Maryna Kapas-Romaniuk
Visiting Researcher

Profile

Biography

Maryna studied the Ukrainian language and literature at the Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv (Ukraine), where she obtained a BA and a MA Honours Degrees, qualifying as a teacher of higher education, and completed a PhD in Ukrainian language. 

Maryna worked as an assistant professor in a range of the Taras Shevchenko National University’s departments in Kyiv. She has taught Ukrainian as a foreign language to international students and has delivered different university courses (The Old Ukrainian Language, The History of Ukrainian Language, The Old (Church) Slavonic Language, Dialectology, Ukrainian for Professional Purposes). She has strong expertise of the Ukrainian language, its history, changes and development.

After the full Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 Maryna and her 7-year-old son were forced to leave Ukraine and came to the UK in April 2022. Then in June 2022 Maryna joined the University of York, and currently she is a visiting researcher at the Department of Language and Linguistic Science with the grant support from the British Academy and CARA.

Maryna’s primary research focus was previously on the history of the Ukrainian language. Her PhD thesis was devoted to the research of the set verbal combinations in the Ukrainian Language of the end of the 16th – 17th century judicial documents trough the comprehensive analysis in structural, semantic and functional aspects.

Her recent research focus is investigating language processing in Ukrainian-Russian bilinguals, in particular, whether lexical diversity and fluency in speech production of Ukrainians has shifted since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Dr Maryna Kapas-Romaniuk is a Co-Investigator in the ESRC-funded project “Negotiating multilingualism in situations of conflict” (ES/Y004108/1) led by Professor Monika Schmid. Her work in the project focuses on the participant recruitment in Ukraine and in the UK, experimental fieldwork, transcription and data coding, qualitative analysis of the data, and managing research team. 

Maryna’s research interests are in the Ukrainian language, multilingualism, language attitudes towards Ukrainian – Russian – English, language change, processing, deterioration, maintenance and development.

Career

• 2023 - Present: Visiting Researcher/BA Fellow, Language & Linguistic Sciences, University of York
  June 2022 - September 2022: Part-time Tutor of Ukrainian, Web Translator, Language & Linguistics, University of York
• 2019 - 2022: Independent Researcher and Ukrainian language Teacher
• 2018 - 2019: Assistant Professor, Institute of Biology and Medicine, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
• 2009 - 2014: Assistant Professor, Institute of Philology, Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv

Publications

Selected publications

• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2011). Stable verbal combinations with "give" and derivative components in the Ukrainian business language of the end of 16th – 17th centuries. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 23: 87-103.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2011). Stable verbal combinations as a phenomenon of the Ukrainian literary language. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 22: 116-137.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2011). Stable verbal combinations in historical dictionaries of the end of 16th – 17th centuries. Linguistic and conceptual worldviews 36: 392-397.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2010). Principles of analysis of stable verbal combinations as a historical-linguistic phenomenon. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 20: 70-87.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2009). Synchronic and diachronic aspects in the stable verbal combinations’ research. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 19: 225-236.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2009). Structural and semantic specificity of descriptive predicates of Old Ukrainian business writing (based on the material “Acts of the Zhytomyr grodskyi government: 1590, 1635”). Linguistic and conceptual worldviews 25: 18-25.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2008). Typology of descriptive predicates in the Old Ukrainian business language of the end of 16th – 17th centuries. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice. 17: 49-63.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2008). Stable verbal combinations as object of linguistic research in projection on the history of Ukrainian literary language. Linguistic Studies 17: 101-107.
• Kapas-Romaniuk, M. (2008). Descriptive predicates in the Old Ukrainain literary language of 16th century (on basis of “Volhynia Letters”). Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 16: 52-58.
• Kapas, M. (2006). Typological features of dual cases in the Old Ukrainian language of the 16th – 17th centuries. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 13: 75-85.
• Kapas, M. (2005). Asymmetry of the linguistic sign in the historical and syntactic aspect. Linguistic and conceptual worldviews 16(1): 153-157.
• Kapas, M. (2005). Functional asymmetry of syntactic constructions in sermons of the 17th century. Actual Issues of Ukrainian linguistics: theory and practice 12: 71-82.
• Kapas, M. (2004). Historical-functional interpretation of constructions with double cases: syntactic derivation. Linguistic and conceptual worldviews 12 (1): 183-188.
• Kapas, M. (2003). Lexical historicisms and archaisms in the novel "Black Council" by Panteleimon Kulish. Literary Studies 5: 95-100.

External activities

Memberships

• British Academy, fellow since 2023

Invited talks and conferences

Selected keynote at international conferences 

• 2025 - Language maintenance and language deterioration: How has the full-scale Russian invasion impacted language processing among Ukrainians? Talk at the ICCEES XI World congress (UCL), London, 21-25.07.2025.
• 2025 - Lexical access and inhibition in Ukrainian and Russian: the role of attitudes and trauma. Talk at the 15th International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB15), Donostia San Sebastián Basque Country, Spain, 09-13.06.2025.
• 2025 - How to maintain Ukrainian proficiency among child forced migrants? Talk at the Sixth Annual IU Taras Shevchenko Ukrainian Studies Conference (virtual), 27-29.03.2025.
• 2025 - The importance of maintaining Ukrainian proficiency among child refugees. Talk at the AATSEEL 2025 - Virtual conference (American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages, University of Colorado Boulder), 20-23.02.2025.
• 2024 - Multilingualism in situations of conflict. Talk at the work-in-progress session at the RaR Cohort Meeting at the British Academy, London, 03.12.2024.
• 2024 - Trauma, multilingualism, and learning. Keynote address at the Interdisciplinary Workshop on Language and Trauma, online-sessions, 18-22.03.2024.
• 2023 - Multilingualism in the time of Russia’s war against Ukraine: changing attitudes towards languages and identity. Keynote address at the International Scientific Conference “The Ukrainian ethno-linguistic continuum in the conditions of Russia’s war against Ukraine” at the National Academy of Science of Ukraine, Kyiv, 10-11.10.2023.
• 2022 - Participation in a “World Cafe” and the discussion on a topic "What should be done to make Ukrainian a world language?", 7th International Scientific and Practical Conference "Ukrainian Language in the World", Lviv, 01.11.2022.
• 2022 - The short course of Ukrainian language for Everyday Communication at the University of York. Keynote address at the 2nd Hybrid Conference “Learning Ukrainian to help Ukrainians”, Lancaster, 30.8.2022.