The distinctiveness of Quaker prose, 1650-1699: a corpus-based enquiry

This study ascertains what is recognisably distinctive about seventeenth-century Quaker prose compared to other contemporary varieties of prose, and identifies characteristic features of that style. By compiling and investigating through corpus analysis techniques a collection of texts from a wide range of authors, I reveal key elements of the language through quantitative methods not previously applied to this subject. The study is not genre-based nor is it a literary investigation of a single author. The corpus is unusual in comprising texts by many different people within the same community of practice, demonstrating a remarkable uniformity of style and discourse. Typical stylistic features include a speech-like informal register, idiosyncratic syntax and sentence length, and I suggest reasons why Quakers developed this sociolect. In key Quaker lexis I found unexpected frequencies and usage, including findings that differ from assertions in the critical literature. Corpus analysis provides new insights into early Quakerism as well as establishing a new mode of research. My findings clarify understanding of early Quaker writing, experience and practice, dispelling some present-day misconceptions

The Journal of the Friends' Historical Society vol. 66

01 Editorial; 02 'Enemy aliens': Quakers and Germans in Britain during World War I; 03 Penington and Politics: three pamphlets considered; 04 The Buildings of Settle Meeting House in 1678; 05 'Misorcus' and Richard Richardson; 06 Recent Publications; 07 Biographies

A preliminary description of climatology in the western United States

We describe the climatology of the western United States as seen from two 1-month perspectives, January and July 1988, of the National Meteorological Center large-scale global analysis, the Colorado State University Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS), and various station observation sets. An advantage of the NMC analysis and the RAMS is that they provide a continuous field interpolation of the meteorological variables. It is more difficult to describe spatial meteorological fields from the available sparse station networks. We assess accuracy of the NMC analysis and RAMS by finding differences between the analysis, the model, and station values at the stations. From these comparisons, we find that RAMS has much more well-developed mesoscale circulation, especially in the surface wind field. However, RAMS climatological and transient fields do not appear to be substantially closer than the larger-scale analysis to the station observations. The RAMS model does provide other meteorological variables, such as precipitation, which are not readily available from the archives of the global analysis. Thus, RAMS could, at the least, be a tool to augment the NMC large-scale analyses

Some pragmatic aspects of historical minute-making. The distinctiveness of the Quaker approach

Abstract – This paper presents findings from a pragmatic investigation into the historical practice of administrative minute-writing as a text-type developed by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) over three centuries. Why and how have Quakers developed (and still rely on) their unusual decision-recording practice, based as it is on its theological underpinning? Quantitative and qualitative findings are compared with datasets from the historical minute books of some non-Quaker historical institutions. It is evident from this investigation how present-day Quaker minute-writing methods still evince the linguistic usages first developed in the late seventeenth century, notably commissive and directive speech acts, tense usage, and realized with many rich but formulaic expressions. This contrasts with a restricted, narrative discourse favored by the more conventional style found in contemporary organizations of past eras

Quaker Prophetic Language in the Seventeenth Century: A Cross-Disciplinary Case Study

This paper explores three themes: (i) a short, empirical research account of the linguistic realization of seventeenth-century Quaker prophecy using digital corpus-based tools; (ii) a practical description of how those tools can be used in interdisciplinary research such as the prophecy study; and (iii) a reflective section that considers the advantages, potential richness but also challenges of embarking on an integrated piece of research that straddles established academic disciplines. The ‘prophecy’ analysis comments on the nature of prophecy from a linguistic perspective. It includes positive and negative connotations observed in the data contrasted with non-Quaker texts (including the Bible), and also how Quaker prophetic style changed during the second half of the seventeenth century. The secondary purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the value of departing from traditional, well-established approaches in a discipline such as religion. Quaker studies scholars are familiar with the exercise of grappling with unfamiliar approaches, concepts and specialist vocabulary in order to learn about new insights that they might not otherwise encounter. The present quantitative-based study of Quaker prophesying is a fresh attempt to bring new life to this aspect of historical Quaker writings

Quaker Prophetic Language in the Seventeenth Century: A Cross-Disciplinary Case Study

This paper explores three themes: (i) a short, empirical research account of the linguistic realization of seventeenth-century Quaker prophecy using digital corpus-based tools; (ii) a practical description of how those tools can be used in interdisciplinary research such as the prophecy study; and (iii) a reflective section that considers the advantages, potential richness but also challenges of embarking on an integrated piece of research that straddles established academic disciplines. The ‘prophecy’ analysis comments on the nature of prophecy from a linguistic perspective. It includes positive and negative connotations observed in the data contrasted with non-Quaker texts (including the Bible), and also how Quaker prophetic style changed during the second half of the seventeenth century. The secondary purpose of the paper is to demonstrate the value of departing from traditional, well-established approaches in a discipline such as religion. Quaker studies scholars are familiar with the exercise of grappling with unfamiliar approaches, concepts and specialist vocabulary in order to learn about new insights that they might not otherwise encounter. The present quantitative-based study of Quaker prophesying is a fresh attempt to bring new life to this aspect of historical Quaker writings

Regional climatology sensitivity studies

Recent interest in understanding climate and climate change at regional-scales has led to the application of mesoscale models for regional climatology studies. These models can provide an understanding of climate processes in a physically consistent way at much higher resolution than presently offered by GCMs. In recent work, we have tried to address questions in the RAMS mesoscale model to establish confidence in our modeling procedure. A more rigorous comparison of our modeling results with various data sets is reported in Roads et al. (1992). In the present paper, we use two simple numerical experiments to examine the impact of grid configuration on the predicted precipitation field from the RAMS model. We intend to demonstrate that the choice of the lateral boundaries and grid configurations can significantly impact the predicted fields of interest

The Portland region: Where city and suburbs talk to each other ... and sometimes agree

Portland, OR, is often cited as an example of successful regional governance and planning. The metropolitan area appears to match many of the precepts of the popular compact city model of urban growth and to demonstrate the capacity of local and state government to shape growing metropolitan regions. Given this reputation, it is important to evaluate the relevance of the Portland experience for other communities, distinguishing unique local circumstances form generalizable characteristics. This analysis explores the spatial character of metropolitan Portland in the 1990s, summarizes the politics of regional planning, examines weaknesses in the Portland approach, and offers suggestions for other metropolitan areas. The study finds that many of Portland\u27s accomplishments center on urban design, but that the region\u27s most distinguishing characteristics is its attention to political process. The discussion concludes with suggestions about the value of extensive civic discourse,incremental policy making, and institution building