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
36
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
Whenacountry______itstechnology,thetraditionalskillsandwaysoflifehopefullywillnotcompletelydieout.
Whenanumberofpeople______togetherinaconversationalknot,eachindividualexpresseshispositioninthegroupbywhereh
Cultureinfluencesanindividual’shealthbeliefs,behaviours,activitiesandmedicaltreatmentoutcomes.(1)______thesignifica
Foralongtime,newspapershavebeenthechiefmeansbywhichpeoplegetthemselves(1)______.Thenewspapers,daily,evening,a
WhichofthefollowingitalicizedpartsisNOTanattributiveclause?
Myjobistoproviderelevant,factuallyaccurateinformationthatisinteresting,usefulandentertainingtomyreaders,bethe
Myjobistoproviderelevant,factuallyaccurateinformationthatisinteresting,usefulandentertainingtomyreaders,bethe
Theboarddeemediturgentthatthesefiles______rightaway.
Theyoungmanassuredthebossthathewould______allhisenergiestodothejobwell.
Cathy’swallethasallthefollowingEXCEPT
随机试题
美国伦理学家雅克·保罗·蒂洛提出的人道主义伦理学原则同样适用于大众传播与新闻事业,其中不包括
在以下公文办理程序中属收文办理环节的有()
口腔主要的生态系不包括
为了防止压力容器及其附件上由于静电聚焦而引发燃爆事故,在含有一氧化碳、氢、酒精、液化石油气等易燃介质的容器和管道上应考虑装设()。
不具体使用专项资金的事业单位,可以不设置“专款支出”科目。( )
在发生全球危机那样的极为紧急的时刻,投机活动猖獗,利率急剧上升,一切都变化不定,保护好自己的财产是至关重要的。管理和经济领域的专家认为:储蓄仍然是最安全的避难所,尽管收益非常低,但是把钱存起来实际上不会遇到风险。即使存款的银行破产,政府也保证归还储户一定数
利用图像编辑软件可以对图像进行各种编辑,下列说法错误的是()
中国提出建立“和谐世界”符合世界发展潮流,具有鲜明的时代特征。这是因为()。
欧债危机在2012年继续恶化,_______了世界其他国家的经济增长。美国虽然没有像欧洲那样陷入第二轮的经济衰退,但美国的经济增长仍然非常_______,只有2%左右。欧债危机、美国的“财政悬崖”及南于钓鱼岛问题导致的日趋恶化的中日经贸关系,有可能____
在数据库系统中,数据的(57)是指保护数据库,以防止不合法的使用所造成的数据泄漏、更改或破坏;数据的(58)是指数据库正确性和相容性,是防止合法用户使用数据库时向数据库加入不符合语义的数据。(58)
最新回复
(
0
)