首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Computers have aided in the study of humanities for almost as long as the machines have existed. Decades ago, when the technolog
Computers have aided in the study of humanities for almost as long as the machines have existed. Decades ago, when the technolog
admin
2014-09-18
73
问题
Computers have aided in the study of humanities for almost as long as the machines have existed. Decades ago, when the technology consisted solely of massive, number-crunching mainframe computers, the chief liberal arts applications were in compiling statistical indexes of works of literature. In 1964, IBM held a conference on computers and the humanities where, according to a 1985 article in the journal Science, "most of the conferees were using compeers to compile concordances, which are alphabetical indices used in literary research."
Mainframe computers helped greatly in the highly laborious task, which dates back to the Renaissance, of cataloging each reference of a particular word in a particular work. Concordances help scholars scrutinize important texts for patterns and meaning. Other humanities applications for computers in this early era of technology included compiling dictionaries, especially for forei8n or antiquated languages, and cataloging library collections.
Such types of computer usage in the humanities may seem limited at first, but they have produced some interesting re suits in the last few years and promise to continue to do so. As computer use and access have grown, so has the number of digitized texts of classic literary works.
The computer-hosed study of literary texts has established its own niche in academia. Donald Foster, an English professor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, is one of the leaders in textual scholarship. In the late 1980s Foster created SHAXICON, a database that tracks all the "rare" words used by English playwright William Shakespeare. Each of these words appears in any individual Shakespeare play no more than 12 times. The words can then be cross-referenced with some 2,000 other poetic texts, allowing experienced researchers to explore when they were written, who wrote them, how the author was influenced by the works of other writers, and how the texts changed as they were reproduced over the centuries.
In late 1995 Foster’s work attracted widespread notice when he claimed that Shakespeare was the anonymous author of an obscure 578-1ine poem, A Funeral Elegy (1612). Although experts had made similar claims for other works in the past, Foster gained the backing of a number of prominent scholars because of his computer-based approach. If Foster’s claim holds up to long-term judgment, the poem will be one of the few additions to the Shakespearean canon in the last 100 years.
Foster’s work gained further public acclaim and validation when he was asked to help identify the anonymous author of the heat-selling political novel Primary Colors (1996). After using his computer program to compare the stylistic traits of various writers with those in the novel, Foster tabbed journalist Joe Klein as the author. Soon after, Klein admitted that he was the author. Foster was also employed as an expert in the case of the notorious Unabomber, a terrorist who published an anonymous manifesto in several major newspapers in 1995.
Foster is just one scholar who has noted the coming of the digital age and what it means for traditional fields such as literature. "For traditional learning and humanistic scholarship to be preserved, it, too, must be digitized," he wrote in a scholarly paper. "The future success of literary scholarship depends on our ability to integrate those electronic texts with our ongoing work as scholars and teachers, and to exploit fully the advantages offered by the new medium."
Foster noted that people can now study Shakespeare via Internet Shakespeare Editions, using the computer to compare alternate wordings in different versions and to consult editorial footnotes, literary criticism, stage history, explanatory graphics, video clips, theater reviews, and archival records. Novelist and literary journalist Gregory Feeley noted that "the simplest ( and least radical) way in which computer technology is affecting textual scholarship is in making various texts a vailabls, and permitting scholars to jump back and forth between them for easy comparisons."
Scholars can also take advantage of computer technology in "publishing" their work. Princeton University history professor P, Robert Darnton has written of a future in which works of scholarship are presented digitally in a pyramid-like layering. One might start, he suggests, at the top with a concise account of a subject, then proceed to detailed documentation and evidence, continue with a level of questions and discussion points ~or classroom use, and end with a place for repots and commentary from readers.
The passage suggests that ______.
选项
A、computers have not been very helpful in humanities study until recently
B、computers were widely used in all kinds of literary texts very long ago
C、computers were invented by International Business Machines Corporation
D、computers began to be used for literary study as soon as they were invented
答案
D
解析
A说计算机直到最近才运用于文科研究。这不符合首句Computers have aided in the study of humanities for almost as long as the machines have existed的内容。B说计算机很早就运用于处理各种文本,这同the chief liberal arts applications were in compiling statistical indexes of works of literature相矛盾。C说计算机是IBM公司发
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/aYTK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Educationofexceptionalchildrenmeansprovisionofspecialeducationalservicestothosechildrenwhoareeitherhandicappedo
For12dayseveryspring,theinhabitantsofErlangen,auniversitytownnearNuremberg,forgettheirdailyroutinesanddevote
Isolatedfromtheoutsideworld,thevillagerwouldoftentalkwithhis______friendswhennightfell.
Trafficstatisticspaintagloomypicture.Tohelpsolvetheir,trafficwoes,somerapidlygrowingUScitieshavesimplybuiltm
Withfavorableweatherconditions,itwasa(n)______momenttosetsail.
TheInternet,cellphones,palmtopcomputersandotherdigitaltechnologyallowsonetoquicklygain______toavarietyofinfo
WhoboughtBuckinghamHouse?
Itisoftensaidthatpolitenesscostsnothing.Infact,itseemsthatalittlemorecourtesycould(1)______businesses£5billi
Thispassageismostprobablyintendedfor
Teddycametomy______withachequeof$200topaymyroomrate,afterIphonedhimthatmywallethadbeenstolen.
随机试题
下列叙述中正确的是()。
肝硬化内分泌失调引起的表现为( )
与硅钨酸试液反应生成淡红色沉淀的药物是在120°加热3分钟或在盐酸中于4~90℃加热2小时可以消旋化的药物是
股东必须亲自出席股东大会。
兴华股份有限公司(以下简称兴华公司)为华东地区的一家上市公司,兴华公司2008年至2010年与投资性房地产有关的业务资料如下:(1)2008年1月,兴华公司购入一幢建筑物用于出租,价款为8000000元,款项以银行存款转账支付。不考虑其他相关税费。
2005年11月天然原油的生产量为()万吨。2005年11月火电的生产量比水电的生产量约多()亿千瓦小时。
2015年,安徽省委省政府推进精准扶贫、精准脱贫,在3000个贫困村实施了整村推进工程,减少贫困人口()人。
M城位于E湖边,C城位于M城西边,S城在C城的东边,D城在R城的东边,又在S城与C城的西边,最靠西的城市是()。
根据以下资料,回答以下题。2013年10月份,社会消费品零售总额21491亿元,同比名义增长13.3%。其中,限额以上企业(单位)消费品零售额10579亿元,增长12.4%。1~10月份,社会消费品零售总额190308亿元,同比增长13.0%。按经
TermiteIngenuityTermites,socialinsectswhichliveincoloniesthat,insomespecies,contain2millionindividualsormo
最新回复
(
0
)