The genre as variable in corpus linguistics
Le genre discursif comme variable en linguistique du corpus
French language then and now
Enquêtes sur le français d’hier et d’aujourd’hui
Published on Wednesday, January 08, 2025
Abstract
The meeting is proposed as a methodological reflection on the operationalization of the notion of genre in linguistic inquiries. It also aims to strengthen the dialogue between researchers working on old states of the French language and those studying its contemporary state. The Workshop will thus highlight the variety of perceptions and ways of operationalizing the parameter of genre according to the chronological period, the linguistic level, and the theoretical approach.
Announcement
Argument
Drawing on both written and spoken texts, corpus linguistics operationalizes metadata such as the date of composition, author(s), linguistic variety, and genre.
The notion of genre has been theorized throughout the 20th century, from the foundational work of Bakhtin in the 1920s, through Foucault and Barthes, and then, in a more 'linguistic' spirit, by the work on ‘énonciation’ and discourse analysis of Benveniste, Adam, Charolles, Maingueneau, and Rastier.
Within this primarily Francophone theoretical tradition, the notion of genre has received numerous definitions; broadly speaking, genre can be understood as a set of socio-discursive practices (Bakhtin) that responds to structural, thematic, interactional, media, and situational constraints (Maingueneau 1996). Finally, "genres sont des régularités socio-historiques observables dans le champ pratique qui est le leur” (Eng. “genres are socio-historical regularities observable in the practical field that is theirs") (Adam 1997).
However, due to this last point, the operationalization of genre as a linguistic analysis variable implies resorting to classifications external to the language itself. Moreover, in practice, the demarcation between different genres is sometimes complex; genre classifications depend on the period studied and pose various challenges for researchers. For example, a medievalist will need to use literary and historical analyses to distinguish legendary chronicles of the 12th century from courtly romances (e.g., Brut de Wace); a researcher studying writing on social networks will face entities under construction and will have to build ad hoc classifications (e.g., writing on TikTok). Furthermore, it is difficult to study linguistic phenomena related to a particular genre diachronically, since the very nature of genres changes with the socio-historical context (Ayres-Benett 2024).
Probably due to the extra-linguistic essence of genre, despite a strong theoretical tradition, in corpus linguistic inquiries the term 'genre' is often used without being defined, replaced by other terms such as text types, discourse types, or abandoned in favor of other descriptive variables (e.g., register: written/spoken; narration/representation of speech; theme: feminist discourse, ecological; communicative nature: immediacy/distance, etc.). This is likely due to the variety of principles for categorizing texts by genre as evidenced by the electronic corpora themselves, which, according to Ayres-Benett, reflects the problematic yet necessary nature of genre as a variable of analysis (Ayres-Benett 2024).
Within the framework of this two-days workshop, we would therefore like to turn to the practical aspect of using the notion of genre in corpus linguistics. The meeting is thus proposed as a methodological reflection on the operationalization of the notion of genre in linguistic inquiries. It also aims to strengthen the dialogue between researchers working on old states of the French language and those studying its contemporary state. The Workshop will thus highlight the variety of perceptions and ways of operationalizing the parameter of genre according to the chronological period, the linguistic level, and the theoretical approach.
We invite proposals for talks presenting analyses on corpora of any state of the French language at any linguistic level; comparative and multilingual studies including French are also welcome. The proposed themes are as follows:
- Moving genre(s): difficulties in genres demarcation, the need to form an ad hoc classification in synchrony or diachrony; implications for the constitution of electronic corpora and/or corpus linguistic analyses;
- Problematic genre(s): the parameter of genre as an obstacle to the study of a linguistic phenomenon; analyses that invalidate the relevance of genre as a variable of linguistic inquiry.
Submission guidelines
Proposals of 400 words maximum (bibliography not included) in French or English should be sent to the two organizers:
- zinaida.geylikman@gmail.com
- angelina.aleksandrova@u-paris.fr
by February 15, 2025.
The Workshop will result in a collective publication in the form of a thematic journal issue.
Organizing committee
- Zinaida Geylikman, EDA, Université Paris Cité
- Angelina Aleksandrova, EDA, Université Paris Cité
The workshop will be funded by the ANR Access ERC Starting 2023 Grant
Previsionary calendar
- February 15, 2025: deadline for proposals
- March 15, 2025: notifications to authors
- April 30, 2025: programme
- June 16 and 17, 2025: workshop
References
Adam J.-M. (1990) Éléments de linguistique textuelle. Bruxelles-Liège, Mardaga
- (1997) « Genres, textes, discours : pour une reconception linguistique du concept de genre ». Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, tome 75, fasc. 3. P. 665-681. DOI : https://doi.org/10.3406/rbph.1997.4188
- Ayres-Bennett W. (1996) A History of the French Language through Texts. London, Routledge.
- (2024) “Text types and syntactic change in seventeenth-century French”, communication orale, Colloque Tracing the Curve of Evolution: Syntactic change through text types, Université Caen-Normandie, 28-29 mars 2024. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdHmQt-7ueM
- Bakhtine M. (1978) Esthétique et théorie du roman. Paris, Gallimard.
- (1984) Esthétique de la création verbale. Paris, Gallimard.
- Barthes R. (1953) Le degré zéro de l’écriture. Paris, Le Seuil.
- (1973) Le plaisir du texte. Paris, Le Seuil.
- (1974) « Texte (théorie du) » dans Encyclopedia Universalis.
- (1975) Roland Barthes par Roland Barthes. Paris, Le Seuil.
- Benveniste E. (1966) Problèmes de linguistique générale, t. 1, Paris, Gallimard.
- (1974) Problèmes de linguistique générale, t. 2, Paris, Gallimard.
- Charolles (1988) « Les plans d’organisation textuelle : période, chaînes, portées et séquences ». Pratiques, 57, p. 3-43
- Ducrot O. et al (éds.). Les mots du discours. Paris, Les Éditions du Minuit.
- Ducrot O. (1989) Logique, structure, énonciation. Paris, Les Éditions du Minuit.
- Foucault M. (1969) L’archéologie du savoir. Paris, Gallimard.
- Guillot et al. (2015). « L’oral représenté dans un corpus de français médiéval (9e-15e) : approche contrastive et outillée de la variation diasystémique ». Dans K. Jeppesen Kragh and J. Lindschouw (éds), Les variations diasystémiques et leurs interdépendances dans les langues romanes. Actes du Colloque DIA II à Copenhague (19-21 nov. 2012), Éditions de linguistique et de philologie, p. 15-28.
- Maingueneau D. (1984) Genèse du discours. Bruxelles, Mardaga.
- (1996) Les termes clés de l’analyse du discours. Paris, Éditions du Seuil.
- Lagorgette D. et al. (2006). « Énonciation et pragmatique : approche diachronique ». Langue française, 149.
- Lefeuvre, F. & Parussa, G. (2020). « L’oral représenté en diachronie et en synchronie : une voie d’accès à l’oral spontané ? » Langages, N° 217(1), p. 9‑21.
- Kerbrat-Orecchioni C. (1980) L’énonciation. De la subjectivité dans le langage. Paris, Armand Colin.
- Koch, P. & Öesterreicher, W. (1985). « Sprache der Nähe — Sprache der Distanz. Mündlichkeit und
- Schriftlichkeit im Spannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie und Sprachgeschichte », Romanistisches Jahrbuch,36.1, p. 15-43.
- Koch P. & Öesterreicher W. (1990). Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch,
- Spanisch. Tübingen, Niemeyer.
- Koch P. (1993) « Pour une typologie conceptionnelle et médiale des plus anciens documents/monuments des langues romanes ». Dans M. Selig et al. (éds.) Le passage à l’écrit des langues romanes, Tübingen, Narr, p. 39-81.
- Rastier F. (1989) Sens et textualité. Paris, Hachette.
- Schaeffer J.-M. (1989) Qu’est-ce qu’un genre littéraire. Paris, Éditions du Seuil.
Subjects
- Language (Main category)
- Mind and language > Language > Linguistics
Places
- Université Paris Cité
Paris, France (75)
Event attendance modalities
Full on-site event
Date(s)
- Saturday, February 15, 2025
Attached files
Keywords
- linguistique de corpus ; langue française ; linguistique diachronique ; français contemporain ; méthodologie
Reference Urls
Information source
- Zinaida Geylikman
courriel : zinaida [dot] geylikman [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« The genre as variable in corpus linguistics », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Wednesday, January 08, 2025, https://doi.org/10.58079/131ba
