[ecrea] cfp Quantifying methods in discourse studies. Possibilities and limits for the analysis of discursive practices

status: CfP Call for papers
conference

DiscourseNet International Congress #1

Panel:  Quantifying methods in discourse studies. Possibilities and 
limits for the analysis of discursive practices

24.09.2015-26.09.2015
Bremen, Germany

Quantifying methods have been used to analyse language for almost a 
century. The interest in such methods has increased since the 
popularisation of computer technologies in the 1980s which has changed 
language practices on the one hand and the way these languages are 
studied by researchers on the other hand. In recent years this had a 
huge impact on the research landscape: numerous initiatives, platforms 
and projects have occurred under the label of digital humanities and big 
data.

Notwithstanding the opportunities these new infrastructures offer it has 
to be asked how far they can account for language practices in a given 
society or in a part of it. What can we draw from quantitative data in 
order to better understand the construction of society and its 
structure, in particular if we are taking a discourse analytical 
perspective? If Foucault (1969: 66-67) calls for an analysis of 
discourses as -practices which systematically form the objects of which 
they speak' the question is how and with which methods these practices 
can be examined. Even though Foucault rejects a simple analysis of signs 
designating certain things (ibid.) as has been practised in the 
structuralist paradigm, linguistic methods have been used extensively to 
analyse discourses. Beside the numerous studies by discourse linguists 
with qualitative analytical categories different quantitive approaches 
to text corpora have been developed to analyse discourses. These 
developments have ofte
n taken p
 lace within different languages, disciplines or schools without taking 
notice of eachother. For example, in the UK, corpus linguistic tools 
have been developed rather in the tradition of lexicography using for 
instance key word analysis contrasting a smaller research corpus with a 
large reference corpus (McEnery/Hardie 2013). In contrast, in France 
corpus linguistic tools have been developed closer in the context of 
discourse analysis under the label of lexicometrics since the 1970s 
focussing rather on data-driven, exhaustive, contrastive methods 
(Lebart/Salem/Berry 1998) analysing partitions based on Benzécri's 
multifactor analysis or Reinert's descending hierarchical 
classification. These methods are used as heuristic tools to explore the 
data and in order to reveal the underlying lexical structure of the text 
material concerning the chronological development and/or the lexical 
distance between different discourse participants. In Germany there have 
been attempts t
o complete the p
 redominant qualitative perspective of the discourse linguistic 
approach with quantifying methods, combining them with qualitative 
approaches. Whereas some scholars try to retrace language use patterns 
in a certain part of society or in the representation of a certain 
topic, others emphasise rather the heuristic strength of lexicometric 
methods.

The panel reflects on possibilities and limits of quantifying methods 
for discourse analysis. It tries to bring together researchers that work 
with similar methods but that normally don't meet because of language or 
institutional boundaries between different disciplines.


We particularly welcome papers:
?    Coming from all disciplines in the Social Sciences and Humanities 
that have an interest in analysing discourse (in the Foucauldian sense) 
with quantifying methods
?    On the interpretation of quantitative data with regards to an 
discourse analytical research interest
?    Trying to combine quantifying and qualitative methods
?    Focussing on the construction of data and research outcome
?    Focussing on the interpretation of visuals and its limits for 
discourse researchers

Working language: English
However, in some cases papers might be given in French or German. In 
such cases please get in touch with the organisers before submitting 
your abstract. If you intend to present in another language than 
English, please be prepared to write a summary of your talk or a full 
paper in English prior to the conference.

If you have questions concerning the panel please write to Ronny Scholz 
((R.Scholz /at/ warwick.ac.uk)) or Marcus Müller 
((marcus.mueller /at/ gs.uni-heidelberg.de)).

In order to submit your abstract, you must have an account on 
http://www.discourseanalysis.net and be logged in. If you don't have one 
yet, you need to go to the top right corner of this web page and create 
an account. After registering, you will be able to use the web page's 
functions and also receive discourse-related emails with call for papers 
and other announcements. To choose your language and filter messages 
that you do not want to receive in the future, just log in on 
www.discourseanalysis.net, go to 'my account' and then to 'language 
preferences' (or equivalent expressions if you registered in a language 
other than in English). If you do not want to receive any 
discourse-related emails you can uncheck all boxes.

If accepted, the early-bird fee will be 150 ? for fully funded 
researchers and a reduced fee of 75 ? for enrolled students without 
access to institutional funding. For further information please visit 
the conference webpage (http://dnc1.discourseanalysis.net). For general 
questions concerning the conference (fees, travel, invitations for visa 
etc.) please write to the conference organisers (dnc1 /at/ discourseanalysis.net).

Calendar for deadlines
Submission of abstract (200 words): 15th of March 2015 - late submission 
31st of March 2015
Notifications of acceptance:              1st of May 2015
Register with early-bird fee:                 1st of July 2015
Conference:                                            24th - 26th of 
September 2015

Contact person:
Ronny Scholz ((R.Scholz /at/ warwick.ac.uk))
Marcus Müller ((marcus.mueller /at/ gs.uni-heidelberg.de)).


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