Query about using the Internet for historical-linguistic research

[Dave Paulson]

Dear Yazan,

One interesting feature on the internet is Google's Ngram Viewer, which
allows you to search for frequencies of words as they appear throughout the
entire Google Books corpus. You can then search through the statistical
data for a more detailed analysis.

Program: http://books.google.com/ngrams
FAQ: http://books.google.com/ngrams/info

This corpus includes all of their scanned texts from 1800 - 2008. So it
might not be directly relevant for a historical perspective on terminology
pertaining to the Arab Spring, but it is an interesting resource on the web
for generating this kind of information as it appears in print. Hope this
finds you well.

All the best,
Dave



On Tue, Nov 20, 2012 at 6:11 AM, yazan doughan <yazan at uchicago.edu> wrote:

> Dear All,
>
> I was wondering if anyone has used the internet as an archive to
> investigate the emergence of certain terminology and/or the shifts in their
> use over the years. I am looking into the history of certain terms that are
> used in the discourse on Arab uprisings, trying to understand when certain
> terms gained currency and how their semantic and pragmatic references
> evolved. I have tried using Google search, but the results were far from
> satisfactory since many results appeared to be much older than they really
> are. Archive.org seems like a good resource, but it only allows you to see
> earlier snap-shots of individual websites, so you cannot search for
> instances of use of certain terms across several websites. My guess is that
> there must be a simple way to do this kind of search, but I have no idea
> what that might be. Would appreciate some tips and suggestions.
>
> Many thanks!
>
> Yazan Doughan
>
> PhD. Candidate in Anthropology
> THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO
>



-- 
Dave Paulson
PhD Student & University Fellow
Temple University, Department of Anthropology
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
United States