27.1370, Calls: Computational Ling, Semantics, Socioling, Syntax, Text/Corpus Ling/UK

Mon Mar 21 15:24:10 UTC 2016

LINGUIST List: Vol-27-1370. Mon Mar 21 2016. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 27.1370, Calls: Computational Ling, Semantics, Socioling, Syntax, Text/Corpus Ling/UK

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Date: Mon, 21 Mar 2016 11:24:01
From: Laura Bailey [l.r.bailey at kent.ac.uk]
Subject: Using Twitter for Linguistic Research: Benefits and Difficulties

Full Title: Using Twitter for Linguistic Research: Benefits and Difficulties 

Date: 31-May-2016 - 31-May-2016
Location: Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Laura Bailey
Meeting Email: l.r.bailey at kent.ac.uk

Linguistic Field(s): Computational Linguistics; Semantics; Sociolinguistics; Syntax; Text/Corpus Linguistics 

Call Deadline: 29-Apr-2016 

Meeting Description:

Twitter can provide access to a large body of language data that contains a
high proportion of ‘everyday’ language. This makes Twitter different from most
of the corpora used in corpus linguistics research, which often do not reflect
the most contemporary uses of language. In addition, collecting linguistic
data from Twitter provides linguists with a solution the challenge of how to
get spontaneous and naturalistic data from people who are unaware they are
being observed without violating ethical protocol. 

Researchers spanning a range of subdisciplines are beginning to exploit
Twitter as a source of linguistically informative data. For instance, Wieling
et al. (forthcoming) identified the use of different hesitation markers (e.g.
‘um’) in Germanic languages, Haddican & Johnson (2012) found differences
between British and American English in phrasal verbs, and Willis et al
(ongoing) are using Twitter as part of their data collection for the Syntactic
Atlas of Welsh Dialects (http://www.ling.cam.ac.uk/david/sawd/). Hardaker
(2013) studies aggression, ‘trolling’ and forensic aspects of online language,
while Vessey (2015) investigates the interaction of French and English
language ideologies in Canadian Twitter users. 

Twitter has a further benefit to researchers as a way to spread awareness of
research and increase participation. If a study captures public appeal it can
quickly spread through a community, allowing members of the public to access
research that is normally only available to an academic audience. In addition,
this exposure can attract many more responses than traditional data collection
methods. This necessitates a new look at data collection and sampling methods
in order to maintain rigorous standards of research while maximising the
opportunities afforded by this rapid spread. Twitter studies have
extraordinary potential but thus far have not coalesced into a set of
methodological tools widely accessible to language researchers. What is needed
is a sense of direction from experts in the field, showing what has been
achieved successfully, and what kinds of questions can and cannot be addressed
using Twitter. 

Haddican, B. & Johnson, D. E. (2012). Effects on the particle verb alternation
across English dialects. University of Pennsylvania Working Papers in
Linguistics 18(2): Selected papers from NWAV 40. 
Hardaker, C. (2013). ''Uh.....not to be nitpicky,,,,,but...the past tense of
drag is dragged, not drug.'': an overview of trolling strategies. Journal of
Language Aggression and Conflict 1: 57-86.
Page, R. (2012). Stories and Social Media: Identities and Interaction.
Routledge.
Vessey R. (2015). Food fight: conflicting language ideologies in English and
French news and social media. Journal of Multicultural Discourses 10: 253-271.
Wieling, M., Grieve, J., Bouma, G. & Liberman, M. (forthcoming). Variation and
change in the use of hesitation markers in Germanic languages. Language
Dynamics and Change.

Call for Papers: 

The scope of the conference covers the syntax, semantics, pragmatics and
discourse of tweets in English and other modern languages, as well as methods
of collecting and analysing a large corpus of tweets. We are particularly
interested in engaging with postgraduate researchers. We invite submission of
abstracts on any area of linguistic research that engages with Twitter or
similar media. Talks will be 20+10 minutes. Email abstracts of no more than
300 words to l.r.bailey at kent.ac.uk

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