Number Norms: English Style Guides and the Writing of Numerals, 1800-2000

This project is closed.

Faculty Researcher: Stephen Chrisomalis

Contact Details

Stephen Chrisomalis
chrisomalis@wayne.edu

Description

Style guides (e.g., Chicago Manual of Style) provide a valuable insight into attitudes and knowledge about language (metalanguage). This study will collect and code data from style guides published in the English-speaking world with a focus on the 19th and 20th centuries. Specifically, the project will look at guidelines for how numbers are to be written - e.g. 19th vs. nineteenth; 1000 vs. 1,000; four hundred and three vs. four hundred three.

Qualifications

Undergraduate majors in Anthropology, Linguistics, Mathematics, Communication are especially welcome to apply. Competency in Excel is desirable. Students who have taken ANT/LIN3310 (Language and Culture) will have first priority.

Project Timeline

Spring/Summer 2022 (possibly Fall 2022 also)

Duties

Collecting an archive of digitized style guides from the relevant period
Identifying relevant sections of style guides
Transcribing text and coding data
Total time: 5 hours per week minimum.

Last Updated

October 25, 2021