120228 SE MA Seminar - Focus: Historical / Linguistics Seminar (2020W)

In this seminar, we learn to extract evidence of linguistic change from diachronic corpora. While our focus is on the last 200 years, we also explore earlier periods, i.e. Early Modern English (1500-1750) and Middle English (1100-1500). The types of changes we look for include (morpho-)syntactic ones (e.g.: the development of analytic and synthetic comparison as in 'more hungry' vs. 'hungrier', the rise of the passive progressive as is 'I am being told', or the fate of the mandative subjunctive as in 'I wish he do that'), cases of grammaticalization (e.g. the emergence of causal 'since' from temporal 'since'), as well as semantic changes (e.g. 'sympathetic', which now means 'likeable' but originally meant 'capable of showing sympathy'). After each of us chooses a phenomenon to study, we learn how to use corpora, how to develop queries that return the type of evidence we need, and how to interpret that evidence. Apart from learning to describe changes in quantitative terms (i.e. as changes in the frequency of competing ways of using language), we also try to identify the social, cognitive, or cultural factors that drive the changes that we identify and describe.

The seminar starts with an introductory phase, in which we learn about available corpora and the tools with which they can be investigated, and in which topics are chosen. In the second phase, individual research projects are designed and carried out. Each participant reports on the progress of their project and on the challenges they face. Colleagues give feedback. During an online workshop before Christmas, outcomes are presented. In January, written research papers are produced and submitted at the end of the month.