Course 3: Digital Linguistics

Cerstin Mahlow · ZHAW

Lecturer

Cerstin Mahlow is Professor of Digital Linguistics and Writing Process Research at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), where she co-leads the Laboratory for Digital Linguistics and the writing process research group. Her research focuses on formal modeling of linguistic phenomena, natural language processing for writing support, and the computational analysis of text production processes including drafting, revision, and AI-assisted writing. She has developed NLP-based methods for visualizing and analyzing how people produce written language, connecting theoretical linguistics with practical tool development. Her work bridges computational morphology, digital transformation, and pedagogical applications of language technology.

🤖 Bio generated by AI from public academic profile. Homepage · ORCID

Lecture Overview

Overview

Mahlow defines digital linguistics through formalization, explicit modeling, and implementation. Rather than treating it as a synonym for computational linguistics, she presents it as a field concerned with making language data explicit enough to be modeled, processed, and used for writing research and tool building.

Main Points

Digital linguistics can refer to digitized language data, language use in digital environments, or the formal modeling of linguistic phenomena.
Mahlow’s own emphasis is on formal modeling: if a computer is meant to work with language data, the data must be represented explicitly and coherently.
She connects this to writing research, where the object of study is not just finished text but the entire writing process, including drafts, revisions, logging data, interviews, observation, and eye tracking.
The lecture reviews writing models such as Flower and Hayes to show how researchers describe planning, drafting, revising, and recursive writing behavior.
A core goal is practical: better models of writing should support tools and services that help people write more effectively.

Examples Mentioned

Born-digital and digitized language data
Writing process logs and version histories
Formal models inspired by mathematical linguistics
Cognitive models of writing

Source transcript: transcripts/Course 3_Mahlow_DigitalLinguistics.txt

Reuse

CC BY-SA 4.0