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The New Language Detectives: Investigating Linguistic Phenomena in a Data-Driven Age

FREE

for Members

The New Language Detectives: Investigating Linguistic Phenomena in a Data-Driven Age

Monday, April 30, 2012

Wenner-Gren Foundation

Presented By

Presented by the Anthropology Section

 

New data-driven techniques of analyzing language have emerged in recent years, opening up lines of inquiry that were previously seen as unapproachable. What linguistic "signatures" do we leave when we open our mouths or type on the keyboard? What subtle cues do we give each other when we change from one style of speaking or writing to another? And how can we plot the large- and small-scale changes in language usage to reveal fresh insights, applicable to fields as diverse as legal investigation, literary analysis, and political marketing? I will tour some of the avenues that researchers are exploring, with powerful new tools at their disposal: both the "microscopes" that can track the smallest shifts in variations in our language and the "telescopes" that can expose the evolution of talk and text over the historical long haul. In their own ways, the "micro" and the "macro" analyses promise to illuminate how we express ourselves and how people come together to build language through social interaction.

A reception will precede the meeting at 6:00 pm

Speaker

Ben Zimmer

Thinkmap, Inc. / Boston Globe

Discussants

Melissa Checker

Queens College, CUNY

Rudolf Gaudio

Purchase College, SUNY


This meeting is free, but you will need to register in advance.

Travel & Lodging

Meeting Location

The Wenner-Gren Foundation

470 Park Avenue South, between 31st and 32nd Streets
8th Floor
New York, NY 10016