Medieval Text Goes Digital
Thomas Field, professor of linguistics and french, is making inaccessible language more available. He and his research assistants spend hours in front of computers inputting and reviewing Occitan and Gascon words, searching for the cultural significance of this endangered language of southwestern France and the Pyrenees area of Spain.
Being one of the few people immersed in this language, Field is currently building the first Medieval Gascon digital corpus of its kind. And being named the 2009-10 Lipitz Professor of the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences will only help him dig deeper and make discoveries about this peculiar language.
“This text is not easily accessible,” said Field. “But I’m hoping to make as much as I can available online with search functions. This professorship will really help me get an extensive amount of work done.”
For the past year, Field has been working with students from the modern languages and linguistics department and one student from the computer science department, who all help with inputting data, Web site design and trouble shooting. For Field, working with students is one of the most exciting parts of his work.
“I love the instructional side as much as the research itself,” he said. “I love teaching so my work is both.”
Although they’ve only been working together since fall 2008, Field and his assistants have already begun to notice patterns and themes in the language.
“We’re finding out that in southwestern France, the cultural influences are also linguistically influential,” he said. “In many ways, linguistics is like a science. Language is part of everything, and the sentences structured part of more scientific hypothesis.”
With discoveries already underway, Field hopes to travel to France in order to obtain more important texts for his research. With the professorship money, he will be able to do just that – along with employing more student help to maintain the database and finish web-related design. He will also use the money to set up a fall series on Morocco that will include musical groups, films and speakers.
“I’m humbled to have been chosen for the professorship,” said Field, “and I’m happier to be at UMBC now than I’ve ever been. This is a really good place to be right now.”
About Thomas Field
Field joined the UMBC faculty in 1979 and has been chair of his department (1992-96) and director of the Center for Humanities (1999-2005). A teacher of French and linguistics, Field was the UMBC Presidential Teaching Professor (1992-95), Carnegie Foundation Maryland Professor of the Year (1996), and in 1982 he shared the Glbert Chinard Pedagogical Prize given by the American Assocation of Teachers of French. He is the author of two books and more than two dozen articles, and his research has been supported by a number of organizations including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Fulbright commission.
About the Lipitz Professorship
The Lipitz Professorship is supported by an endowment created by Roger C. Lipitz and the Lipitz Family Foundation “to recognize and support innovative and distinguished teaching and research in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at the UMBC.”
(9/11/09)
