The COAVA project: Bridging the gap between first language acquisition and historical dialectology
Aim
COAVA (COgnition, Acquisition and VAriation Tool) is a CLARIN project. This project is concerned with bringing together two strange bedfellows: first language acquisition and historical dialectology. In historical linguistics there is the common assumption that language change in the past is due to the process of non target like transmission of linguistic features between generations i.e. between parents and children. Despite this assumption, both disciplines remain isolated from each other due to, among others, different methods of data-collection and different types of resources with empirical data. The aim of the COAVA project is to demonstrate that the common assumption in historical linguistics, mentioned above, can be examined in detail with the help of Digital Humanities. This interdisciplinary research targets at the development of a tool for easily exploring the linguistic characteristics of concepts.
The tool
The tool development departs from tools developed in previous projects. COAVA will demonstrate how the CLARIN infrastructure will enable Digital Humanities research by making available datasets (Childes and dialect databases)from these traditionally distinct sub disciplines (first language acquisition and historical dialectology) in a standardized way. Moreover, the datasets will be combined with tools for data processing aimed on optimal practical value.
The research tool to be developed will enable both quantitative and qualitative types of interdisciplinary research. The tool will help to define the definition of basic vocabulary in terms of semantic structure research and in children’s language acquisition research. The tool will provide the opportunity to answer the posed research questions.
Research Questions
Perspective of acquisition:
• What are the time-span and successive stages in which the lexical labels for concepts are acquired successfully? What kinds of concepts are these i.e. basic-level or non-basic-level objects?
Perspective of language variation and change:
•Which concepts show or do not show geographic lexical variation? Is there a correlation between the extent of lexical variation for basic-level and non-basic-level objects? What is the amount of lexical variation for a given concept?
Bridging both perspectives:
•There is a correlation between basic-level vocabulary that is acquired early, which is indexical for entrenchment, and the amount of lexical dialect variation in a large geographical area compared to non-basic-level vocabulary?
For a quick overview on COAVA in Dutch, a PowerPoint presentation is available. PPT COAVA
Supporting Digital Humanities conference in Copenhagen
On 17 and 18 of November 2011 the second Supporting Digital Humanities (henceforward: SDH) conference will be taking place at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. This conference is organized jointly by the CLARIN an DARIAH initiatives. At the SDH conference, the COAVA project will present its paper, which will become accessible on this website after November 18th. First information can be found via this http://cst.ku.dk/sdh2011/papers/ link (Leonie Cornips, Mark Kemps Snijders, Martin Snijders, Jos Swanenberg and Folkert De Vriend: Bridging the gap between first language acquisition and historical linguistics with the help of digital humanities). At this website, general information on the conference in Copenhagen can be retrieved as well.
SIDG conference in Vienna
Jos Swanenberg attended the VIIth Congress of Dialectology and Geolinguistics (SIDG) in Vienna and presented some of the results of the COAVA project:
Is what we have acquired early, less vulnerable to variation? A comparison between data from dialectlexicography and data from first language acquisition.
Leonie Cornips, Jos Swanenberg, Folkert de Vriend, Wilbert Heeringa
An explanation of the variation measure discussed in his talk can be downloaded here (author: Wilbert Heeringa). The variation measure was calculated for a subset (499 concepts) of the WBD database. These data can be downloaded here and are described in De Vriend et al. 2007:
Dialectgebieden in Brabant. Geografische clustering op basis van de ruwe lexicale gegevens van het Woordenboek van de Brabantse Dialecten
Folkert de Vriend, Jos Swanenberg, Roeland van Hout
In: Taal en Tongval, themanummer 20; Dialectlexicografie. 2007.
Other data
Set of 51 words. (Wilbert Heeringa)
Participants
The COAVA project is a shared project of Meertens institute, Tilburg University and Maastricht University. The project members are:
Coordinator
Name: prof. dr. Leonie Cornips
Function: prof language culture in Limburg at Maastricht University and researcher dep. variation linguistics at the Meertens Institute
Organization: Meertens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Address: Meertens Institute; PO Box 94264, 1090 GG Amsterdam
E-mail: leonie.cornips@meertens.knaw.nl
Tel: 020-4628529
Composition of the Project Team (in alphabetical order)
Name: ir. Marc Kemps-Snijders
Function: Head Technical Development
Organization: Meertens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Address: Meertens Institute; PO Box 94264, 1090 GG Amsterdam
E-mail: Marc.Kemps.Snijders@meertens.knaw.nl
Tel: 020 4628 585
Name: ing. Martin Snijders
Function: IT developer
Organization: Meertens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Address: Meertens Institute; PO Box 94264, 1090 GG Amsterdam
E-mail: martin.snijders@meertens.knaw.nl
Tel: 020 4628 542
Name: prof. dr. Jos Swanenberg
Function: prof of diversity in language and culture
Organization: Tilburg University
Address: Tilburg University, PO Box 90153, 5000 LE Tilburg
E-mail: A.P.C.Swanenberg@uvt.nl
Tel: 013-4662066
Fax: 013-4662892
Name: drs. Folkert de Vriend
Function: Research employee infrastructures
Organization: Meertens Institute (Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences)
Address: Meertens Institute; PO Box 94264, 1090 GG Amsterdam
E-mail: Folkert.de.Vriend@meertens.knaw.nl
Tel: 020 4628 585
Name: dr. Wilbert Heeringa
Function: Researcher
Organization: University of Groningen, Faculty of Arts, Cluster European Languages
Address: P.O. Box 716, 9700 AS, Groningen.
E-mail: w.j.heeringa@rug.nl
Tel: +31 (0)50 363 6109
Links
NWO Clarin: http://www.clarin.nl/
Childes: http://childes.psy.cmu.edu/data/Germanic/Dutch/
Dialect dictionary of the Brabantish and Limburgish languages: http://dialect.ruhosting.nl/d2/
News
On November 17 and 18 the second Supporting Digital Humanities conference will take place at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Click here SDH2011 for more information