996003 (Comparative) Historical Semantics, Conceptual History, Discourse Analysis: Methods (S) (SoSe 2015)

This seminar (methods class) is complementary to a theory class on the three approaches mentioned, i.e. historical semantics, conceptual history, and discourse analysis. The methods class may be attended separately, but it is highly recommended to take part in both seminars. In the methods class we will first discuss effective ways of building up or using existing (digital and non-digital) corpora of source materials for (comparative) semantical, conceptual or discourse-analytical studies. We will then proceed to use exemplary source materials related to the students’ own doctoral theses or research interests in order to test different reading and notation techniques as well as styles of writing up or presenting the results of conceptual history- or discourse analytical studies. Languages used in the seminar will be English and German, but sources discussed may also be in Latin, French, Spanish, or Italian.