scholarly journals A diachronic corpus-based study into the effects of age and gender on the usage patterns of verb-forming suffixation in spoken British English

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-402 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Laws ◽  
Chris Ryder ◽  
Sylvia Jaworska
Keyword(s):  
Age And Gender ◽  
Lexical Diversity ◽  
British English ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Age Range ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract The aim of this paper is to ascertain the degree to which lexical diversity, density and creativity in everyday spoken British English have changed over a 20-year period, as a function of age and gender. Usage patterns of four verb-forming suffixes, -ate, -en, -ify and -ize, were compared in contemporary speech from the Spoken British National Corpus 2014 Sample (Spoken BNC2014S) with its 20-year old counterpart, the BNC1994’s demographically-sampled component (the Spoken BNC1994DS). Frequency comparisons revealed that verb suffixation is denser in the Spoken BNC2014S than in the Spoken BNC1994DS, with the exception of the -en suffix, the use of which has decreased, particularly among female and younger speakers in general. Male speakers and speakers in the 35–59 age range showed the greatest type diversity; there is evidence that this peak is occurring earlier in the more recent corpus. Contrary to expectations, female rather than male speakers produced the largest number of neologisms and rare forms.

scholarly journals A Corpus-based Study of the Use of Pause Fillers Among British English Speakers

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (12) ◽  
pp. 09-16
Author(s):  
Dr. Hamad Abdullah H Aldawsari
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
Data Driven ◽  
English Speakers ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Corpus

Many people use pause fillers such as um, erm, and er in order to signal to the other person that they have not finished speaking yet. This paper aims to investigate pause fillers and their relationship with the two sociolinguistic variables of age and gender. The data-driven analysis is based on the British National Corpus (BNC). The results show that the sociolinguistic variables of age and gender influence the use of pause fillers among British English speakers, which is proposed to be linked to the advancement of age and an improved fluency among female speakers.

I was sat there talking all night: a corpus-based study on factors governing intra-dialectal variation in British English

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 511-531 ◽  
Author(s):  
ULRIKE STANGE
Keyword(s):  
Present Article ◽  
Relative Frequency ◽  
Standard Form ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Dialectal Variation ◽  
British English ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Empirical Analyses

When it comes to intra-dialectal variation, the factors governing the choice between functionally equivalent variants still require an exhaustive analysis. The construction be sat/be stood with progressive meaning alternates with the standard form be sitting/be standing in a number of British English dialects. The present article investigates to what extent the Complexity Principle (see Rohdenburg 1996) and horror aequi (see Rohdenburg 2003) influence the choice between so-called pseudo-passive and progressive constructions. Empirical analyses of spoken data in the British National Corpus reveal that this variation phenomenon is common in dialects of Northern and Southwest England, and to a lesser degree in the Midlands and in London. Moreover, we find considerable differences in the distribution of these pseudo-passives regarding their relative frequency and the number of dialects that make use of them. Drawing on a total of 106 occurrences for the construction be stood vs be standing and 366 for be sat vs be sitting, the article evaluates how far the principles above can be considered as statistically significant determinants of intra-dialectal variation. To this end, it will be essential to test for other factors potentially influencing the choice of dialectal variants, such as age and gender.

scholarly journals Evidentiality across age and gender: a corpus-based study of variation in spoken British English

2017 ◽  
pp. 17-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erika Berglind Söderqvist
Keyword(s):  
Historical Change ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Age Related ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Age Grading ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Effect Of Age

This paper investigates the effects of age and gender on the frequency of the evidentiality categories ‘sensory’, ‘hearsay’ and ‘inferential’ in spontaneous spoken British English. The findings from the main data sample from the British National Corpus (BNC) are also compared to patterns in a smaller data set from the Diachronic Corpus of Present-day Spoken English (DCPSE) in order to estimate the relative effects of age-grading versus historical change. The results confirm statistically significant differences between men and women in their use of evidentiality, but show no significant effect of age or the interaction of age and gender. The comparison of the findings from the BNC data and the DCPSE data suggests that age-related patterns in evidentiality use are more diachronically stable than gender-related patterns.

scholarly journals Register variation in spoken British English

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Laws ◽  
Chris Ryder
Keyword(s):  
Spoken Language ◽  
Formal Context ◽  
British English ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
Additional Dimension ◽  
Usage Patterns ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Frequency Counts ◽  
Qualitative Analyses ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract The aim of this paper is to identify the effect of register variation in spoken British English on the occurrence of the four principal verb-forming suffixes: ‑ate, ‑en, ‑ify and ‑ize, by building on the work of Biber et al. (1999), Plag et al. (1999) and Schmid (2011). Register variation effects were compared between the less formal Demographically-Sampled and the more formal Context-Governed components of the original 1994 version of the British National Corpus. The pattern of ‑ize derivatives revealed the most marked register-based differences with respect to frequency counts and the creation of neologisms, whereas ‑en derivatives varied the least compared with the other three suffixes. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of these suffix profiles in the context of spoken language reveal markers of register formality that have not hitherto been explored; derivative usage patterns provide an additional dimension to previous research on register variation which has mainly focused on grammatical and lexical features of language.

Do women (still) use more intensifiers than men?

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 345-374 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Fuchs
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Social Classes ◽  
Limited Extent ◽  
Women And Gender ◽  
British English ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
And Gender ◽  
National Corpus ◽  
Comprehensive Study

Abstract This study investigates how age, gender, social class and dialect influence how frequently speakers of British English use intensifiers (e.g. very) in private conversations and whether this has changed over the last two decades. With data drawn from over 600 speakers and 4M words included in the Spoken British National Corpus (1994 and 2014 Sample), it is the most comprehensive study of intensifier usage to date, taking into account 111 intensifier variants. Results show that, in most age groups and social classes, men use intensifiers less frequently than women, and gender differences have diminished to a very limited extent, notably for the middle class. Moreover, intensification rate has increased across the board over time. This could be due to a shift towards a stereotypically more feminine communicative style as the perception of gender roles has changed, a process by which the middle class might have been particularly affected.

“That’s well good”: A Re-emergent Intensifier in Current British English

2020 ◽  
pp. 007542422097914
Author(s):  
Karin Aijmer
Keyword(s):  
Social Class ◽  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Social Factors ◽  
British English ◽  
Discourse Marker ◽  
Time Gap ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
Semantic Types ◽  
Over Time ◽  
National Corpus

Well has a long history and is found as an intensifier already in older English. It is argued that diachronically well has developed from its etymological meaning (‘in a good way’) on a cline of adverbialization to an intensifier and to a discourse marker. Well is replaced by other intensifiers in the fourteenth century but emerges in new uses in Present-Day English. The changes in frequency and use of the new intensifier are explored on the basis of a twenty-year time gap between the old British National Corpus (1994) and the new Spoken British National Corpus (2014). The results show that well increases in frequency over time and that it spreads to new semantic types of adjectives and participles, and is found above all in predicative structures with a copula. The emergence of a new well and its increase in frequency are also related to social factors such as the age, gender, and social class of the speakers, and the informal character of the conversation.

The effect of age and gender on the time taken for horses to learn an operant task

2009 ◽  
Vol 2009 ◽  
pp. 1-1
Author(s):  
K J Moss ◽  
L Greening
Keyword(s):  
Learning Task ◽  
Learning Performance ◽  
Operant Learning ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Test Species ◽  
Operant Task ◽  
And Gender ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Age Range ◽  
Effect Of Age

The association between the age of a horse and their capacity for learning is understudied despite the large age range of horses used for both competition and leisure purposes in the UK and the considerable number of horses that swap over between different disciplines; for instance 4000 racehorse retire from racing each year and many go on to other careers including 900 each year going on to be polo ponies. A negative correlation between age and learning performance has been reported in test species to-date (Yagi et al., 1988); however relatively few studies have addressed this issue in equines (Madder & Price, 1980; Williams et al., 2004). The aim of the present study therefore was to investigate the association between a horse’s age and gender and the time taken to reach a pre-determined criterion during an operant learning task.

scholarly journals Hypothyroidism and open-angle glaucoma: an accidental or an essential coexistence?

2000 ◽  
Vol 6 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 299-303 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Tahat ◽  
A. M. Al Khawaldeh
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Thyroid Function ◽  
Primary Open Angle Glaucoma ◽  
Open Angle Glaucoma ◽  
Thyroid Function Tests ◽  
Open Angle ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Number Of Patients ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Age Range

We aimed to test the hypothesis that there is an association between hypothyroidism and primary open-angle glaucoma. A total of 60 patients with acquired hypothyroidism were evaluated by a senior ophthalmologist for evidence of glaucoma. Evaluations were carried out by history, tonometry, funduscopy, gonioscopy and visual field perimetry. Thyroid function tests, and dermatological and neurological examinations were performed. Patients were matched according to age and gender. There were 10 males and 50 females [age range 34-72 years]. We found 3 of the 60 patients had signs of open-angle glaucoma, which indicated a possible relationship between hypothyroidism and open-angle glaucoma. It is worth expanding the study to a larger number of patients

scholarly journals Swearing in informal spoken English: 1990s–2010s

2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Robbie Love
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
British English ◽  
Spoken English ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Distribution ◽  
British National Corpus ◽  
National Corpus

Abstract This paper investigates changes in swearing usage in informal speech using large-scale corpus data, comparing the occurrence and social distribution of swear words in two corpora of informal spoken British English: the demographically-sampled part of the Spoken British National Corpus 1994 (BNC1994) and the Spoken British National Corpus 2014 (BNC2014); the compilation of the latter has facilitated large-scale, diachronic analyses of authentic spoken data on a scale which has, until now, not been possible. A form and frequency analysis of a set of 16 ‘pure’ swear word lemma forms is presented. The findings reveal that swearing occurrence is significantly lower in the Spoken BNC2014 but still within a comparable range to previous studies. Furthermore, FUCK is found to overtake BLOODY as the most popular swear word lemma. Finally, the social distribution of swearing across gender and age groups generally supports the findings of previous research: males still swear more than females, and swearing still peaks in the twenties and declines thereafter. However, the distribution of swearing according to socio-economic status is found to be more complex than expected in the 2010s and requires further investigation. This paper also reflects on some of the methodological challenges associated with making comparisons between the two corpora.

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