The Imitation Game: On the Sociological Reconstruction of the Historical Semantics of "Imitation" with Text Mining Methods

研究建议是基于对18世纪“模仿”的意义和评价的重大概念变化的观察。虽然模仿以前被视为稳定社会秩序的一种方式，但它越来越多地被解释为危害社会，在这种社会中，稳定的保证矛盾地出现在新奇、偏差和奇点中。这个研究项目的目的是重建语义变化过程的历史、语言和社会结构条件。因此，它满足了最近一种社会学论述的愿望，到目前为止，这种论述主要集中在日常模仿实践的内隐认知、情感、身体和物质方面。虽然这一论述将模仿视为一种非历史的人类学普遍现象，但“模仿”在这里也被理解为一个历史上可变的概念，它决定性地影响着在某个历史时期如何观察和评估某种社会行为。这种方法不仅可以得出关于社会结构长期变化的社会学结论。它还为“模仿”作为一个基本的社会学概念的历史反思铺平了道路，最后，为“模仿”的跨学科思想史做出了贡献，迄今为止，“模仿”一直是人文学科辩论的主题。在方法上，本研究项目采用系统理论方法进行语义分析。重点是探索社会结构的转变与中心概念和关键区别形式的语义学之间的相互关系。这种方法与探索性文本挖掘方法的应用相辅相成，探索性文本挖掘方法越来越多地用于分析大型文本语料库的概念历史。研究资助使申请人能够在乌得勒支大学的跨学科环境中学习文本挖掘方法所需的编程技能。此外，它促进了快速发展的数字人文学科领域的国际网络，并在Emmy Noether计划的框架内满足申请跨学科DFG初级研究小组的正式要求。

The research proposal is based on the observation of a significant conceptual change in the meaning and evaluation of “imitation” during the 18th century. Whereas imitation was previously seen as a way of stabilizing social order, it is increasingly interpreted as endangering a society in which guarantees of stability are paradoxically seen in novelties, deviations and singularities.The aim of this research project is to reconstruct the historical, linguistic and socio-structural conditions of this process of semantic change. Thus, it fulfills a desideratum of a more recent sociological discourse, which until now has primarily focused on implicit cognitive, affective, bodily and material aspects of everyday practices of imitation. While this discourse regards imitation rather as an ahistorical anthropological universal, "imitation" is also understood here as a historically variable concept, which decisively influences how a certain social behavior is observed and evaluated in a certain historical period. This approach not only allows for sociological conclusions about the long-term change of social structures. It also paves the way for a historically informed reflection on "imitation" as a basic sociological concept and, finally, for contributions to an interdisciplinary history of ideas on "imitation", which has so far rather been the subject of debates within the Humanities.Methodologically, the research project follows a systems-theoretical approach to semantic analysis. The focus is on exploring the interrelationship between the transformation of social structures on the one hand and semantics in the form of central concepts and key distinctions on the other. This approach is complemented by the application of explorative text mining methods, which are increasingly being used in conceptual history for the analysis of large text corpora.The research grant enables the applicant to learn the necessary programming skills for text mining methods in an interdisciplinary environment at Utrecht University. In addition, it facilitates international networking in the fast-growing field of Digital Humanities and the fulfilment of formal requirements for applying for an interdisciplinary DFG junior research group within the framework of the Emmy Noether Programme.