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.

ENGLANG4007 Digital Humanities for Language and Literature

Project 2000 words - 50%

Portfolio of technical exercises - 50%

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non-Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

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.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.