{"id":42,"date":"2026-01-13T13:57:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T12:57:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/?page_id=42"},"modified":"2026-01-13T20:18:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T19:18:28","slug":"international-online-workshop","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/?page_id=42","title":{"rendered":"Eventi"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>International online workshop<\/strong> &#8211; <strong>Department of Humanities<\/strong> (DISUM) &#8211; <strong>University of Catania<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/meetup-join\/19%3ameeting_MTdkYzRiMTAtZjRiMC00NGJiLTliODEtYWEzNjc2ZjA4ZDNm%40thread.v2\/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22baeefbc8-3c8b-4382-9126-e86bfef46ce6%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2235e87c8e-0bf8-4e3c-a969-f3c01b6266a4%22%7d\">Link Teams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong><em>Digital Tools and Corpus-Based Approaches in (Arabic) Sociolinguistics: Methods, Challenges, and Cross-Disciplinary Insights<\/em><\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-post-date\"><time datetime=\"2026-02-11T19:55:00\">11 Febbraio 2026<\/time><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-layout-flex wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>This workshop is intended for <strong>students and researchers<\/strong> interested in the intersection of sociolinguistics, corpus-based analysis, and digital tools, with a particular focus on Arabic and its varieties. Held online on <strong>February 11, 2026<\/strong>, the workshop aims to bring together scholars from diverse disciplinary backgrounds to reflect on <strong>methodological challenges and opportunities in the corpus-based analysis of Arabic sociolinguistic data<\/strong>. While Arabic and its many varieties (Standard and non-standard, spoken and written) are central to the discussion, the workshop also seeks to foster a <strong>cross-disciplinary dialogue<\/strong> with researchers who, though not necessarily specialists in Arabic, work with digital tools and corpus methods in sociolinguistics and related fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Arabic presents a particularly rich and complex terrain for sociolinguistic inquiry, given its <strong>diglossic structure<\/strong>, <strong>regional variation<\/strong>, and the interplay of <strong>spoken and written forms<\/strong>, often shaped by <strong>multilingualism<\/strong> and <strong>language contact<\/strong>. These features, combined with the increasing availability of digital data and tools, raise important methodological questions for how we <strong>collect<\/strong>, <strong>process<\/strong>, and <strong>analyze<\/strong> linguistic data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Participants are invited to explore both practical and theoretical questions related to the use of <strong>IT tools<\/strong>, <strong>natural language processing<\/strong>, and <strong>corpus-based methodologies<\/strong> in sociolinguistic research, with a particular (but not exclusive) focus on Arabic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Contributions may address, among others, the following topics:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Designing and processing corpora involving multiple varieties of Arabic (e.g., Standard, dialectal, mixed-language)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Methodological strategies for dealing with mixed data (written\/oral, standard\/non-standard, monolingual\/multilingual)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Using corpora to analyze stylistic variation, register shifts, and genre diversity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Challenges in annotating and tagging sociolinguistically relevant features in under-resourced languages or dialects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Applications of NLP tools to Arabic and implications for sociolinguistic interpretation<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Visualization and quantification of sociolinguistic phenomena through corpus data<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Reflections on tool selection, customization, or development in light of specific linguistic and sociolinguistic questions<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Comparative methodological perspectives: what can be learned from working across different languages and data types?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Theoretical implications of corpus-based approaches for analyzing variation, identity, and language practices<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Each presentation will be allocated <strong>20 minutes<\/strong>, followed by <strong>10 minutes for discussion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We welcome contributions that are empirical, theoretical, or methodological in nature, and particularly encourage interdisciplinary perspectives that bridge sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, and computational methods. We look forward to a lively and generative exchange on how digital tools and corpus-based approaches can enrich the study of Arabic sociolinguistics\u2014and beyond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Workshop programme<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>February 11, 2026<\/strong> \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/teams.microsoft.com\/l\/meetup-join\/19%3ameeting_MTdkYzRiMTAtZjRiMC00NGJiLTliODEtYWEzNjc2ZjA4ZDNm%40thread.v2\/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22baeefbc8-3c8b-4382-9126-e86bfef46ce6%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%2235e87c8e-0bf8-4e3c-a969-f3c01b6266a4%22%7d\">Teams<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>8:45 <strong>Welcoming participants<\/strong> &#8211; Rosa Pennisi (University of Catania): Introduction to the workshop<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>1<sup>st<\/sup> Section<\/strong> (9:00 \u2013 10:30)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>9:00 \u2013 9:30 <strong>Veronika Laippala<\/strong> (University of Turku), <em>Tracing universals of register variation in masses of web data \u2013 a machine learning approach<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>9:30 \u2013 10:00 <strong>May Rostom<\/strong> (Iremam, University of Aix-Marseille), <em>Methods, challenges, and strategies adopted to analyse and represent mixed Arabic repertoire employed in digital contexts: reflections on a case study<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:00 \u2013 10:30 <strong>Rosa Pennisi<\/strong> (University of Catania), <em>From Posts to Podcasts: Corpus-Based Methods for Mixed (Moroccan) Arabic Across Written and Oral Data<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Pause (10:30 \u2013 10:45)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>2<sup>nd<\/sup> Section<\/strong> (10:45 \u2013 12:15)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>10:45 \u2013 11:15 <strong>Ibraam Abdelsayed<\/strong> (University for Foreigners of Siena), <em>Building the <\/em>LAPE Corpus<em>: Challenges in Transcription, Lemmatization, and Statistical Processing of Spoken Egyptian Arabic<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>11:15 \u2013 11:45 <strong>Marco Venuti<\/strong> (University of Catania), <em>Exploring identity on 4chan: the view of the people on Migration<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>11:45 \u2013 12:15 <strong>Antonino Andrea Belfiore<\/strong> &amp; <strong>Ludovica Blangiforti<\/strong> (University of Catania), <em>Ideological lexicon and textual frequencies: A data-driven approach to comparing Arabic and Western Media<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Organizing Committee<\/strong>: Rosa Pennisi (University of Catania)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For further information, please email Rosa Pennisi (rosa.pennisi@unict.it)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\n<div style=\"height:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-query alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-query-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-query-no-results\">\n\n<p>This workshop is part of the activities of the SABIRANET Project (CUP E63C24001920006; ID SOE2024_0000078), funded by the European Union \u2013 <em>NextGenerationEU<\/em> under Italy\u2019s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR), Young Researcher 2024 \u2013 SoE line, administered by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"726\" height=\"234\" src=\"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-43\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image.png 726w, https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-300x97.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 726px) 100vw, 726px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\n<div style=\"height:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns alignwide is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-65e523f9 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-query is-layout-flow wp-block-query-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-query is-layout-flow wp-block-query-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:var(--wp--preset--spacing--70)\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-query alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-query-is-layout-flow\">\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator alignfull has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:var(--wp--preset--spacing--30)\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignfull is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\" style=\"margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-group alignwide is-layout-flow wp-block-group-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">Twenty Twenty-Five<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-small-font-size\">rosa.pennisi@unict.it<br><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International online workshop &#8211; Department of Humanities (DISUM) &#8211; University of Catania &#8211; Link Teams Digital Tools and Corpus-Based Approaches [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-42","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65,"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/42\/revisions\/65"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sabiranet.unict.it\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}