LINGUIST List 10.1708

Wed Nov 10 1999

FYI: CDA, Norwegian Corpus, Byzantine Philology

Editor for this issue: Jody Huellmantel <jodylinguistlist.org>

Directory

1. Teun A. van Dijk, CDA-PHD-CLASS: A new list for Ph.D students of CDA
2. Janne Bondi Johannessen, New Norwegian Corpus
3. Brita Bayer, New Mailinglist for Byzantine Philology

ANNOUNCEMENT

This is to announce a new internet list, CDA-PHD-CLASS, specially
created for advanced Ph.D. (doctoral) students who are specializing in
any field of critical discourse analysis, and who are writing their
doctoral thesis on a CDA-topic.

The list will be monitored by Teun A. van Dijk (University of Amsterdam,
and --in 1999-2000-- Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona).

This list will be like a virtual 'class' in which a selected group of
Ph.D. students from various countries will participate in order to
mutually discuss issues in CDA, exchange bibliographical and other
information, provide mutual support, and create a global community of
PhD students of CDA.

CDA research is here understood as the explicit, systematic,
theory-based and critical study of text or talk in their socio-political
context, with special interest in the role of discourse in the
enactment, expression and reproduction of --or the resistance against--
power abuse, domination and social inequality.

There are many reasons why this list/class has been set up. Many PhD
students of CDA in the world are engaged in such research in an
environment in which CDA is marginal or non-existant, or dominated by
mainstream research in the various disciplines of the humanities and
social sciences. But even when supported and supervised by local
professors specialized in CDA, students may often feel isolated and in
need to be in contact with other PhD students in the world who are
engaged in related projects, or facing similar theoretical, analytical
or methodological challenges. Daily communication with academic peers
all over the world, and from several disciplines, may significantly
contribute to the successful completion of a PhD thesis at an
international level. And conversely, specialists in CDA who will be
among the yearly 'visiting professors' of the class will thus be able to
communicate with probably the best Ph.D. students of CDA in the world,
especially with those who are working in the same area of
specialization.

Subscribers of the CDA-PHD-CLASS list are also expected to actively
participate in the general list of the CDA community, CRITICS-L, to
which they will automatically be subscribed.

One of the joint and ongoing activities of the class will be to
contribute to an international bibliography of CDA publications, which
will regularly also be published on the CRITICS-L list so as to be of
use for other researchers in the field of CDA.

Students will primarily communicate among themselves, but will also be
able to communicate directly with, and to ask advice from the
coordinator of the class as well as yearly appointed 'visiting
professors', who are internationally renowned specialists in CDA.

More detailed rules of communication and interaction in the class will
be (jointly) developed later.

ELIGIBILITY

The CDA-PHD-CLASS is reserved for those advanced students who *at least*
satisfy the following criteria:

1. Preparing a Ph.D. degree, and writing a Ph.D. thesis on a CDA topic.
2. Having worked on the thesis for at least one year.
3. Having a good knowledge of both local and international CDA research.

4. Being able to read and write in English -- since the list/class will
be conducted in English.
5. Willing to actively contribute to the list/class by regular
contributions.
6. Willing to assist other members of the list in the same area of
specialization.
7. Willing to contribute to the international bibliography of CDA
publications.
8. Being prepared to inform the list/class once a year about one's own
research progress.
9. Having submitted a detailed description of their ongoing Ph.D.
research project.

The number of students to be admitted will provisionally be limited to a
maximum of 50. If more eligible students apply, selection on later to be
determined criteria will take place.

>From the start, decisions on admission will not only depend on the
quality and originality of the research project of a candidate
subscriber, but also be influenced by criteria of diversity: At least
half of the class will consist of women, and students will be selected
from as many countries/cultures in the world as possible. Students are
preferred who are able to read academic literature and/or use discourse
data also in another than their own mother tongue.

Crucial for admission to the 'class' is that the research project of the
applicant *explicitly* deals with the relations between discourse
structures and social structures.

Participation in the class ends with the completion and successful
defense of the PhD thesis, or whenever a participant wants to leave the
'class' before that.

Yearly one or two of the best research papers produced by members of the
class will be published in the international journal DISCOURSE &
SOCIETY.

Specialists of CDA are requested to stimulate their best PhD students to
apply for membership in this international class if these satisfy the
criteria of eligibility.

Candidates should apply *personally* by writing to list moderator Teun
A. van Dijk (teunhum.uva.nl). They will then receive a form and format
in which to provide information about their research project.

Recommendation by one or more professors specialized in CDA may be
useful, but is not required: Essential are the quality and the
originality of the CDA research project of the candidate.

Suggestions for the improvement of this list and the eligibility
criteria are welcome.

Further information may be obtained from list moderator Teun A. van
Dijk: teunhum.uva.nl.

GOOD NEWS FOR THOSE DOING NORWEGIAN LANGUAGE RESEARCH


We are pleased to announce that the Oslo Corpus of Tagged Norwegian
Texts is now available for the public.


The Oslo Corpus consists of a bokmaal part (18.5 million words) and a
nynorsk part (3.8 million words). Both parts are tagged with the
disambiguating Constraint Grammar tagger developed here at the
University of Oslo. It is possible to search for words or wordstrings
and combine that search with a grammatical requirement, or to search
for a grammatical category without any words string specification.

The texts contained in the Oslo Corpus are not meant to be
representative in any way; they are simply texts collected over the
years by the universities in Oslo and Bergen. Even so, there is a good
mixture of texts from newspapers and magazines, laws and public
reports, and novels.

One of the best features of the Oslo Corpus, we think, is the very
simple user interface. The Oslo Corpus is web-based, and requires no
background knowledge about tags or texts. The user only has to fill in
a box for a word (or wordstring), or click in a box for a grammatical
category (or make a combined search). 

In order to use the corpus, you need a user account and a pass word,
which you get by following the instructions on the corpus web site:
http://www.tekstlab.uio.no/norsk/bokmaal/english.html

The Corpus will be presented at the KORFU-conference in V�xj� on 11.
November, and at the MONS 8-conference in Troms� on 20. November.


Janne Bondi Johannessen.



- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Professor Janne Bondi Johannessen Tlf: + 47-22 85 68 14

Tekstlaboratoriet E-post: jannebjhedda.uio.no

Institutt for lingvistiske fag Faks: +47-22 85 69 19

Universitetet i Oslo Internett:
http://www.hf.uio.no/tekstlab

P.b 1102 Blindern

0317 Oslo, Norway

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Department of Byzantine and Modern Greek Philology at the 
University of G�ttingen set up a mailinglist for Byzantine Philology 
as a forum for all areas of research in Byzantine Philology. 

The mailinglist shall provide the opportunity to discuss questions 
and problems. Research papers and reports, short reviews of 
recently published books as well as announcements of 
conferences are also welcome. Contributions can be made in
German, English, French and Greek. 

We encourage students of Byzantine Philology to take part in the 
mailinglist. The mailinglist shall also serve as a forum for their 
questions and as a panel for discussions of their papers.

The mailinglist is unmoderated. If you want to subscribe to the list, 
please read the following instructions: 

 Write an email to listprocgwdg.de. 

 Please do not enter a subject into the subject-line. 
 
 The email should contain the following line: 
 subscribe byzantinistik [first name] [last name]

 Example: 
 subscribe byzantinistik Karl Krumbacher 
 
 The email should not contain further lines, such as signatures or 
 address lines. 
 
 Send Mail. 


- --------------------------------------------------------
- --------------------------------------------------------

Brita Bayer, M.A.
Webmaster

Byzantinische und Neugriechische Philologie
Seminar fuer Klassische Philologie 
Georg-August-Universitaet Goettingen
Humboldtallee 19
D-37073 Goettingen
Germany
E-Mail: bbayer1gwdg.de
URL: http://www.gwdg.de/~asidera