Cover not available
Part of
Exploring Language and Society with Big Data: Parliamentary discourse across time and space
Edited by Minna Korhonen, Haidee Kotze and Jukka Tyrkkö
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 111] 2023
► pp. 89–117

Chapter 3
Hansard at Huddersfield

Streamlined corpus methods and interactive visualisations to pursue research aims beyond corpus linguistics

 | University of Lancaster
 | University of Huddersfield
 | University of Huddersfield
 | University of Deusto
This chapter describes one project’s approach to fostering uptake of corpus tools in research beyond corpus linguistics. It introduces the Hansard at Huddersfield web application, a new search tool that combines tried-and-tested corpus tools with interactive visualisations to make Hansard, the official record of the UK parliament (1803–2021), more accessible for in-depth study by non-specialists. The chapter outlines the thinking behind and development of the Hansard at Huddersfield web interface and exemplifies how the site’s adapted corpus tools offer non-linguists new entry points for Hansard research through three small sample studies. It further reflects on the process of preparing the large Hansard corpus to allow insights to be gleaned from corpus-style searches by researchers with relatively little training.
Keywords: Hansard, parliamentary debates, corpus applications, data visualisation, impact beyond linguistics
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Hansard’s potential for insights into governance
  • 3.The Hansard at Huddersfield website
    • 3.1Aims and challenges
    • 3.2Data preparation
    • 3.3A summary of the functions on the website
    • 3.4Corpus tool inclusion criteria
  • 4.Using Hansard at Huddersfield to pursue research aims
    • 4.1(Un)lawful assembly
    • 4.2Austerity
    • 4.3World Wars
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Notes
  • References
Published online: 13 November 2023
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.111.03jef
References (19)
References
Antaki, Charles & Leudar, Ivan. 2001. Recruiting the record: Using opponents’ exact words in parliamentary argumentation. Text 21(4): 467–488.Google Scholar
Baker, Paul. 2006. Using Corpora in Discourse Analysis. London: Continuum. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Bucholtz, Mary. 2000. The politics of transcription. Journal of Pragmatics 32(10): 1439–1465. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cameron, David. 2009. Conservative Party Conference 2009: Full text of David Cameron’s speech. The Guardian. 8 October. <[URL]> (30 September 2021).
Demmen, Jane, Jeffries, Lesley & Walker, Brian. 2018. Charting the semantics of labour relations in House of Commons debates spanning two hundred years: A study of parliamentary language using corpus linguistic methods and automated semantic tagging. In Doing Politics: Discursivity, Performativity and Mediation in Political Discourse [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 80], Michael Kranert & Geraldine Horan (eds), 81–104. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Himmelfarb, Gertrude. 1995. The De-moralization of Society: From Victorian Virtues to Modern Value. New York NY: Vintage. Google Scholar
Jeffries, Lesley. 2010. Critical Stylistics: The Power of English. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Jeffries, Lesley & Walker, Brian. 2019. Austerity in the Commons: A corpus critical analysis of austerity and its surrounding grammatical context in Hansard (1803–2015). In Discourse Analysis and Austerity: Critical Studies from Economics and Linguistics [Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy], Kate Power, Tanweer Ali & Eva Lebdušková (eds), 53–79. London: Routledge. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Leech, Geoffrey. 1991. The state of the art in corpus linguistics. In English Corpus Linguistics: Studies in Honour of Jan Svartvik, Karin Aijmer & Bengt Altenberg (eds), 8–29. London: Longman.Google Scholar
McEnery, Tony & Hardie, Andrew. 2011. Corpus Linguistics: Method, Theory and Practice. Cambridge: CUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
McIntyre, Dan & Walker, Brian. 2019. Corpus Stylistics: Theory and Practice. Edinburgh: EUP. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Mollin, Sandra. 2007. The Hansard hazard: Gauging the accuracy of British parliamentary transcripts. Corpora 2(2): 187–210. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Ralphs, Kezia. 2009. Recording parliamentary debates: A brief history with reference to England and New Zealand. Australasian Parliamentary Review 24(2): 151–163.Google Scholar
Shaw, Sylvia. 2018. Off the record: The transcription of parliamentary debates for political discourse analysis. In Doing Politics: Discursivity, Performativity and Mediation in Political Discourse [Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 80], Michael Kranert & Geraldine Horan (eds), 105–126. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Slembrouck, Stef. 1992. The parliamentary Hansard “verbatim” report: The written construction of spoken discourse. Language and Literature 1(2): 101–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Taylor, Charlotte & Marchi, Anna. 2018. Introduction. In Corpus Approaches to Discourse: A Critical Review, Charlotte Taylor & Anna Marchi (eds), 1–16. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Vice, John. 2020. Personal communication: Email to Lesley Jeffries. 30 March.Google Scholar
Vice, John & Farrell, Stephen. 2017. The History of Hansard. House of Lords Hansard and the House of Lords Library. <[URL]> (29 October 2019).Google Scholar
von Lünen, Alexander, Jeffries, Lesley, Stradling, Fransina, Sanjurjo González, Hugo & Crossley, Paul. 2023. Hansard at Huddersfield: Adapting corpus linguistic methods for non-specialist use. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing 17(1): 25–46. DOI logoGoogle Scholar