Pub Date : 2022-07-13DOI: 10.1177/09639470221114573
Piergiorgio Trevisan
The representation of fictional minds that work in idiosyncratic ways has received significant attention in the past few decades, particularly regarding characters with some form of developmental delay or pathological disorder. The present paper attempts to investigate the mental functioning of the central character in Daniel Keyes’s widely acclaimed short-story Flowers for Algernon, which presents two versions of the same character: after being introduced as cognitively delayed and with a very low IQ, a futuristic treatment turns him into a neurotypical individual first, and into a genius later. With the unfolding of the plot, however, it soon becomes clear that the character’s mental gains are doomed to deteriorate by the end of the story, when he finds himself as cognitively delayed as he was at the beginning. By building on previous research, this paper is concerned with the effects of drastic changes in mind style in the course of the same story. More particularly, the final aim of this article is to study whether an abrupt shift in mind style may bear consequences on the character’s ability to interact with the other characters. Mental schemata and adherence/flouting of Grice’s maxims are closely investigated in the two versions of the characters, together with analyses of deictical patterns carried out by means of corpus techniques.
{"title":"Character’s mental functioning during a ‘neuro-transition’: Pragmatic failures in Flowers for Algernon","authors":"Piergiorgio Trevisan","doi":"10.1177/09639470221114573","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221114573","url":null,"abstract":"The representation of fictional minds that work in idiosyncratic ways has received significant attention in the past few decades, particularly regarding characters with some form of developmental delay or pathological disorder. The present paper attempts to investigate the mental functioning of the central character in Daniel Keyes’s widely acclaimed short-story Flowers for Algernon, which presents two versions of the same character: after being introduced as cognitively delayed and with a very low IQ, a futuristic treatment turns him into a neurotypical individual first, and into a genius later. With the unfolding of the plot, however, it soon becomes clear that the character’s mental gains are doomed to deteriorate by the end of the story, when he finds himself as cognitively delayed as he was at the beginning. By building on previous research, this paper is concerned with the effects of drastic changes in mind style in the course of the same story. More particularly, the final aim of this article is to study whether an abrupt shift in mind style may bear consequences on the character’s ability to interact with the other characters. Mental schemata and adherence/flouting of Grice’s maxims are closely investigated in the two versions of the characters, together with analyses of deictical patterns carried out by means of corpus techniques.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-07-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48811643","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-09DOI: 10.1177/09639470221106021
Kimberley Pager-McClymont
This article aims to provide a stylistically founded model of pathetic fallacy (PF hereafter). Pathetic fallacy is a Romantic literary technique used in art and literature to convey emotions through natural elements. This technique has been researched mostly from a literary viewpoint, but no linguistic model exists to define it. It is difficult to identify it precisely or consensually because definitions and uses vary, and it is often associated with other techniques (i.e. personification). Despite those inconsistencies, PF is likely to be taught as part of the Department for Education subject content in the English National Curriculum for students studying English Literature at GCSE and A Level. I thus conducted a survey of English teachers to collect data on PF, and based on their answers and suggested texts, created an updated stylistic model of PF using a combination of (cognitive) stylistic frameworks. The model defines PF as a projection of emotions from an animated entity onto the surroundings. I identify three ‘linguistic indicators’ of PF in my corpus: imagery, repetition and negation. I draw on metaphor research to further analyse the metaphorical nature of PF and its effects in texts from my corpus. Four effects of PF are identified: communicating implicit emotions, building ambience, building characters and plot foreshadowing.
{"title":"Linking Emotions to Surroundings: A Stylistic Model of Pathetic Fallacy","authors":"Kimberley Pager-McClymont","doi":"10.1177/09639470221106021","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221106021","url":null,"abstract":"This article aims to provide a stylistically founded model of pathetic fallacy (PF hereafter). Pathetic fallacy is a Romantic literary technique used in art and literature to convey emotions through natural elements. This technique has been researched mostly from a literary viewpoint, but no linguistic model exists to define it. It is difficult to identify it precisely or consensually because definitions and uses vary, and it is often associated with other techniques (i.e. personification). Despite those inconsistencies, PF is likely to be taught as part of the Department for Education subject content in the English National Curriculum for students studying English Literature at GCSE and A Level. I thus conducted a survey of English teachers to collect data on PF, and based on their answers and suggested texts, created an updated stylistic model of PF using a combination of (cognitive) stylistic frameworks. The model defines PF as a projection of emotions from an animated entity onto the surroundings. I identify three ‘linguistic indicators’ of PF in my corpus: imagery, repetition and negation. I draw on metaphor research to further analyse the metaphorical nature of PF and its effects in texts from my corpus. Four effects of PF are identified: communicating implicit emotions, building ambience, building characters and plot foreshadowing.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45814545","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-09DOI: 10.1177/09639470221106882
Megan Mansworth
This article uses a theoretical framework of possible worlds to explore the ways in which Janice Galloway’s novel about grief and depression, The Trick is to Keep Breathing, may elicit emotional responses in readers. I give an overview of some of the emotional responses expressed by readers by using online review data, before employing stylistic analysis to demonstrate how emotional effects may be created through the linguistic construction of degrees of possibility. Drawing on Possible Worlds Theory, I demonstrate how readers’ emotional responses may be linked both to the presentation of possibility and to the restriction of possibility. The combination of the empirical methodology utilised here alongside stylistic analysis allows me to harness the capacity of Possible Worlds Theory to cast light on constructions of textual possibility and actuality and to facilitate understanding of some of the mechanisms eliciting readers’ emotions.
{"title":"The restricted possible worlds of depression: A stylistic analysis of Janice Galloway’s The Trick is to Keep Breathing using a possible worlds framework","authors":"Megan Mansworth","doi":"10.1177/09639470221106882","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221106882","url":null,"abstract":"This article uses a theoretical framework of possible worlds to explore the ways in which Janice Galloway’s novel about grief and depression, The Trick is to Keep Breathing, may elicit emotional responses in readers. I give an overview of some of the emotional responses expressed by readers by using online review data, before employing stylistic analysis to demonstrate how emotional effects may be created through the linguistic construction of degrees of possibility. Drawing on Possible Worlds Theory, I demonstrate how readers’ emotional responses may be linked both to the presentation of possibility and to the restriction of possibility. The combination of the empirical methodology utilised here alongside stylistic analysis allows me to harness the capacity of Possible Worlds Theory to cast light on constructions of textual possibility and actuality and to facilitate understanding of some of the mechanisms eliciting readers’ emotions.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46695851","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-06-04DOI: 10.1177/09639470221105930
Marcello Giovanelli
This article analyses the degree to which readers report a perceived sense of closeness to the events depicted in ‘Belgium’, the opening story of Mary Borden’s The Forbidden Zone. Theoretically, I draw on Ronald Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar, which models language primarily through its notion of construal, an aspect of which claims that -ing forms impose an internal perspective on a scene that results in the interpretative effect of it being ‘close by’. This study tests this idea empirically by utilising a quantitative tool (Likert scale) to elicit two sets of verbal data, which are then analysed qualitatively. My analysis demonstrates that readers respond to the events in the story and articulate the relationship of particular language features to their responses in different – and often surprising – ways. The study is the first in stylistics to empirically test the interpretative effects of verb forms as theorised by Cognitive Grammar and thus contributes new knowledge both by exploring how the landscapes of First World War literature are experienced by readers and analysing how the language of those landscapes may give rise to particular reported effects.
{"title":"Cognitive Grammar and Readers’ Perceived Sense of Closeness: A Study of Responses to Mary Borden’s ‘Belgium’","authors":"Marcello Giovanelli","doi":"10.1177/09639470221105930","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221105930","url":null,"abstract":"This article analyses the degree to which readers report a perceived sense of closeness to the events depicted in ‘Belgium’, the opening story of Mary Borden’s The Forbidden Zone. Theoretically, I draw on Ronald Langacker’s Cognitive Grammar, which models language primarily through its notion of construal, an aspect of which claims that -ing forms impose an internal perspective on a scene that results in the interpretative effect of it being ‘close by’. This study tests this idea empirically by utilising a quantitative tool (Likert scale) to elicit two sets of verbal data, which are then analysed qualitatively. My analysis demonstrates that readers respond to the events in the story and articulate the relationship of particular language features to their responses in different – and often surprising – ways. The study is the first in stylistics to empirically test the interpretative effects of verb forms as theorised by Cognitive Grammar and thus contributes new knowledge both by exploring how the landscapes of First World War literature are experienced by readers and analysing how the language of those landscapes may give rise to particular reported effects.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43218317","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-21DOI: 10.1177/09639470221095904
John Gordon
This article presents a pedagogical stylistics of intertextuality in interactive literary study talk. It analyses case study data representing one higher education seminar discussion, where a tutor and student interpret a focal text through reference to diverse intertexts. The article asks: How do participants enact intertextual literary analysis in conversation? How are intertextual voices introduced? How do intertextual voices relate to focal texts and position readers’ orientations to them? The transcript represents the interplay of participant and text voices around Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett. The article examines the intertextual invocations made by participants in interaction including their pedagogic function. It adopts a methodology combining pedagogical stylistics with a conversation-analytic mentality. Commentary adapts Lemke’s four categories of intertextual connection (cothematic, co-orienting, coactional and cogeneric) to describe functions of intertextual invocation in talk, adding two new categories of co-illumination and cogeneration. The results suggest participants in literary study talk use intertextual invocations to develop insights, position the responses of others and sustain co-constructed interpretation. The article proposes the term Talk as Heteroglot Intertextual Study (THIS) to describe this pedagogical format, with linked terminology to identify its multivocal, deictic and organisational traits. This pedagogical stylistics helps researchers and teachers describe and understand the development of intertextual analysis in literary study talk.
{"title":"A pedagogical stylistics of intertextual interaction: Talk as Heteroglot Intertextual Study in higher education pedagogy","authors":"John Gordon","doi":"10.1177/09639470221095904","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221095904","url":null,"abstract":"This article presents a pedagogical stylistics of intertextuality in interactive literary study talk. It analyses case study data representing one higher education seminar discussion, where a tutor and student interpret a focal text through reference to diverse intertexts. The article asks: How do participants enact intertextual literary analysis in conversation? How are intertextual voices introduced? How do intertextual voices relate to focal texts and position readers’ orientations to them? The transcript represents the interplay of participant and text voices around Pond by Claire-Louise Bennett. The article examines the intertextual invocations made by participants in interaction including their pedagogic function. It adopts a methodology combining pedagogical stylistics with a conversation-analytic mentality. Commentary adapts Lemke’s four categories of intertextual connection (cothematic, co-orienting, coactional and cogeneric) to describe functions of intertextual invocation in talk, adding two new categories of co-illumination and cogeneration. The results suggest participants in literary study talk use intertextual invocations to develop insights, position the responses of others and sustain co-constructed interpretation. The article proposes the term Talk as Heteroglot Intertextual Study (THIS) to describe this pedagogical format, with linked terminology to identify its multivocal, deictic and organisational traits. This pedagogical stylistics helps researchers and teachers describe and understand the development of intertextual analysis in literary study talk.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48437593","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-04DOI: 10.1177/09639470221090378
C. Vergaro
Despite all the attention Puritan sermons have received, no attention has been specifically devoted to the analysis of the two speech acts of blessing and cursing in these sermons from a cognitive-pragmatic point of view. This study aims at doing this, focussing on Winthrop’s A Modell of Christian Charity as a case study. I use the framework provided by the Entrenchment and Conventionalization Model – a usage-based and emergentist model of language knowledge and convention – and analyse how the syntagmatic association of the two speech acts contributes to the conformity profile of the sermon. Moreover, I argue that this linguistic lens can add to the understanding of the ‘enargetic’ rhetoric of the text.
{"title":"Syntagmatic conformity: Blessings and curses in Winthrop’s Christian Charitie","authors":"C. Vergaro","doi":"10.1177/09639470221090378","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221090378","url":null,"abstract":"Despite all the attention Puritan sermons have received, no attention has been specifically devoted to the analysis of the two speech acts of blessing and cursing in these sermons from a cognitive-pragmatic point of view. This study aims at doing this, focussing on Winthrop’s A Modell of Christian Charity as a case study. I use the framework provided by the Entrenchment and Conventionalization Model – a usage-based and emergentist model of language knowledge and convention – and analyse how the syntagmatic association of the two speech acts contributes to the conformity profile of the sermon. Moreover, I argue that this linguistic lens can add to the understanding of the ‘enargetic’ rhetoric of the text.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43809018","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/09639470221090386
Jane Lugea
This article reports the findings of the first large-scale study into how dementia is depicted in the minds of fictional characters. Dementia is increasingly prevalent and, in the absence of a cure, requires better societal and cultural awareness. Literary representations offer readers the opportunity to ‘try on’ fictional minds, and better understand alternative cognitive experiences. Stylisticians have explored the ‘mind styles’ of characters with various illnesses, characteristics and behaviours, but this is the first comprehensive study of dementia mind styles, and indeed, any one syndrome. A substantial corpus of contemporary fiction depicting the internal perspectives of characters and narrators with dementia was compiled. The data is analysed qualitatively and quantitively, embracing a methodological eclecticism suited to understanding the patterns in characters’ cognitive experiences across texts. The results are presented thematically, demonstrating the enduring significance of features traditionally associated with mind style (underlexicalisation, diminished sense of cause and effect, and pragmatic difficulties), as well as a wide range of new features. These include discourse presentation, sensory descriptions and conceptualisation of the self and others. By exploring the mind styles of many characters with dementia, this research not only widens the application of the concept, but also the range of features associated with its creation and, importantly, offers a theoretical redefinition: mind style is redefined as an iconic representation of fictional cognition, offering a simulated experience for readers.
{"title":"Dementia mind styles in contemporary narrative fiction","authors":"Jane Lugea","doi":"10.1177/09639470221090386","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221090386","url":null,"abstract":"This article reports the findings of the first large-scale study into how dementia is depicted in the minds of fictional characters. Dementia is increasingly prevalent and, in the absence of a cure, requires better societal and cultural awareness. Literary representations offer readers the opportunity to ‘try on’ fictional minds, and better understand alternative cognitive experiences. Stylisticians have explored the ‘mind styles’ of characters with various illnesses, characteristics and behaviours, but this is the first comprehensive study of dementia mind styles, and indeed, any one syndrome. A substantial corpus of contemporary fiction depicting the internal perspectives of characters and narrators with dementia was compiled. The data is analysed qualitatively and quantitively, embracing a methodological eclecticism suited to understanding the patterns in characters’ cognitive experiences across texts. The results are presented thematically, demonstrating the enduring significance of features traditionally associated with mind style (underlexicalisation, diminished sense of cause and effect, and pragmatic difficulties), as well as a wide range of new features. These include discourse presentation, sensory descriptions and conceptualisation of the self and others. By exploring the mind styles of many characters with dementia, this research not only widens the application of the concept, but also the range of features associated with its creation and, importantly, offers a theoretical redefinition: mind style is redefined as an iconic representation of fictional cognition, offering a simulated experience for readers.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49646731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/09639470221090371
Kristy Beers Fägersten, M. Bednarek
Catchphrases have long been a hallmark of US-American sit-coms and dramas, as well as reality, game and variety show programming. Because the phenomenon of the television catchphrase developed throughout the era of network, commercial broadcasting under Federal Communications Commission guidelines regulating profanity in network television, catchphrases traditionally have not included swear words. Nevertheless, certain past television catchphrases can be regarded as euphemistic alternatives of swearing expressions (e.g. ‘Kiss my grits!’), while contemporary catchphrases from cable or streaming series do include explicit swearing (e.g. ‘Don’t fuck it up!’). We examine a database of 168 popular catchphrases from a 70-year period of US-American television programming according to categories for bad language and impoliteness formulae. We identify three categories of catchphrases based on structural-functional similarities to swearing expressions, and we trace the distribution of these categories over time and across networks. The data reveal a trend towards explicit swearing in catchphrases over time, not only in series on cable and streaming services, but across networks. We conclude that the expressive nature of catchphrases and their structural-functional properties render the inclusion of swear words both more palatable to a television audience and more compatible with television norms, thus propagating catchphrase swearing on cable and streaming television services, and mitigating the use of swear words on network television. Due to appropriation phenomena, swearing catchphrases may serve to blur the lines between actually swearing and simply invoking a swearing catchphrase, thereby potentially increasing tolerance for swearing both on television and off.
{"title":"The evolution of swearing in television catchphrases","authors":"Kristy Beers Fägersten, M. Bednarek","doi":"10.1177/09639470221090371","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221090371","url":null,"abstract":"Catchphrases have long been a hallmark of US-American sit-coms and dramas, as well as reality, game and variety show programming. Because the phenomenon of the television catchphrase developed throughout the era of network, commercial broadcasting under Federal Communications Commission guidelines regulating profanity in network television, catchphrases traditionally have not included swear words. Nevertheless, certain past television catchphrases can be regarded as euphemistic alternatives of swearing expressions (e.g. ‘Kiss my grits!’), while contemporary catchphrases from cable or streaming series do include explicit swearing (e.g. ‘Don’t fuck it up!’). We examine a database of 168 popular catchphrases from a 70-year period of US-American television programming according to categories for bad language and impoliteness formulae. We identify three categories of catchphrases based on structural-functional similarities to swearing expressions, and we trace the distribution of these categories over time and across networks. The data reveal a trend towards explicit swearing in catchphrases over time, not only in series on cable and streaming services, but across networks. We conclude that the expressive nature of catchphrases and their structural-functional properties render the inclusion of swear words both more palatable to a television audience and more compatible with television norms, thus propagating catchphrase swearing on cable and streaming television services, and mitigating the use of swear words on network television. Due to appropriation phenomena, swearing catchphrases may serve to blur the lines between actually swearing and simply invoking a swearing catchphrase, thereby potentially increasing tolerance for swearing both on television and off.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45008281","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/09639470221090369
Isobelle Clarke
This paper applies Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA) to a corpus of English tweets to uncover the most common patterns of linguistic variation. MDA is a commonly applied method in corpus linguistics for the analysis of functional and/or stylistic variation in a particular language variety. Notably, MDA is an approach aimed at identifying and interpreting the frequent patterns of co-occurring linguistic features across a corpus, such as a corpus of spoken and written English registers (Biber, 1988). Traditionally, MDA is based on a factor analysis of the relative frequencies of numerous grammatical features measured across numerous texts drawn from that variety of language to identify a series of underlying dimensions of linguistic variation. Despite its popularity and utility, traditional MDA has an important limitation – it can only be used to analyse texts that are long enough to allow for the relative frequencies of many grammatical forms to be estimated accurately. If the texts under analysis are too short, then few forms can be expected to occur sufficiently frequently for their relative frequency to be accurately estimated. Tweets are characteristically short texts, meaning that traditional MDA cannot be used in the present research. To overcome this problem, this paper introduces a short-text version of MDA and applies it to a corpus of English tweets. Specifically, rather than measure the relative frequencies of forms in each tweet, the approach analyses their occurrence. This binary dataset is then aggregated using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), which is used much like factor analysis in traditional MDA – to return a series of dimensions that represent the most common patterns of linguistic variation in the dataset. After controlling for text length in the first dimension, four subsequent dimensions are interpreted. The results suggest that there is a great deal of linguistic variation on Twitter. Notably, the results show that Twitter is commonly used for self-commodification, as people manage their identities, engaging in practices of self-branding through stance-taking, self-reporting, promotion and persuasion, as well as broadcasting their message beyond their followership, distributing news and expressing opposition, and this often occurs in order to attract attention. Additionally, the results show that interaction is common, suggesting that Twitter is also used for social and interpersonal gain.
{"title":"A Multi-Dimensional Analysis of English tweets","authors":"Isobelle Clarke","doi":"10.1177/09639470221090369","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221090369","url":null,"abstract":"This paper applies Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA) to a corpus of English tweets to uncover the most common patterns of linguistic variation. MDA is a commonly applied method in corpus linguistics for the analysis of functional and/or stylistic variation in a particular language variety. Notably, MDA is an approach aimed at identifying and interpreting the frequent patterns of co-occurring linguistic features across a corpus, such as a corpus of spoken and written English registers (Biber, 1988). Traditionally, MDA is based on a factor analysis of the relative frequencies of numerous grammatical features measured across numerous texts drawn from that variety of language to identify a series of underlying dimensions of linguistic variation. Despite its popularity and utility, traditional MDA has an important limitation – it can only be used to analyse texts that are long enough to allow for the relative frequencies of many grammatical forms to be estimated accurately. If the texts under analysis are too short, then few forms can be expected to occur sufficiently frequently for their relative frequency to be accurately estimated. Tweets are characteristically short texts, meaning that traditional MDA cannot be used in the present research. To overcome this problem, this paper introduces a short-text version of MDA and applies it to a corpus of English tweets. Specifically, rather than measure the relative frequencies of forms in each tweet, the approach analyses their occurrence. This binary dataset is then aggregated using Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), which is used much like factor analysis in traditional MDA – to return a series of dimensions that represent the most common patterns of linguistic variation in the dataset. After controlling for text length in the first dimension, four subsequent dimensions are interpreted. The results suggest that there is a great deal of linguistic variation on Twitter. Notably, the results show that Twitter is commonly used for self-commodification, as people manage their identities, engaging in practices of self-branding through stance-taking, self-reporting, promotion and persuasion, as well as broadcasting their message beyond their followership, distributing news and expressing opposition, and this often occurs in order to attract attention. Additionally, the results show that interaction is common, suggesting that Twitter is also used for social and interpersonal gain.","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49119844","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-05-01DOI: 10.1177/09639470221093193
{"title":"Professor Dr Peter Verdonk 21 April 1934–5 November 2021","authors":"","doi":"10.1177/09639470221093193","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1177/09639470221093193","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45849,"journal":{"name":"Language and Literature","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7,"publicationDate":"2022-05-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42398532","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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