Cyberformalism

Histories of Linguistic Forms in the Digital Archive

Fiction & Literature, Literary Theory & Criticism, Theory, Nonfiction, Reference & Language, Language Arts, Linguistics
Cover of the book Cyberformalism by Daniel Shore, Johns Hopkins University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Daniel Shore ISBN: 9781421425511
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication: June 15, 2018
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Daniel Shore
ISBN: 9781421425511
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication: June 15, 2018
Imprint:
Language: English

Linguistic forms are essential to meaning: like words, they make a semantic contribution to the things we say. We inherit them from past writers and speakers and fill them with different words to produce novel utterances. They shape us and the ways we interpret the world. Yet prevalent assumptions about language and the constraints of print-finding tools have kept linguistic forms and their histories hidden from view.

Drawing on recent work in cognitive and construction grammar along with tools and methods developed by corpus and computational linguists, Daniel Shore’s Cyberformalism represents a new way forward for digital humanities scholars seeking to understand the textual past. Championing a qualitative approach to digital archives, Shore uses the abstract pattern-matching capacities of search engines to explore precisely those combinatory aspects of language—word order, syntax, categorization—discarded by the "bag of words" quantitative methods that are dominant in the digital humanities.

While scholars across the humanities have long explored the histories of words and phrases, Shore argues that increasingly sophisticated search tools coupled with growing full-text digital archives make it newly possible to study the histories of linguistic forms. In so doing, Shore challenges a range of received metanarratives and complicates some of the most basic concepts of literary study. Touching on canonical works by Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and Kant, even as it takes the full diversity of digitized texts as its purview, Cyberformalism asks scholars of literature, history, and culture to revise nothing less than their understanding of the linguistic sign.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Linguistic forms are essential to meaning: like words, they make a semantic contribution to the things we say. We inherit them from past writers and speakers and fill them with different words to produce novel utterances. They shape us and the ways we interpret the world. Yet prevalent assumptions about language and the constraints of print-finding tools have kept linguistic forms and their histories hidden from view.

Drawing on recent work in cognitive and construction grammar along with tools and methods developed by corpus and computational linguists, Daniel Shore’s Cyberformalism represents a new way forward for digital humanities scholars seeking to understand the textual past. Championing a qualitative approach to digital archives, Shore uses the abstract pattern-matching capacities of search engines to explore precisely those combinatory aspects of language—word order, syntax, categorization—discarded by the "bag of words" quantitative methods that are dominant in the digital humanities.

While scholars across the humanities have long explored the histories of words and phrases, Shore argues that increasingly sophisticated search tools coupled with growing full-text digital archives make it newly possible to study the histories of linguistic forms. In so doing, Shore challenges a range of received metanarratives and complicates some of the most basic concepts of literary study. Touching on canonical works by Shakespeare, Milton, Wordsworth, and Kant, even as it takes the full diversity of digitized texts as its purview, Cyberformalism asks scholars of literature, history, and culture to revise nothing less than their understanding of the linguistic sign.

More books from Johns Hopkins University Press

Cover of the book Chronic Disease in the Twentieth Century by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Improving Access to HIV Care by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Science Unshackled by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book The Aha! Moment by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book The Black Skyscraper by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Global Perspectives on Higher Education by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Forging Trust Communities by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book The Housing Bomb by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Dean's List by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Portraiture and British Gothic Fiction by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book The Night Battles by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Leonardo to the Internet by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book The Science of Mom by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book Cork Wars by Daniel Shore
Cover of the book A Woman's Guide to Pelvic Health by Daniel Shore
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy