Alpine Texts as Language Data: Corpus- and Discourse-Linguistic Explorations

Digitised and enriched language data from alpine club journals, such as the Zeitschrift des Österreichischen Alpenvereins and the New Zealand Alpine Journal, provide researchers with valuable access to both historical and contemporary language data. These sources cover a wide range of text types from climbing and expedition reports, route descriptions and mountaineering research, to poetry and even science fiction. This focus session brings together linguists and researchers from related disciplines to present corpus and discourse-linguistic analyses based on these large text datasets about mountains and mountaineering. The approaches are data-driven, using state-of-the-art corpus linguistic tools, and qualitative, applying hermeneutic (discourse) linguistic frameworks. By revealing trends in language use, the panel wants to trace changing perceptions of mountain landscapes, shifts in mountaineering language and practices, and cultural values associated with alpine exploration. In doing so, the focus session intends to demonstrate how language constructs the social and cultural dimensions of mountains and mountaineering.