30 Years of Keyness – in honour of Mike Scott

Event details 
2026 marks the 30th anniversary of the introduction in the first release of WordSmith[1] of the ‘KeyWords tool’. First introduced during Mike’s time at the University of Liverpool (1990-2009), Wordsmith tools is now in its 9th version[2] and has become a mainstay piece of software for corpus linguists and has been instrumental in positioning keywords – words that are statistically significant in one set of texts (a corpus) when compared with another – and keyword methods as a cornerstone of corpus linguistic research.

This free, hybrid symposium celebrates Liverpool’s history in the introduction and popularisation of ‘keyness’ by bringing together researchers connected with Liverpool (past and present) to outline the history and importance of ‘keywords’, as well as to engage with challenges and opportunities for future research concerned with ‘keyness’.

For those planning to attend in person, please book a ticket online as soon as possible to avoid disappointment (50 in-person limit). Catering provided.
[1] Scott, M., 1996, WordSmith Tools, Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-458984-6
[2] Scott, M., 2024, WordSmith Tools version 9 (64 bit version) Stroud: Lexical Analysis Software.

This event is generously supported by the Language, Data and Society (LANDS) research centre

Schedule (subject to change)

10:00-10:30 Welcome Light refreshments (coffee, tea)
10:30-11:00 Tony McEnery – “A Key, But Which Lock?”
11:00-11:30 Michaela Mahlberg & Andreas Wagner – “Water key words and digital environmental humanities”
11:30-12:30 Mike Scott – keynote
12:30-13:30 Lunch
13:30-14:00 Mark McGlashan – “Keywords of the Manosphere”
14:00-14:30 Isobelle Clarke – “Keyword Co-occurrence Analysis”
14:30-15:00 Close