Corpus Linguistics in the South 9: Computation, Corpora and Critique

The organisers are pleased to announce that the ninth CLS event will take place on Saturday, 18 April 2015 at Oxford Brookes University. Twenty years after the publication of the seminal paper by Hardt-Mautner (1995), the use of computer-aided methods and increasingly large corpora to analyse issues at the discourse/society interface is well established. The aim of this workshop is to invite exploration and discussion of the key methodological, theoretical and practical issues in this burgeoning field. In particular, they welcome proposals for papers that: • conceptually examine the issues raised in employing automated procedures for the analysis of social semiotic issues. Does it remain true that the ‘historical knowledge and sensitivity’ required for critical interpretation ‘can be possessed by human beings but not by machines’ (Fowler 1991: 68)? • discuss innovations in methods and techniques (of annotation, classification, inference, etc.) that have enhanced the possibilities for critical analyses of language and discourse. How far have we moved fromFowler and Kress's (1979: 197) assertion that ‘there is no analytic routine through which a text can be run with a critical description issuing automatically at the end’? • present specific cases of corpus-based critical studies of discourse, reflecting on the advantages and limitations of the approach Presentations should be 30 minutes in length, and will be followed by 15 minutes for discussion. Please send your abstract to alischinsky@brookes.ac.uk by 14th March 2015. Acceptance of submitted abstracts will be notified by the end of March. In keeping with prior Corpus Linguistics in the South events, participation in the workshop is free. Please be aware that the number of places is limited, and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.