I have been Professor of Scandinavian Languages at the University of Turku since 2010. Before that I had a position as senior lecturer at the University of Helsinki (2006–2009), where I completed my PhD in 2003 and my MA in 1994. In addition to this I have a B.Phil.Isl.-degree from the University of Iceland, where I studied  in 1991–1994. I also have an honorary High school diploma from Clovis West High School, where I was an exchange student in 1984–1985. In 2020 I was appointed honorary doctor at Uppsala University and in 2023 I became a member of the The Finnish Academy of Science and Letters. 

In 2003–2006 I coordinated a research project on Finland-Swedish syntax at the Society for Swedish literature in Finland and in 2006–2009 I had funding for a post doc-project on dialect syntax from the Academy of Finland (University of Helsinki). I have participated in several Scandinavian research projects and networks on variation (NORMS, ScanDiaSyn, N'CLAV, SoNoGlo), and in 2013–2020 I was the leader of the Turku part of the research program Interaction and Variation in Pluricentric Languages - Communicative Patterns in Sweden Swedish and Finland Swedish (IVIP), which was financed by Riksbankens jubileumsfond in Sweden. At the moment I am the PI of the research project Communicative Patterns in Two Languages in Finland, which is financed by the The Swedish Cultural Foundation in Finland 2023–2026.

I have been the head of Scandinavian Languages at the University of Turku since 2012. Currently I am also member of the steering group of the Centre for Research on Language and Wellbeing at University of Turku and the Linguistics Committee at the Society of Swedish Literature in Finland. I am also member of the editorial boards of the bookseries Topics in Address Research (John Benjamins) and the  journals Arkiv för nordisk filologi, Folkmålsstudier, Nordic Journal of Linguistics, Íslenskt mál, Orð og tunga, Scandinavian Studies in Language, Språk och stil and Svenska landsmål och svenskt folkliv. 

My research covers different aspects of spoken language, grammar and discourse. During the last few years I have been focusing on pragmatic routines, such as address practices. I have, among other things, co-edited the volume Address Practice as Social Action (Palgrave 2015) together with Catrin Norrby (Stockholm University).

On-going research collaboration:

• Interactional linguistics
• Communicative patterns in Swedish and Finnish
• Swedish in Turku
• Language and well-being

I am also interested in construction grammar, dialect syntax and historical linguistics. Within these fields I have co-edited of the volumes Constructions in Finland-Swedish Syntax (Wide & Lyngfelt 2009, in Swedish), Language in History – History in Language (Lehti-Eklund, Wide, Tiisala & Lamberg 2009, in Swedish), Nordic Languages and Linguistic Typology (Eriksen & Wide 2011) and Swedish Constructions (Lyngfelt & Wide 2014).