NB: The lecture commences at 6:30pm. Post event reception will be held in The Great Hall.
Applying Corpus Linguistics: exploring language and literature
Corpus linguistics investigates language on the basis of electronically stored samples of naturally occurring language. The focus on natural data emphasises the social dimension of language. In contrast to made-up examples, the texts in a corpus are used by people in real communicative situations. So corpus linguistics can contribute to the investigation of what people do with language and how they view the world. Corpus data is stored electronically in a format that allows further processing with computer tools. The data can be searched and displayed in a number of ways, and the computer makes it possible to look at language from different points of view. The lecture will discuss how the application of corpus linguistic methods and concepts affects our linguistic world view. In particular, it will explore the fuzzy boundaries between literary and non-literary texts looking at examples from Dickens’s novels.
Michaela Mahlberg is Professor of English Language and Linguistics in the School of English and Director of the Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics (CRAL). She is the Editor of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics (John Benjamins) and co-editor of the book series Corpus & Discourse (Bloomsbury). Her publications include Corpus Stylistics and Dickens's Fiction (Routledge, 2013), Lexical Cohesion and Corpus Linguistics (co-edited with John Flowerdew, John Benjamins, 2009), Text, Discourse and Corpora. Theory and Analysis (jointly with Michael Hoey, Michael Stubbs and Wolfgang Teubert, Continuum, 2007) and English General Nouns: A Corpus Theoretical Approach (John Benjamins, 2005). Michaela is currently Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project (with Co-investigator Peter Stockwell) "CLiC Dickens - characterisation in the representation of speech and body language from a corpus stylistic perspective". Michaela studied English, Mathematics and Education at the University of Bonn and obtained a PhD from the University of Saarbrücken in 2004. Before joining the University of Nottingham in 2009, she worked at universities in Germany, Italy and the UK.