COHA-based projects

The following are nearly 200 projects that were done by students in my Winter 2010 course "A Corpus-based Approach to the History of American English". All of these projects are based on data from COHA, and the projects provide thousands of links to COHA queries that allow you to see the data. Please remember that these projects were done by undergraduate students who had very little experience with either corpora or historical linguistics. In spite of these limitations, I think that you will agree that the projects are full of worthwhile and very interesting data. (Note that the links for Projects 7-9 are not available during Fall semester 2011 (Aug-Dec), as this class is offered again).

** Note that these webpages are in MHT format, which packages the text, hyperlinks, and graphics all in one file. Internet Explorer and Opera can display these files without problem. For Firefox, you need a plug-in. The MHT files will not work in Safari or Chrome.

1: Language change and culture
Take 7-8 words from the entire period 1810-2009 and show how the history of that word gives insights into historical, societal, and cultural shifts in the US

2: Lexical, by decade
Show how 15-20 "new" words and phrases in a particular decade (1810s-2000s) and within a particular topic reflect cultural and societal shifts during that particular decade.

3. Historical events, languages, and dialects
How historical events (e.g. wars, westward expansion) have influenced the language; American dialects; borrowings from other languages (Dutch, Spanish, etc)

4: Lexical, by topic
Show how the history of 15-20 words in a particular lexical field (e.g. food, religion, sports, movies) over the last 200 years reflect cultural, historical, and societal changes in America

5. Slang and metaphor
Map out the history of 8-10 slang words/phrases in a particular semantic field or with a particular metaphor (e.g. "going broke" or "falling in love")

6. Semantic change
Pick a fairly common word (e.g. strike or hot or sweep) and discuss how it has changed in terms of meaning and usage during the past 200 years.

7. Prescriptive rules and spelling changes
Discuss one prescriptive rule (e.g. can/may I, who/whom, preposition stranding, pronouns (Bill and I), agreement (each...is/are)), or 2-3 spelling changes (to(-)day, e(-)email, catalog(ue))

8. Syntactic and morphological change
Discuss one change, e.g. completives (end up V-ing), future (shall/will/going to), verb complements (start [to V/V-ing]), relative pronouns, etc.

9. Changes from the 1880s until now
Pick a 500-600 word segment of a book from the 1880s. Find several features that show morphological, syntactic, semantics, stylistic, or lexical changes between then and now

2: Lexical, by decade

Show how 15-20 "new" words and phrases in a particular decade (1810s-2000s) and within a particular topic reflect cultural and societal shifts during that particular decade.

3. Historical events, languages, and dialects

How historical events (e.g. wars, westward expansion) have influenced the language; American dialects; borrowings from other languages (Dutch, Spanish, etc)

4: Lexical, by topic

Show how the history of 15-20 words in a particular lexical field (e.g. food, religion, sports, movies) over the last 200 years reflect cultural, historical, and societal changes in America

5. Slang and metaphor

Map out the history of 8-10 slang words/phrases in a particular semantic field or with a particular metaphor (e.g. "going broke" or "falling in love")

6. Semantic change

Pick a fairly common word (e.g. strike or hot or sweep) and discuss how it has changed in terms of meaning and usage during the past 200 years.

7. Prescriptive rules and spelling changes

Discuss one prescriptive rule (e.g. can/may I, who/whom, preposition stranding, pronouns (Bill and I), agreement (each...is/are)), or 2-3 spelling changes (to(-)day, e(-)email, catalog(ue))

8. Syntactic and morphological change

Discuss one change, e.g. completives (end up V-ing), future (shall/will/going to), verb complements (start [to V/V-ing]), relative pronouns, etc.

9. Changes from the 1880s until now

Pick a 500-600 word segment of a book from the 1880s. Find several features that show morphological, syntactic, semantics, stylistic, or lexical changes between then and now