“In barbarous times and in uncivilized countries”: two centuries of the evolving uncivil in the Hansard Corpus

Alexander, M. and Struan, A. (2022) “In barbarous times and in uncivilized countries”: two centuries of the evolving uncivil in the Hansard Corpus. International Journal of Corpus Linguistics, 27(4), pp. 480-505. (doi: 10.1075/ijcl.22016.ale)

Abstract

The ways in which politicians have discussed who, what, and where was considered “uncivilized’” across the past two centuries gives an insight into how speakers in a position of authority classified and constructed the world around them, and how those in power in Britain see the country and themselves. This article uses the Hansard Corpus 1803–2003 of speeches in the UK Parliament alongside data from the Historical Thesaurus of English to analyse diachronic variation in usage of words for persons, places and practices considered uncivil. It proposes new methods and offers quantitative data to describe the period’s shift in political attitudes towards not just the so-called “uncivil” but also the country as a whole.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Alexander, Professor Marc and Struan, Dr Andrew
• Authors: Alexander, M., and Struan, A.
• Subjects: D History General and Old World > D History (General); D History General and Old World > DA Great Britain; P Language and Literature > PE English
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Critical Studies > English Language and Linguistics; University Services > Learning and Teaching Services Division; University Services > Student and Academic Services > Academic Services
• Journal Name: International Journal of Corpus Linguistics
• Publisher: John Benjamins
• ISSN: 1384-6655
• ISSN (Online): 1569-9811
• Published Online: 09 September 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 John Benjamins Publishing Company
• First Published: First published in International Journal of Corpus Linguistics 27(4): 480-505
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
190697		Semantic Annotation and Mark Up for Enhancing Lexical Searches (SAMUELS)	Marc Alexander	Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)	AH/L010062/1	Arts - English Language and Linguistics
307779		Philip Leverhulme Prize	Marc Alexander	Leverhulme Trust (LEVERHUL)	PLP-2019-241	Arts - English Language and Linguistics