A Case Study on Some Frequent Concepts in Works of Poetry. (29th August 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pace-Sigge, Michael
• Is Part Of: Journal of research design and statistics in linguistics and communication science. Volume 5:Number 1/2(2018)
• Page Start: 123
• Page End: 152
• Publication Date: 2019-08-29
• Subjects: genre-specific language -- common topics -- keyness -- multi-word-units -- poetry -- phraseology; Linguistics -- Research -- Periodicals; Linguistics -- Statistical methods -- Periodicals; Mathematical linguistics -- Periodicals; 410.72
• DOI: 10.1558/jrds.38938
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2052-417X

Abstract

Abstract : This paper looks at a corpus of British and US poetry, uncovering phraseological units which, through their frequency, are indicators of key concepts. Multi-word-units (MWUs) have been discussed extensively with reference to corpus-based research, for example by Sinclair (1996) [2004], Biber and Conrad (1999), or, referred to as formulaicity by Wray (2002); O'Keefe et al. (2007), Greaves and Warren (2010) and Pace-Sigge (2015) describe MWUs preferred in different spoken and written genres. So far, however, there has been very little research in how far MWUs appear in the genre of poetry. A commonly held view is that poetry by definition should not be yielding patterns – it subverts every pattern (linguistically speaking) that it can. Through focus on the main themes surfacing in multiword units, this research looks at usages found in poetic texts in-depth and compares sets of words found with their occurrence patterns in prose literature. Key issues will be highlighted through a number of theme-based case studies, looking at themes of world and sky. Results show that there are common clusters found in poetry and prose corpora: itis depth of usage that marks their divergence.