Characterisation in the representation of speech and body language from a corpus linguistic perspective

In this project, the methods we employ and develop are mainly situated in the wider field of corpus linguistics, in which digitised versions of texts and customised software are used to find recurrent textual patterns which operate both above and below the level of explicit conscious awareness. Many frequently-occurring literary patterns fall below consciousness, and yet have been demonstrated to have lingering readerly effects and important consequences for the process of characterisation. This insight has important implications for the cognitive poetic work of literary linguists, as we will show with our project. We suggest an innovative approach by combining corpus linguistic methods with research questions from cognitive poetics, specifically the way that readers engage in 'mind-modelling' in the process of characterisation.

The CLiC tool

The current project aims to significantly extend our previous work by developing a tool - CLiC - that supports the analysis of fictional speech and literary body language. CLiC (Corpus Linguistics in Cheshire) will be a freely available web-based tool. Initially, the texts that can be searched will be Dickens’s novels and novels written by other 19th century authors. CLiC enables the user to search in particular parts of the texts, e.g. in quotes, which typically contain the direct speech if fictional characters in the novels.

• Michaela Mahlberg gives a keynote lecture at Corpus Linguistics 2015 in Lancaster. A dedicated section of her talk is on new research avenues explored within the CLiC Dickens project.
• CLiC is one of five projects that is part of Corpora on Parade evening at Corpus Linguistics 2015. Johan de Joode showcases the CLiC functionality.
• Johan de Joode presents a poster on CLiC at Corpus Linguistics 2015
• Peter Stockwell introduces CLiC to year 12 students: 16 July 2015
• Michaela Mahlberg and Johan de Joode present a paper entitled "Reading voices in Dickens's fiction" at the PALA conference on Creative Style
• Michaela Mahlberg and Peter Stockwell demonstrate CLiC at the Integrating Language and Literature Teaching in the Classroom Symposium http://www.integratingenglish.com/#!events/c3g8 11 July 2015
• There is a dedicated session on CLiC in the 2015 Summer School in Corpus Linguistics: Tools and Applications
• Johan de Joode presents a poster on CLiC at the ICAME36 conference in Trier (27-31 May 2015). This poster wins the prize for best poster (cf. infra). For information on the CLiC project see the project website.
• Michaela Mahlberg gives talk on 'Using the CLiC tool to study characterisation in Dickens’: University of Coventry. 4 December 2014
• Peter Stockwell gives a talk on 'Mind-modelling Dickens': University of Glasgow. 13 November 2014
• Michaela Mahlberg gives talk on 'CLiC - An online tool for the study of linguistic patterns of characterisation in Dickens': Liverpool John Moores University. 30 September 2014
• Michaela Mahlberg teaches Corpus Linguistics at the LingPhil Summer School: Senja, Norway. 1-6 June 2014
• Workshop: "Language", with Michaela Mahlberg as plenary speaker. University of Liverpool. 21 May 2014. See also workshop programme
• Poetics and Linguistics Association (PALA): Maribor, Slovenia. 16-18 July 2014
• The International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE3): Zürich, Switzerland. 24-27 August 2014
• The Corpus Stylistics Workshop, 30th April 2014: This pre-conference workshop for ICAME35 took place at the University of Nottingham, 30 April - 4 May 2014. Version 1.0 of CLiC was launched at the workshop. For more information and how to register go to the Corpus Stylistics Workshop website.
• European Society for the Study of English (ESSE): Kosice, Slovakia. 29 August - 2 September 2014
• British Association for Victorian Studies (BAVS): Canterbury, UK. 04-06 September 2014

Professor Michaela Mahlberg from the School of English will deliver her Inaugural Lecture "Applying Corpus Linguistics". The Lecture will be hosted by Professor Stephen Mumford, Dean of the Faculty of Arts. After the Inaugural Lecture there will be a reception in the Senate Chamber. Please register your attendance using the link above.

Applying Corpus Linguistics: exploring language and literature

Corpus linguistics investigates language on the basis of electronically stored samples of naturally occurring language. The focus on natural data emphasises the social dimension of language. In contrast to made-up examples, the texts in a corpus are used by people in real communicative situations. So corpus linguistics can contribute to the investigation of what people do with language and how they view the world. Corpus data is stored electronically in a format that allows further processing with computer tools. The data can be searched and displayed in a number of ways, and the computer makes it possible to look at language from different points of view. The lecture will discuss how the application of corpus linguistic methods and concepts affects our linguistic world view. In particular, it will explore the fuzzy boundaries between literary and non-literary texts looking at examples from Dickens’s novels.