Jacob Thaisen
Short biography
I grew up in suburban Copenhagen, write about medieval England, and live in present-day Norway.
Note
My surname is pronounced [ˈtɑ̈jˀsən]. It is spelled with <sen> rather than <son>, as is common for Danish and Norwegian surnames.
Another note
New projects and new collaborations are of potential interest by definition. Feel free to contact me.
Academic interests
History of the English language, Manuscript studies, Dialectology, Sociolinguistics, Written language, Quantitative methodologies
PhD in Medieval English, De Montfort University, Leicester, supervised by Norman F. Blake
Master's in English and Humanities Computing, University of Copenhagen, supervised by Arne Zettersten
Associate Professor, University of Stavanger, 2010-16
Lecturer, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, 2005-10
I have rarely taught computational linguistics/digital humanities, although I have some professional and educational background in commercial machine translation and machine-assisted translation as well as in electronic editing, markup languages, and language models.
Variationist sociolinguistics and dialectology inform my research and publications, which have focused on orthographic and paleographical variation in medieval English and have usually employed quantitative analysis of quantitative data. It seems to me that the availability of diplomatic electronic transcripts of complete manuscripts opens up possibilities that have yet to be fully explored. In particular, NLP tools and multivariate statistical testing (such as regression) are standard tools in other areas of linguistics but are not yet commonly applied in studies of the scribal copy. They can help us identify the true predictor variables.
Inspirational quote:
“Computers make excellent and efficient servants, but I have no wish to serve under them.”
-- Mr Spock in the Star Trek episode called "The Ultimate Computer" (1968).
Courses taught
I have taught and examined a variety of courses at BA, MA, and PhD levels. At UiO, I regularly teach these ones:
- Middle English, introduction (BA level, ENG2166)
- Middle English, introduction (MA level, ENG4166)
- English grammar (ENG1100)
- English phonetics and intonation (ENG1103)
- English medieval manuscript studies (ENG4120)
Awards
- Residential Fellowship, Netherlands Institute of Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
- Residential Fellowship, Medieval Institute, University of Notre Dame
Appointments
- Coordinator of the doctoral programme in Literacy Studies, University of Stavanger, 2011-14
Partners
Useful links
R (software environment for statistical computing)
SRILM (SRI Language Modeling Toolkit)
Advisory boards
Studia Neofilologiczne
Studia Anglica Posnaniensia
Former and current doctoral students
Hildegunn Støle
Kjetil Thengs
Geir Bergstrøm
Sara Alban Barcia
Publications
- Thaisen, Jacob (2020). Classifying scripts, with particular reference to Anglicana and Secretary, In Rodrigo Pérez Lorido; Carlos Prado-Alonso & Paula Rodríguez-Puente (ed.), Of ye Olde Englisch Langage and Textes: New Perspectives on Old and Middle English Language and Literature. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISBN 978-3-631-82133-6. 7. s 163 - 183 Full text in Research Archive.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2019). The Round Allograph of <r> in Late Middle English. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia. ISSN 0081-6272. 53(1), s 129- 144 . doi: 10.2478/stap-2018-0006 Full text in Research Archive.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2017). Secretary letter-shapes in County Durham. Folia Linguistica Historica. ISSN 0168-647X. 38, s 263- 280 . doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/flih-2017-0009 Full text in Research Archive.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2014). Initial Position in the Middle English Verse Line. English Studies: A Journal of English Language. ISSN 0013-838X. 95(5), s 500- 513 . doi: 10.1080/0013838X.2014.924275
- Thaisen, Jacob (2013). Gamelyn's Place among the Early Exemplars for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Neophilologus: An International Journal of Modern and Mediaeval Language and Literature. ISSN 0028-2677. 97(2), s 395- 415 . doi: 10.1007/s11061-012-9315-3
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). A Probabilistic Analysis of a Middle English Text, In Brent Nelson & Melissa Terras (ed.), Digitizing Medieval and Early Modern Material Culture. Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. ISBN 978-0-86698-474-4. kapittel. s 171 - 200
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). Gamelyn’s Place among the Early Exemplars for Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Neophilologus: An International Journal of Modern and Mediaeval Language and Literature. ISSN 0028-2677. . doi: 10.1007/s11061-012-9315-3
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow (2011). Adam Pinkhurst's short and long forms, In Jacob Stig Rønnow Thaisen & Hanna Rutkowska (ed.), Scribes, printers, and the accidentals of their texts. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISBN 978-3-631-60712-1. s 73 - 90
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow & Rutkowska, Hanna (2011). Introduction, In Jacob Stig Rønnow Thaisen & Hanna Rutkowska (ed.), Scribes, printers, and the accidentals of their texts. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISBN 978-3-631-60712-1. Introduction. s 9 - 13
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow & Rutkowska, Hanna (ed.) (2011). Scribes, printers, and the accidentals of their texts. Peter Lang Publishing Group. ISBN 978-3-631-60712-1. 209 s.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2017). Mediaeval Texts in their Material Context.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2017). Medieval Texts in Their Material Context.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2017). Quantitative Analysis of Middle English Palaeographical Data.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2017). Secretary letter-shapes in County Durham.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2017). Some remarks on the diffusion of letter shapes in late medieval England.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2016). Northern Middle English Palaeography.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2016). Palaeographical Innovation and the Late Middle English Dialect Map.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2016). Quantitative Modelling of Middle English Palaeography.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2013). Obituary: Norman Francis Blake (1934-2012). English Studies: A Journal of English Language. ISSN 0013-838X. 94(1), s 120- 122 . doi: 10.1080/0013838X.2012.732770
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). Are letter shapes universal, regional, local, or idiosyncratic?.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). How Middle English Scribes Avoided Eyeskip When They Copied Texts.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). Initial Position in the Middle English Verse Line.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). N-gram modelling of Middle English spelling.
- Thaisen, Jacob (2012). Standardising Usages and the Auchinleck Manuscript.
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow (2012). The Tale of Gamelyn of the Canterbury Tales. Studia Anglica Posnaniensia. ISSN 0081-6272. 47(1), s 73- 80 . doi: 10.2478/v10121-010-0021-6
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow (2011). Modelling Middle English.
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow (2011). Modelling Middle English.
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow (2011). Probabilistic Modelling of Middle English: The Auchinleck manuscript.
- Thaisen, Jacob Stig Rønnow (2011). Scripts, Maps, and Manuscripts.