Course Catalogue

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This hands-on course examines how new technologies and vast bodies of real language data have transformed the study of the English language. In it, we examine multi-million-word collections of language and focus on analysing real data using computational tools to find out more about language, culture, and society. (Note that, while computational methods will be used extensively on the course, no advanced computing knowledge is required for this course.)

1x1hr lecture; 1x1hr practical class per week over 10 weeks as scheduled on MyCampus.

This is one of the Honours options in English Language and may not run every year. The options that are running this session are available on MyCampus.

Available to all students fulfilling requirements for Honours entry into English Language, and by arrangement to visiting students or students of other Honours programmes who qualify under the University's 25% regulation.

ENGLANG4007 Digital Humanities for Language and Literature

The standard assessments for this course are:

■ Project 2000 words - 50%

■ Portfolio of technical exercises - 50%

If required, for instance where a disability prevents a student from undertaking a specific method of assessment, the following alternatives are available:

■ There is no alternative to the project, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

■ There is no alternative to the portfolio, but flexible deadlines can be offered as reasonable adjustments (students should follow the usual process for extensions)

Further reasonable adjustments may be provided where necessary. Students are encouraged to consult with the course convenor.

It is the default expectation that all courses will offer opportunities for reassessment or deferred assessment. Where it is not possible to offer this in some assessment components, the grade achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade, and any exceptions for this course are described below.

[No exceptions]

This course aims to:

■ Introduce students to digital tools and techniques for the study of the English language;

■ develop students' confidence and skill in the application of the techniques and methodologies of corpus linguistics; 

■ develop students' capacity for independent and creative work.

By the end of this course, students will be able to:

■ apply modern digital technologies to English language data in a range of fields, such as concordance analysis, collocate analysis, keyword analysis, and corpus stylistic analysis; 

■ evaluate the usefulness and limitations of approaches, language resources, and tools studied in the course, with reference to different types of linguistic investigation;

■ identify, and construct potential solutions to, research questions about the English language best solved through corpus linguistic approaches;

■ address a chosen research question of appropriate complexity about the English language using one of the technologies introduced in the course.