Linguistics and Oral History: Towards an Interdisciplinary Approach

This edited volume brings together linguistic and oral history practitioners to explore the intersections between both disciplines. This book is comprised of contributions from linguists (corpus linguists, sociolinguists, dialectologists and second language acquisition experts) to present how they investigate oral history texts from a linguistic perspective as well as contributions from oral history practitioners who focus on language-related aspects of their subject. In presenting perspectives from both disciplines, this book exposes the synergies that exist between oral history and linguistics including methodological parallels in constructing and analysing written transcriptions of spoken events, analytical approaches to determining salient themes and linguistic items, relevant theoretical perspectives that frame discourse practices in oral histories and the practical considerations facing researchers when investigating large samples of spoken discourse. This book shows that oral historians and linguists are often doing the same things in different ways and makes the case for more collaboration between the disciplines to promote exchange of ideas, efficiency of practice and reciprocal progression.