3. Language as Data
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Data
- Latin word datum: something given
- collective information, often numerical: analysis, reference, computation
- in Public
- big data, AI, digitization
- abstract, impersonal, intimidating public image
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Algorithms
- Set of rules or procedures for calculation or problem-solving.
- implemented in Python, Java
- process input data → output
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Two Approaches to Conceptualizing Data:
- Traditional View: data as given, objective, basis for knowledge.
- Critical View: data is always subjective
- selection, contextualization, reinterpretation
- Data is not neutral but shaped by social, cultural, and institutional contexts.
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Critical Data Studies
- Data reflects power structures (e.g., corporate control, algorithmic biases).
- Data is cooked, not raw.
- Biased data systems:
- Gender and racial biases in facial recognition.
- Word associations in LLMs: man → engineer | woman → homemaker
- Algorithms optimized for efficiency, not for individual and social.
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Applications
- Data Journalism
- analyze structure information → uncover stories
- data-driven campaigns: big-data & politics
- disinformation, post-truth
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Structuralist Model of Language
- Ferdinand de Saussure
- Language as system of oppositions with signs
- signifier (form)
- signified (meaning)
- identity of linguistic sign comes from relational opposition to others
- Chess Game: relationships & rules > physical pieces
- Critique
- structuralist model focuses on abstract systems
- disregards material and social contexts.
- limited for empirical research
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Pierce’s Semiotics
- 3 types of sign relationships
- Indexical: a real connection — smoke → fire |
- Iconic: resemblance — portrait or imitation
- Symbolic: arbitrary association — words, traffic lights
- emphasizes the material and contextual dimensions of signs → empirical
- words as material entities (sounds, written forms) are tied to contexts.
- Indexicality:
- a bridge between material and semiotic dimensions
- explains how language interacts with social reality
- köpek: k-ö-p-e-k → material existence
- köpek gibi çalışmak → contextual
- Language is not just an abstract entity that is isolated in itself as Saussure believes.
- It has a material existence
- in constant interaction with social world
- new meanings arise contextually
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Combining Perspectives
- words = material entities (objects to be measured) + signs (units with meaning)
- Data Collection and Preparation in Discourse Analysis:
- Data Cleaning: Removing unnecessary elements.
- Markup: Adding metadata using formats like XML and TEI.
- Segmentation: Dividing text into units (sentences, words) for analysis.
- Annotation: Adding syntactic, semantic, functional tags for deeper analysis.
- Challenges:
- variability in annotation models & algorithms → inconsistent results
- interpretive decisions in segmentation and tagging influence findings
- Awareness of segmentation, tagging, and annotation methods is crucial for valid and reliable results.
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Language and Chess
- how systems function through rules, interactions, and values
- Saussure:
- values are relational, not intrinsic properties
- synchronic linguistics: language at a given moment (chess positions)
- diachronic linguistics: historical changes (sequence of moves)
- language is a system of pure values, independent of natural data
- unlike chess (intentionally), speech often operates unconsciously
- Hjelmslev:
- language is a semiotic structure: form matters, substance doesn’t
- Semiotics: 2-plane systems (form + content), like language.
- Symbolic: single-plane, algebra, pure chess rules without interpretation
- language is a form system.
- focus is on form of relationships, not content
- Wittgenstein:
- understanding what does “The King” mean requires knowing the rules.
- words acquire meaning through use within rules, not as isolated.
- linguistic activities (commands, jokes, stories) as *language games
- Greimas:
- focus from systems and rules → players’ actions and interactions
- chess is about strategies: persuasion, deception, manipulation
- they are parallel human communication → intentions and goals
- communication is less about “truth-telling”, more about influencing others
4. Michel Foucault
- Knowledge ↔ Society ↔ Language
- this relationship shapes our understanding of the world
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Power / Knowledge
- Foucault’s discourse analysis focus
- they influence each other.
- power produces knowledge
- knowledge shapes power relations
- Knowledge is not neutral. → collection, organization and interpretation
- is not accumulation of objective facts.
- is produced.
- is shaped by historical & social context.
- biology, economics, psychiatry are produced.
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Discourse — “regime of truth”
- is more than language.
- rules, practices, statements within a historical context.
- governs how and what we talk about, understand.
- rationalizes actions, shapes social norms.
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Episteme
- set of unconscious rules that structure knowledge in a given historical period.
- Renaissance → Classical → Modern
- the way we think changes over time.
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Archaeology of Knowledge
- uncovering the conditions of possibility of knowledge.
- how practices systematically construct objects of knowledge.
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Power
- is productive, relational and dynamic.
- produces subjects: “the mad | the sane”
- 🚫 boss → power → employee — unidirectional
- ✅ boss ← power → employee — produces relationships
- two forms of power
- repressive: coercion, violence — visible
- normalizing: knowledge, norms, beliefs, internalization — invisible
- exists in all human interactions → micropower
- institutions like families, schools, and workplaces
- shapes thoughts, actions, relationships.
- neither good or bad; it is a condition of social life.
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Foucault and Linguistics
- 🚫 formal linguistics → no universals, everything is contextual
- analysis of language within its social and historical context.
| Madness and Civilization | Discipline and Punish | The History of Sexuality |
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| Psychiatry shaped how society treated and categorized the mad. | Crime and punishment discourse justify the control of individuals. | Defines what is normal and abnormal. |
| Created social norms around mental health. | Normalize disciplinary practices. | Influences individual’s understanding of sexuality. |
| Doctors, priests, and legal authorities | Surveillance, internalization, population, security, bio-politics | Confession in religion or therapy |