
FREE
for Members
The New Language Detectives: Investigating Linguistic Phenomena in a Data-Driven Age
Monday, April 30, 2012
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