Keeping up with the Latest Development of English through Digital Technology

Overview

It is well known that languages change from time to time. English grammar, for one, has been constantly evolving over the past decades. Examples include ‘(be) like’ replacing ‘to say’ in quotative constructions, the rise of the ‘medio-passive voice’ that allows verbs in the active voice to convey passive meanings. These are concrete examples that have been documented, but are not necessarily easily noticeable to English users. Thanks to the development of digital humanities tools, we are now able to take a data-oriented approach to study how language has developed over time. This allows us to look into diachronic changes and discover new trends that have yet to be captured in textbooks.

This open lesson presents a selection of recent changes in the English language in graphical visualisation. The corpus tools that help us identify these changes will be demonstrated in the session. These easily accessible digital tools allow both teachers and learners to learn about latest English usage from authentic data. This knowledge is crucial to making timely updates to textbooks and avoiding outdated English words and phrases in our day-to-day writing.