scholarly journals Talk talk, not just small talk. Exploring English contrastive focus reduplication with the help of corpora

ICAME Journal ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 119-142
Author(s):  
Bianca Widlitzki
Keyword(s):  
Common Ground ◽  
Spoken Dialogue ◽  
Small Talk ◽  
Contrastive Focus ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Fictional Representations

Abstract Contrastive focus reduplication (CR) is a type of reduplication in English which picks out a prototypical or intensified reading of the reduplicated element and shows contrastive stress on the reduplicant: for instance, speakers may use talk talk to indicate that a ‘real talk’ - as opposed to e.g. ‘just small talk’- took place. The present paper pursues an empirical, corpus-linguistic approach to CR: Based on three mega-corpora of contemporary English, the following aspects in particular are investigated: the importance of the co-text of CR, the possibility of emerging default interpretations for some frequent CRs, and the function(s) CR serves in discourse. In addition, it contains the first analysis of the sociolinguistics of the phenomenon, based on a corpus of blogs. It emerges that contrasts and/or synonyms are commonly employed to clarify the meaning of CR - most frequently in the form of the unreduplicated base (not talk, but talk talk) or an explanatory phrase (talk talk, by which I mean a serious conversation). CR is most frequent in blogs maintained by women and by young speakers. Its presence in blogs shows that CR is not limited to (fictional representations of) spoken dialogue. Though generally rare, it is also found in other genres (such as fiction, news, and even academic prose). Apart from its disambiguating function, CR is also used for creative purposes (as a kind of wordplay) and apparently serves to build rapport between interlocutors (or bloggers and readers) via reference to common ground.

Prescribing French: A corpus-linguistic approach to official terminology in French newspapers

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Gyula Zsombok
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Negative Influence ◽  
Written Language ◽  
Entertainment Industry ◽  
Dynamic Approach ◽  
French Academy ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Lexical Fields ◽  
Do So

ABSTRACT In France, English is often perceived as a negative influence on the language in the eyes of purist institutions like the French Academy. Terminological commissions have been established to replace foreign expressions with French terminology that is regularly published in the Journal officiel de la République française. Although the Toubon Law of 1994 prescribes the use of this terminology in government publications, speakers are merely encouraged to do so. This article investigates the variation between English lexical borrowings and their prescribed equivalents in a large newspaper corpus containing articles from 2000 to 2017 in order to see whether formal written language complies with the purist recommendations. Time is treated with a new dynamic approach: the probability of using a prescribed term is estimated three years before and three years after official prescription. Fifty-four target terms are selected from the lexical fields of computer science, entertainment industry and telecommunication, including emblematic prescribed words such as courriel and mot-dièse. The analysis reveals that prescription is only effective when it follows already attested use. Furthermore, conservative newspapers show higher proportions of recommended terminology, especially as compared to newspapers specializing in technology.

scholarly journals Using word n-grams to identify authors and idiolects

2017 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 212-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Wright
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Authorship Attribution ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Statistical Procedures ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Linguistic Approach

Abstract Forensic authorship attribution is concerned with identifying the writers of anonymous criminal documents. Over the last twenty years, computer scientists have developed a wide range of statistical procedures using a number of different linguistic features to measure similarity between texts. However, much of this work is not of practical use to forensic linguists who need to explain in reports or in court why a particular method of identifying potential authors works. This paper sets out to address this problem using a corpus linguistic approach and the 176-author 2.5 million-word Enron Email Corpus. Drawing on literature positing the idiolectal nature of collocations, phrases and word sequences, this paper tests the accuracy of word n-grams in identifying the authors of anonymised email samples. Moving beyond the statistical analysis, the usage-based concept of entrenchment is offered as a means by which to account for the recurring and distinctive production of idiolectal word n-grams.

Politics in science

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (6) ◽  
pp. 849-869 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Wilson ◽  
Attila Krizsán
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Design ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Scientific Discourse ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
Theory Of Evolution ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Dialogic Space ◽  
Political Decision Making

Abstract Intelligent design is a pseudoscientific concept conceived in an attempt to bring religion-based teaching into the classroom. As such, it is involved in a constant struggle for dialogic space with the dominant scientific discourse of the theory of evolution. Here, we use a corpus linguistic approach to study how intelligent design discourse uses engagement to forward its creationistic propositions and at the same time limit the propositions of the theory of evolution. The results suggest that intelligent design discourse employs engagement far more frequently than evolutionary biology discourse, mainly to counter opposing propositions and to entertain its own proposition in their stead. The underdog position of ID obligates it to highly modulated engagement in order forward its position, which is ultimately aimed at changing the political decision-making related to the teaching of science.

scholarly journals Uncertainty discourses in the context of climate change: A corpus-assisted analysis of UK national newspaper articles

2016 ◽  
Vol 41 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Luke C. Collins ◽  
Brigitte Nerlich
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Science ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Knowing That ◽  
Ipcc Report ◽  
National Newspaper ◽  
Run Up ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
Assisted Analysis ◽  
Change Mitigation

AbstractUncertainty is intrinsic to science, to knowledge acquisition and risk assessment. When communicating about climate change, however, uncertainty can be used and understood as ‘not knowing’, that is, as ignorance. In this article we aim to understand how ‘uncertainty’ is used in a specific cultural and media context at two important periods in time. Using a corpus linguistic approach, we examine how ‘uncertainty’ was used in the context of UK press coverage of climate change in 2010 (following ‘Climategate’) and in 2014−15, after the latest IPCC report had been published. We find that after Climategate and the (failed) Copenhagen summit, ‘uncertainty’ was used to question the authority and credibility of climate science; after the latest IPCC report and in the run-up to the (more successful) Paris summit, discussions focused on uncertainties inherent in various climate change mitigation activities and associated with the economy, environment and politics more generally.

scholarly journals Exploring the relationship between language and Europe from a cognitive-linguistic perspective using Concept Maps

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 83-98
Author(s):  
Corinna Krämer
Keyword(s):  
Concept Maps ◽  
School Context ◽  
Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Corpus Linguistic ◽  
Lexical Semantic Knowledge ◽  
Teaching Learning ◽  
Linguistic Approach ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Eu

AbstractThis paper aims to explore the mentally represented and linguistically bound concepts of Europe of young learners. Special attention is not given to the declarative and school generated knowledge about the EU, but rather to the lexical-semantic knowledge of the learners, which is activated at the lexical impulse {euro[pa/ä]} as part of a concept in the mental lexicon. It aims to find out which knowledge elements learners link with the lexical impulse and which dispositions and pre-concepts the learners have when it comes to Europe in the school context, in educational media or in everyday teaching-learning-situations. Therefore, concept maps are used as a survey instrument and evaluated using a corpus-linguistic approach.

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