The BiTe_Corpus as a Tool for Data Exploration in the History of Hispanic Linguistics

Abstract

Digital humanities make it possible to approach traditional academic topics (such as Hispanic linguistic historiography) from a novel and revelatory perspective. Using tools such as Voyant Tools or Gephi, one can study both primary and secondary sources from the history of linguistics and extract various theoretical and historical values subject to historiographical and meta-historiographical reflection. To that end, combining corpora that facilitate analysis using digital tools is necessary. This article explains the steps that have been followed to create a corpus based on more than 3,000 abstracts gathered in the Bibliografía Temática de Historiografía Lingüística Española: fuentes secundarias [BiTe]. In doing so, researchers have access to a set of data which can be analysed in order to continue advancing in the history of Hispanic linguistics, thus offering a working methodology that can be exported to other traditions and currents in the field of linguistics.