Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005)
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Christian Mair
Abstract
The chapter studies the intertwined topics of Empire, migration and race in the Hansard Corpus (1803–2005). The British Empire emerges as a prominent topic from the mid-nineteenth century, but rapidly recedes into insignificance in the two decades following World War II. Emigration dominates in the nineteenth century, whereas immigration takes over in the twentieth century. References to race remain frequent throughout, though in the context of two contrasting discourses. Older uses show a broad range of adjective + noun combinations classifying the ‘human race’ on the basis of geographical or physical characteristics (e.g. English race, Indian race, white/black/brown/yellow race) or evaluating groups within a colonialist ideology of white supremacy (e.g. backward/advanced races). Recent and contemporary use of the term is dominated by high-frequency nominal compounds belonging to the vocabulary of identity politics (e.g. race relations). The study situates itself at the interface of historical linguistics, colonial history and cultural studies. Methodologically, it raises the question of the future relationship between corpus linguistics and the Digital Humanities.
Abstract
The chapter studies the intertwined topics of Empire, migration and race in the Hansard Corpus (1803–2005). The British Empire emerges as a prominent topic from the mid-nineteenth century, but rapidly recedes into insignificance in the two decades following World War II. Emigration dominates in the nineteenth century, whereas immigration takes over in the twentieth century. References to race remain frequent throughout, though in the context of two contrasting discourses. Older uses show a broad range of adjective + noun combinations classifying the ‘human race’ on the basis of geographical or physical characteristics (e.g. English race, Indian race, white/black/brown/yellow race) or evaluating groups within a colonialist ideology of white supremacy (e.g. backward/advanced races). Recent and contemporary use of the term is dominated by high-frequency nominal compounds belonging to the vocabulary of identity politics (e.g. race relations). The study situates itself at the interface of historical linguistics, colonial history and cultural studies. Methodologically, it raises the question of the future relationship between corpus linguistics and the Digital Humanities.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on parliamentary discourse 1
- Chapter 1. Speech in the British Hansard 17
- Chapter 2. Salient differences between Australian oral parliamentary discourse and its official written records 54
- Chapter 3. Hansard at Huddersfield 89
- Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005) 118
- Chapter 5. Leaving the EU out of the ingroup 142
- Chapter 6. From masters and servants to employers and employees 166
- Chapter 7. From criminal lunacy to mental disorder 194
- Chapter 8. “The job requires considerable expertise” 227
- Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change 250
- Chapter 10. Language variation in parliamentary speech in Suriname 277
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse 308
- Chapter 12. Colloquialisation, compression and democratisation in British parliamentary debates 336
- Index 373
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- Perspectives on parliamentary discourse 1
- Chapter 1. Speech in the British Hansard 17
- Chapter 2. Salient differences between Australian oral parliamentary discourse and its official written records 54
- Chapter 3. Hansard at Huddersfield 89
- Chapter 4. Empire, migration and race in the British parliament (1803–2005) 118
- Chapter 5. Leaving the EU out of the ingroup 142
- Chapter 6. From masters and servants to employers and employees 166
- Chapter 7. From criminal lunacy to mental disorder 194
- Chapter 8. “The job requires considerable expertise” 227
- Chapter 9. Processing and prescriptivism as constraints on language variation and change 250
- Chapter 10. Language variation in parliamentary speech in Suriname 277
- Chapter 11. Morphosyntactic and pragmatic variation in conditional constructions in English and Spanish parliamentary discourse 308
- Chapter 12. Colloquialisation, compression and democratisation in British parliamentary debates 336
- Index 373
