Corpus Linguistics for Oral History

Corpus Linguistics for Oral History takes a step-by-step approach to presenting how corpus linguistics tools and techniques can be applied to oral history archives. Bridging the gap between the two areas, this book:

• establishes a framework to pursue this type of research and guides the reader through tasks that will ensure practical application
• shows how oral narratives can facilitate historical linguistics, including historical sociolinguistics and historical pragmatics
• illustrates how the techniques of corpus linguistics can help social historians to analyse oral narratives in new and fruitful ways
• takes readers through each step of the process, from initial close readings of data to constructing a corpus that adheres to parameters of representativeness, through to the application of various corpus linguistics techniques
• includes an appendix of resources and examples of extracts from a global range of historical texts throughout, introducing the reader to a range of freely accessible, digitized archives

This book is key reading for students and researchers working in History and Corpus Linguistics. History students will find a new perspective on approaching primary historical sources, while linguistics students will find insights into an avenue of data worthy of multiple levels of linguistic analysis.

Chris Fitzgerald is Associate Lecturer at Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland.

Ivor Timmis is Emeritus Professor of English Language Teaching at Leeds Beckett University, UK.