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Lancaster University's offer of a personal chair is in no way connected to the Austrian Academy of Science's refusal to extend and fund my research centre ("Lancaster rescues embattled linguist", THES , November 21). The chair in discourse studies was offered because Norman Fairclough retired. Thus, in no way, did Lancaster "rescue" me, nor is this chair or offer connected to the events in Vienna.

Since 1991, I have been full professor of applied linguistics at the University of Vienna. Although the Austrian Academy decided not to fund the proposed research, I have continued teaching and received support from the university and my department. Your reporting conflated events, situations and contexts from the 1930s with 2003, thus giving a false impression.

Ruth Wodak
Department of linguistics
University of Vienna