Pre-conference Workshops

Convenors
Patricia Ronan (TU Dortmund)
Christine Elsweiler (LMU Munich)

Programme

Description
In recent decades it has been understood that pragmatics are not identical for all speakers and work in Variational Pragmatics has emerged which systematic differences between speakers of different national varieties, social classes, contexts, genres or registers are observed (e.g. Barron 2022, Ronan 2022). While historical varieties and diachronic changes are well researched overall, research on differences in earlier stages of different regional varieties mainly centres on formal linguistic categories, especially lexicon, syntax, or morphology. Research on pragmatic differences in earlier regional varieties of English is only in its infancy. Recently, Hudson (2023) has investigated the representation of language of the poor in fiction, Elsweiler (2021) and Elsweiler and Ronan (2023) have investigated evidence for pragmatic differences amongst regional varieties, and Elsweiler (2022) has researched gender-based variation in requestive behaviour. As we know now that different patterns of pragmatic variation are highly salient in contemporary varieties of language, we should research to a larger degree than has been done before what extent of pragmatic variation can be and should be expected for earlier varieties of English.
It is the aim of the proposed workshop on pragmatic variation in Late Modern English to help bridging this gap by bringing together researchers approaching the issue of historical pragmatics from different angles in order to reach synergy effects and to work towards a common framework of historical variational pragmatics.

References
Barron, Anne. 2022- Responses to Thanks in Ireland, England and Canada: A Variational Pragmatic Perspective. Corpus Pragmatics 6.2. 127-153.
Elsweiler, Christine. 2021. Divergence in Two Historical Varieties: The Use of Modal Auxiliaries in Commissive and Directive Speech Acts in Older Scots and Early Modern English Letters. Anglistik 32:1.109-132.
Elsweiler, Christine. 2022. Gender Variation in the Requestive Behaviour of Early Modern Scottish and English Letter-writers? A Study of Private Correspondence. Journal of Historical Sociolinguistics 8:1.55-88.
Elsweiler, Christine & Patricia Ronan. 2023. From I am, with sincere regard, your most obedient servant to Yours sincerely: The simplification of leavetaking formulae in 18th-century Scottish and Irish English letters. ICAME Journal 47.1. 1-17.
Hudson, Jane. 2023. Talking to peasants: language, place and class in British fiction 1800-1836. English Language and Linguistics 27.3. 543-560.
Ronan, Patricia. 2022. Directives and Politeness in SPICE Ireland. Corpus Pragmatics. 175-199.
Schneider, Klaus & Anne Barron (Eds.). 2008. Variational Pragmatics. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. show less

Abstracts

Convenors
Stephanie Evert (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)
Natalie Finlayson (University of Birmingham)
Michaela Mahlberg (University of Birmingham)
Alexander Piperski (Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg)

Programme

Description
Corpus linguistics has come a long way since the first corpora were compiled for computer-assisted linguistic analysis of general language for lexicographic purposes. In recent decades, we have seen an abundance of technical innovations in quantitative approaches to managing the large volumes of data returned by searches in corpora of millions and billions of words, with automated analyses of frequency, collocation, and keyness providing invaluable overviews of patterns in language samples across registers, text types, and disciplines. Comparatively little work, however, has been done to enhance the qualitative methods and tools we use to explore the context around the words and phrases highlighted by quantitative procedures, or how the theories we draw upon to explain their patterns of use are integrated into the analytical process. The “bridge” between quantitative and qualitative corpus methods in corpus linguistics is the concordance, that is, the visualisation of the results of a corpus query in stacked lines of context to the left and right. Given the critical role of this vertical “reading” (Sinclair, 2003) of context in setting corpus linguistics apart from other computational approaches to language study (Hunston, 2022), the apparent neglect of innovation in concordancing is surprising – in terms of both methodology and software tools. One of very few attempts to develop a systematic methodology for concordance interpretation is Sinclair’s (2003) model of the concept of ‘lexical item’. We might speculate that his approach, which usually focuses on collocational and colligational patterns and semantic preference/prosody, has shaped concordancing methods and the software available today. However, as concordance analysis becomes increasingly popular across linguistic and other text-based disciplines, a model grown from work in lexicography cannot account for the full range of purposes of a methodology characterised by a mix of qualitative and quantitative approaches set in a range of theoretical contexts.
The goal of our workshop is to start filling this gap by taking stock of qualitative concordance interpretation methodologies in different disciplines as well as current or proposed innovation in concordance tools. To this end, we invite a panel of international experts to discuss practices in their areas of specialism and reflect on how the hermeneutics of the concordancing process and use of tools may evolve in future. We envisage a half-day workshop comprising up to ten papers and software demonstrations, covering topics such as concordance visualisation (Dietsch & Piperski), mathematical models of algorithms for organising concordances (Evert), tool-independent strategies for concordance reading (Finlayson & Mahlberg), applications of concordance reading (Hunston), updates to popular concordancing tools (Anthony), and others to be confirmed.

Convenors
Sylvi Rørvik (Inland Norway University of Applied Sciences)
Marlén Izquierdo (University of the Basque Country)

Programme

Description
In accordance with long-standing ICAME tradition, we are pleased to welcome you to a pre-conference workshop focusing on contrastive linguistics on June 18, 2024 in Vigo, in connection with ICAME45. Contrastive workshops have been a recurrent feature at ICAME conferences for many years, and have been instrumental in furthering development in the field. The conference theme for ICAME45, “Interlocking Corpora and Register(s): Diversity and Innovation”, provides an excellent opportunity to focus on diversity of registers in contrastive linguistics, and the workshop therefore has the related title “Interlocking Multilingual Corpora and Register(s): Diversity and Innovation”.
We have particularly encouraged prospective participants to submit paper proposals that focus on multilingual investigations of lesser-explored registers, or that compare different registers or modalities, The ten papers included in the workshop all compare English with one or more of six other languages (Dutch, French, German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Spanish), and the authors investigate a wide range of linguistic features in a variety of registers, including fiction, promotional texts, blogs, conversation, academic prose, parliamentary discourse, and others.

References
Curry, N. & P. Pérez-Paredes. 2021. “Stance nouns in COVID-19 related blog posts: A contrastive analysis of blog posts published in The Conversation in Spain and the UK.” International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 26(4), 469-497.
Dupont, M. 2020. “Placement patterns of English and French conjunctive adjuncts of contrast: The impact of register.” Languages in Contrast 20(2), 263-287.
Ebeling, S.O. 2021. “Minutes of action! A contrastive analysis of time expressions in English and Norwegian football match reports.” In A. Čermáková, T. Egan, H. Hasselgård & S. Rørvik (eds), Time in Languages, Languages in Time. John Benjamins, 229-254.
Hasselgård, H. 2023. “Seem and Appear and Their Norwegian Verbal Counterparts: A Cross-Register Contrastive Study.” English Studies 104(1), 173-200.
Izquierdo, M. & M. Pérez Blanco. 2020. “A multi-level contrastive analysis of promotional strategies in specialised discourse.” English for Specific Purposes 58, 43-57.
Labrador, B. & N. Ramón. 2020. “Building a second-language writing aid for specific purposes: Promotional cheese descriptions.” English for Specific Purposes 60, 40-52.
Malá, M., D. Šebestová & J. Milička. 2021. “The expression of time in English and Czech children’s literature: A contrastive phraseological perspective.” In A. Čermáková, T. Egan, H. Hasselgård & S. Rørvik (eds), Time in Languages, Languages in Time. John Benjamins, 283-304.
Werner, V. 2023. “English and German pop song lyrics: Towards a contrastive textology.” Journal for language technology and computational linguistics JLCL 36(1), 1-20.
Yuan, C. 2019. “A battlefield or a lecture hall? A contrastive multimodal discourse analysis of courtroom trials.” Social Semiotics 29, 645-669.

Selected list of publications from previous contrastive workshops
Aijmer, K. & H. Hasselgård (eds). 2015. Cross-linguistic Studies at the Interface Between Lexis and Grammar. Special issue of Nordic Journal of English Studies, (Vol 15:1). (ICAME34, Santiago de Compostela 2013)
Čermáková, A., S. O. Ebeling, M. Levin & J. Ström Herold (eds). 2021. Crossing The Borders:Analysing Complex Contrastive Data. Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies (BeLLS), Vol 11: 1). (ICAME41, Heidelberg 2020).
Čermáková, A., T. Egan, H. Hasselgård & S. Rørvik (eds). 2021. Time in Languages, Languages in Time. John Benjamins. (ICAME40, Neuchâtel 2019)
Čermáková, A., H. Hasselgård, M. Malá, & D. Šebestová (eds). Forthcoming/2024. Contrastive Corpus Linguistics. Patterns in Lexicogrammar and Discourse. Bloomsbury (ICAME42, Dortmund 2021)
Ebeling S.O. & H. Hasselgård (eds). 2015. Cross-linguistic Perspectives on Verb Constructions. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (ICAME35, Nottingham 2014)
Ebeling S.O. & H. Hasselgård (eds). 2018. Corpora et Comparatio Linguarum: Textual and Contextual Perspectives. Bergen Language and Linguistics Studies (BeLLS) Vol 9: 1). (ICAME38, Prague 2017)
Egan, T. & H. Dirdal (eds). 2017. Cross-linguistic Correspondences. John Benjamins. (ICAME36, Trier 2015)
Janebová, M., E. Lapshinova-Koltunski & M. Martinková (eds). 2017. Contrasting English and other Languages through Corpora. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. (ICAME37, Hong Kong 2016)
Levin, M. & J. Ström Herold (eds). Forthcoming. Special issue of Languages in Contrast. (ICAME43, Cambridge 2022)