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Linguistic Convergence and Divergence in Middle Earth

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Virtual Sociocultural Convergence

Abstract

While respecting efforts to develop general theories of language, this chapter illustrates data-centric atheoretical scholarship through an avatar based on Angus McIntosh (1914–2005), after whom the center for historical linguistics at University of Edinburgh is named, in Lord of the Rings Online. This massively multiplayer online game (MMO) was based on the Hobbit novels by J. R. R. Tolkien, who was McIntosh’s teacher and life-long friend, so in this case there is a very close affinity between the social scientist and the environment his avatar explores. McIntosh first began working with computers as one of the scholarly leaders at the tremendously important British cryptography facility of the Second World War, Bletchley Park, and later wrote about the use of grammar in computerized language translation. The chapter analyzes 3194 avatar names, draws upon a 100,000-word transcription of tavern chat, and compares German-language with English-language versions of this intellectually rich MMO. As evidence of how much effort is often required for really thorough research in virtual worlds, fully 768 h were invested in operating five avatars, including taking one to all regions of this huge virtual world, and to the maximum level 100 of experience. The history of human language has been marked by constant interplay between convergence and divergence, as new words are shared between linguistic communities, and social cleavages facilitate linguistic differentiation, simulated in this virtual world.

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    William Sims Bainbridge

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Bainbridge, W.S. (2016). Linguistic Convergence and Divergence in Middle Earth. In: Virtual Sociocultural Convergence. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33020-4_7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33020-4_7

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