Application of digital humanities for the analysis of english language variability (case study of tv series)

Abstract

Nowadays there is a tendency to argue that there is no single version of the English language. Instead, there are several regional variations of the English language and each of them has its own specific features. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate the differences and similarities between the English and American versions of the English language in relation to vocabulary by means of Digital Humanities technologies. The study was based on the analysis of the television series’ script. In order to conduct this study we examined the scenarios of two television series based on the novel “House of Cards” by British writer Michael Dobbs. The method used in this article is Digital Humanities, a method of research where a computer is used to analyze a text and its structure. As it turns out, any modern science, either practical or theoretical, is built on computing. In this paper we describe the evolution of the application of Digital Humanities as a method of linguistic research. We compared and contrasted the most common words in both series; for example, phraseological units, phrasal verbs and idioms were analyzed. The scope of the article did not allow us to take American dialects as well. The results of the study emphasize that, although the British and American versions of the English language are largely diverse, their vocabulary is not very different. The study also shows that the use of Digital Humanities has now become truly necessary for linguistic analysis.