Linguistics 2000 – Linguistics, Language, and the Professions: Education, Journalism, Law, Medicine, and Technology. Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press. 46-66.

Taumoefolau, Melenaite, Donna Starks, Karen Davis & Allan Bell, 2002. ‘Linguists and language maintenance: Pasifika languages in Manukau, New Zealand.’ Oceanic Linguistics 41: 15-27.

Bell, Allan, 2003. ‘Poles apart: globalisation and the development of news discourse across the twentieth century.’ In Jean Aitchison & Diana M. Lewis (eds) New Media Language. London: Routledge. 7-17.

Bell, Allan, 2007. ‘Style in dialogue: Bakhtin and sociolinguistic theory.’ In Robert Bayley & Ceil Lucas (Eds.), Sociolinguistic variation: Theories, methods and applications. New York & Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press. 90-109.

Smith, Philippa & Allan Bell, 2007. ‘Unravelling the web of discourse analysis.’ In Eion Devereux (Ed.), Media studies: Key issues and debates. London: Sage Publications. 78-100.

Smith, Philippa K. & Allan Bell, 2008. ‘English in mass communications: news discourse and the language of journalism’ In Haruko Momma & Michael Matto (eds), A Companion to the History of the English Language. Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell. 334-44.

Bell, Allan, 2010. ‘Advocating for a threatened language: the case for Māori on television in Aotearoa/New Zealand.’ Te Reo 53: 3-25.

Gibson, Andy & Allan Bell, 2010. ‘Performing Pasifika English in New Zealand: the case of bro'Town.' English World-Wide 31: 231-51.

Bell, Allan, 2011. ‘Falling in love again and again: Marlene Dietrich and the iconization of non-native English.’ Journal of Sociolinguistics 15: 627-56 .

Bell, Allan, 2011. ‘Leaving Home: de-europeanization in a post-colonial variety of broadcast news language.’ In Tore Kristiansen & Nikolas Coupland (eds.), Standard Languages and Language Standards in a Changing Europe. Oslo: Novus.177-98.

Bell, Allan, 2011. ‘Re-constructing Babel: Discourse analysis, hermeneutics and the Interpretive Arc.’ Focus paper of theme issue on ‘Hermeneutics and discourse analysis’. Discourse Studies 13: 519-68.

Bell, Allan & Andy Gibson (eds), 2011. Performance language. Theme issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics 15/5.

Bell, Allan, 2013. ‘Interpreting the Bible on language: Babel and Ricoeur’s Interpretive Arc.’ In Joel Green & Tim Meadowcroft (eds), Ears that Hear: Explorations in Theological Interpretation of the Bible. Sheffield, U.K.: Sheffield Phoenix Press. 70-93.

Starks, Donna, Andy Gibson & Allan Bell, 2013. ‘Pasifika English in New Zealand’, in Jeffrey Williams, Edgar Schneider, Daniel Schreier & Peter Trudgill (eds), Further Lesser Known Varieties of English. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 288-304.

Bell, A. (2016). Succeeding waves: Seeking sociolinguistic theory. In Sociolinguistics: Theoretical debates (pp. 391-416). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bell, A. (2016). 'An evil version of our accent': Language ideologies and the neighbouring other. In J. Thogersen, N. Coupland, & J. Mortensen (Eds.), Style, Media and Language Ideologies (pp. 235-258). Oslo: Novus Press.

Umali, R., & Bell, A. (2017). Tagalog language maintenance and shift in the New Zealand Filipino community. In M. Marra & P. Warren (Eds.), Linguist at work: Festschrift for Janet Holmes (pp. 116-139). Wellington: Victoria University Press.

Bell, A. (2017). Giving voice: A personal essay on the shape of sociolinguistics. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 21(5), 587-602.

Bell, A. (2020). ‘The early Greek-language tradition behind the Gospels.’ In Holding Forth the Word of Life: Essays in Honour of Tim Meadowcroft, ed. John de Jong & Cslla Saysell. Eugene, Oregon: Wipf & Stock. 229-42.