Methods, Data, and Conceptual Change: Reflections from Two Quantitative Diachronic Case Studies

Catherine Wong; Bách Phan-Tất; Susan Fitzmaurice

doi:10.5334/johd.554

Methods, Data, and Conceptual Change: Reflections from Two Quantitative Diachronic Case Studies

Journal of Open Humanities Data

Volume 12 (2026): Issue 1

By: Catherine Wong , Bách Phan-Tất and Susan Fitzmaurice

Open Access

|Aug 2026

Abstract

This discussion paper reflects on how quantitative approaches to historical linguistics interact with dataset properties. Drawing on two worked examples, we examine English data using quad-based concept modelling of Early Modern English discourse in EEBO-TCP (c.1470s–1690s; ~765M words) alongside SynFlow analysis of scientific writing in Royal Society Corpus 6.0.4 (1750–1799; drawn from a ~78.6M-token open corpus). Through parallel comparison, the paper explores how each approach operationalises concepts, the data assumptions they entail, and the diachronic interpretations they support. We argue that comparative methodological reflection clarifies the limits of purely lexical, frequency-based approaches and highlights how dataset structure shapes the kinds of semantic change that quantitative methods can reliably detect.

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Articles in this issue

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/johd.554 | Journal eISSN: 2059-481X

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Language: English

Page range: 109 - 109

Submitted on: Apr 10, 2026

Accepted on: Jul 18, 2026

Published on: Aug 13, 2026

Published by: Ubiquity Press

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

diachronic linguistics,

historical English corpora,

conceptual change,

methodological comparison,

quantitative methods

© 2026 Catherine Wong, Bách Phan-Tất, Susan Fitzmaurice, published by Ubiquity Press
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 12 (2026): Issue 1