Historical Dialectology in the Digital Age
Produktdetaljer
Biografisk notat
Rhona Alcorn is an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and CEO of Scots Language Dictionaries Ltd. She is also Deputy Director of the Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics. She was the first receipient of the Richard M. Hogg Prize, awarded annually by the International Society for the Linguistics of English since 2008. Joanna Kopaczyk is Lecturer in English Language & Linguistics at the University of Glasgow. She is a historical linguist with an interest in formulaic language, the history of Scots and historical multilingualism, which she approaches from pragmaphilological and corpus-driven perspectives. She previously worked at the University of Edinburgh, where she was one of the compilers of the From Inglis to Scots (FITS) corpus, and at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. Her recent co-edited volumes include Applications of Pattern-driven Methos in Corpus Linguistics (John Benjamins 2018) and Binomials in the History of English (Cambridge University Press 2017). Bettelou Los is Forbes Professor of English Language at the University of Edinburgh. She graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1986 and has since held teaching and research positions at the University of Amsterdam, the Vrije Universiteit, the University of Nijmegen, Radboud University Nijmegen and other colleges of high education. She participates in the research program The Diachrony of Complex Predicates in West Germanic, and has published several papers on diachronic syntax. Previous publications include The Handbook of the History of English, Blackwell, as co-editor (2006), and The Rise of the To-Infinitive, Oxford University Press (2005). Benjamin Molineaux is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow at the Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics, the University of Edinburgh. His interests are in synchronic and diachronic phonology and morphology, with special emphasis on stress systems. He has published on these topics as applied to the history of English, Scots and Mapudungun (a language of Chile and Argentina). As one of the compilers of the From Inglis To Scots (FITS) database he has applied corpus methods to mapping the earliest sound-to-spelling correspondences in the history of Scots (1380-500). He is currently using the same methods to explore the 400-year history of Mapudungun, as part of the Corpus of Historical Mapudungun. He holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford.The present volume is a very valuable contribution to the field of English historical dialectology. It demonstrates that the door for the linguistic analysis of early and late medieval texts and their language has been opened anew. It shows that there is an opportunity for more nuanced questions and more precise insights through the options presented by digitised corpora and/or digital methods (as complements to traditional, analogue corpora and methods). The overarching question – namely how digital methods can be used to investigate diachronic variation and language change – is addressed at different linguistic levels. It is the interplay between spelling variation and pronunciation which comes to the fore, as it is at the heart of half of the contributions (chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8), but syntactic variation and change, as well as morphological and lexical variation, do also find their places. The individual chapters all present their data and analyses with clarity and conciseness...All in all, the volume is a very good collection of papers, and it will be a handy and useful resource for students and more experienced scholars interested in the state of the field and what one can do with digitised corpora and digital methods.
- Ulrike Krischke, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Anglia, 2020, 138(1)
The chapters in this volume provide a fascinating insight into the state of the art of historical dialectology, and, in the span of age and experience represented by the authors, ranging from Emeritus professors to doctoral candidates, reassure us that the future of this discipline and the legacy of Angus McIntosh are in safe hands... Historical Dialectology in the Digital Age thus gives the reader a greater understanding of the past and an intriguing glimpse into the future of historical dialectology. It will be of interest not only to historical linguists, but to those working with linguistic corpora of all kinds.
- Joan Beal, University of Sheffield, English Language and Linguistics
Overall, Alcorn, Kopaczyk, Los, and Molineaux have brought together a great collection of papers that function as an excellent introductory work to the tools and methods available to the historical dialectologist working in the digital age. This volume both shows the value that digital methods hold for the study of historical linguistics and simultaneously underlines the need for new tools to continue to be developed. With its varied collection of contributions and contributors, this volume will appeal to both advanced scholars in the field of historical linguistics who are interested in keeping up with recent developments in the field, as well as to those wishing to acquaint themselves with the various tools and methods that are available. In short, HDDA is a valuable contribution to the field of historical dialectology and will hopefully serve to introduce its readers both to the true and tried methods of digital linguistic research as well as to new and exciting possibilities.
- Berber Bossenbroek, English Studies, 101:2, 252-254
Historical Dialectology in the Digital Age illustrates how historical dialectology has profited from the field’s speedy willingness to embrace and develop new digital technologies, and much of that initiative has come from the Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics. Despite its focus on English and Scots, researchers working on the historical dialectology of other languages will benefit greatly from reading this volume.
- Marcelle Cole, Utrecht University, Journal of Linguistics
This volume brings historical dialectology fully into the digital world. Not only do we learn about aspects of Medieval and Early modern varieties of English and Scots, but also the latest methods in corpus construction, tagging/annotation and analysis — making it essential reading for a wide array of historical linguists. With breadth yet no loss of coherence or depth, this volume can assure us that Angus McIntosh’s legacy is in good hands.
- Professor Jonathan Culpeper, Lancaster University,