Language Technologies and Digital Humanities

To attend the course, a certain familiarity with the German language is welcome.

The course will describe the application of IT to preservation and analisys of textual and/or mixed (text and images) data, with a focus on German (both in ancient and modern times). Students will be able to compare the main protocols and/or methods on which are based the most common kind of textual archives and linguistic online resources, and will be able to analyse the main solutions applied in order to create a user centered access to the data stored into them. In particular, the students will be introduced to some methods useful for the elaboration in quantitative terms of information extracted from linguistic corpora.

Knowledge and understanding

Students will have access to the theoretical elements on which is based the digital solutions applied to the textual and linguistic data (both data harvesting and digital preservation of the cultural heritage). Students will be able also to value the impact of the technological improvements on both digital archives and online repositories or corpora. Finally, students will be able to value the main uses that corpora and repositories can have into the field of Digital Humanities or into the Digital World.

Applying knowledge and understanding, indipendent judgement

Students will have access to the basis of the application of the Digital to the linguistic and textual data, and they will be able to find authonomous research path concerning preservation and use of digital data in the main fields of interest of the Digital Humanities.

Communication Skills

Students should be able to describe and discuss the main aspects which is at the basis of the application of IT to raw or complex data, as to consolidate their profiency in the field terminology of Digital Humanities and Digital Linguistic.

Learning Skills

Students should be able to analyse the basis of data storage, conservation and mining, tailored to different types of analysis. They should be also able to have a critical approach to the different solutions chosen by the the archives and the corpora shown during the lessons, in order to find plus and minus of their application to linguistic research. They will be invited to use authonomous reserach skills in order to analyse in deep and discuss with the class a single case of study or archive in particular with regard to the elaboration of quantitative data extracted from linguistic corpora.

The module will consist of 18 hours (9 lessons), held with the use of slides and online resources (archives, corpora and digital libraries). During the module, the students will be required to actively collaborate by means of a direct confrontation with the corpora and the digital tools introduced as well as of an oral presentation in the classroom.

The exam will have an oral form, with at least three questions concernig both the topics and the materials presented during the module as well as the students' concrete activities and presentations.

Additional support activities will possibly be indicated during the module.

Introduction into the application of digital tools to linguistic and textual mining with an overview on the 20th century as the IT era. Introduction into the Web as a corpus with free access to data (open vs restricted digital data), into the user-centered perspective of the digital tools, as well as into archives, corpora and repositories as source of knowledge. Discussion of concrete examples of text corpora and archives elaborated for the German language and its varieties, with particular focus on concrete quantitative methods useful to extract substantial information from linguistic corpora.

Materials and references for the course will be provided at the beginning of the course, and will  partially be made available on the moodle platform of the course. The materials downloadable on the platform, and in particular the slides presented in the classroom, are also part of the examination program.

The module is open to all students. In view of the ongoing sanitary crisis, the teaching methods might undergo variations which will be communicated in a timely manner. The students are kindly requested to consult this page for any further communication.

For any further information, the students are kindly requested to consult my personal website.