Person reference and democratization in British English. (May 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Palander-Collin, Minna; Nevala, Minna
• Is Part Of: Language sciences. Volume 79(2020)
• Publication Date: 2020-05
• Subjects: Person reference -- People words -- Democratization -- Big data -- Small data -- Keywords -- Corpus; Linguistics -- Periodicals; Language and languages -- Periodicals; Linguistique -- Périodiques; Langage et langues -- Périodiques; Language and languages; Linguistics; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 405
• DOI: 10.1016/j.langsci.2019.101265
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0388-0001

Abstract

Abstract: This article explores the interrelatedness of societal changes and changes in language practices. By using a combination of corpus linguistic and socio-pragmatic methods, we track diachronic changes in word patterns and interpret findings in the framework of democratization. The data comes from a small and representative corpus of British English (ARCHER-3.1) and from three "big data" sets ( Google Books, British Library Newspapers and The Economist ). We suggest that data triangulation, including sociohistorical contextualization, allows us to conclude that especially from the mid-nineteenth century onwards words signaling social status and referring to individuals have decreased and from the first decades of the twentieth century onwards words referring to collectivities of people have increased. Highlights: The study reveals diachronic changes in word patterns linking them to democratization processes. A small, representative corpus and three big data sets were used for data triangulation. Keywords referring to people showed similar diachronic trends in all data sets. An analysis of the keywords gentleman and workers highlighted the importance of genre. Since the mid-19th century words signaling social status of individuals have decreased. From the beginning of the 20th century words referring to collectivities of people have increased.