Space and Time Represented in Text: A Context Analysis of Texas Historical Markers

Keywords: collocation, corpus linguistics, historical GIS, historical marker, Texas
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Saturday
Session Start / End Time: 2/26/2022 02:00 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/26/2022 03:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 22

Abstract

The State of Texas addresses its authorized version of spatial narratives by its historical markers. Standing on the intersection of space, time, and text, the historical markers describe diverse races and ethnicities in positive or negative contexts. The objective of this study is to reveal the way those racial/ethnic groups were described in the Texas historical markers and their varying patterns over space and time. GIS visualization on one hand, specifically overlaying marker locations over the population heatmap, showed general concentration of markers in Eastern Texas and most populated cities. The temporal separation by decades underpinned the intense centralization of markers over time. Among the racial/ethnic groups, markers mentioning American Indians implied a positive sign by its large numbers and even distribution across the territory. Corpus linguistics on the other hand, used the concept of collocation to examine emotional contexts associated with each racial/ethnic group. Despite the positive nuance found in GIS visualization, the collocation analysis revealed absence of African Americans and hostility towards American Indians in the earlier Texan history. However, more recent marker texts were dedicated to promoting Americanization and reconciliation of the minority groups. Once combined, GIS and corpus linguistics provided not only quantitative grounds, but also possibilities of qualitative context analysis. Both disciplines must be considered at the same time in context analysis, in order to avoid misleading conclusions from a single method.