Global ETD Search

1	Gender differences in the usage of mild versus strong swearwords and their pre-modifying adjectives : An analysis of findings in the BNC2014 Swensson Doschoris, Katerina January 2022 (has links) This essay presents a study on gender differences with a focus on mild and strong swearwords and their pre-modifying adjectives when describing a person, based on findings from the BNC2014. Previous research implies that men and women use different types of swearwords, suggesting that men tend to use stronger language than women. The aim of this study is to investigate the usage of strong versus mild swearwords to analyze if there are differences in frequency and use of pre-modifying adjectives across gender. A set of mild swearwords (cow, git) and strong swearwords (dick, cunt) from Ofcom’s scale of offensiveness (Ofcom, 2016) was used to manually compare how men and women tend to differ in the way they use these words. Previous research on swearing in connection to gender, offensiveness, and pre-modifying adjectives is presented as well as a definition of the swearwords. The results show that the usage of mild and strong language is equally used in male and female speakers and that negative and other pre-modifying adjectives are most used together with these words. Hopefully, the findings in this study could shed more light on the topic of gender differences and swearing. Swearing gender differences pre-modifying adjectives British National Corpus sociolinguistics Languages and Literature Språk och litteratur
2	A Construction Grammar Analysis of the expression /on the one hand...on the other hand/ Holmberg, Mattias January 2008 (has links) <p>The expression /on the one hand…on the other hand/ (OH1 OH2) is a fixed linguistic pattern which is used to emphasize the comparison between two possibly complex propositions (henceforth X and Y). The static syntactic form of the pattern and the specific semantic comparison it evokes are strong indicators that it is a construction of the type discussed in the analytical method Construction Grammar (henceforth CxG). Thus, the aim of this essay is to argue that the pattern OH1X OH2Y is a CxG construction with specific syntactic and semantic constraints, and at the same time to give a descriptive account of the features of the construction. The British National Corpus was used to get examples containing the pattern. The syntactic and semantic features of these examples were analysed and the results were compared with how the traditional descriptive grammarians account for the pattern.</p> on the one hand on the other hand syntactic semantic construction features Construction Grammar British National Corpus descriptive English language Engelska språket
3	A Construction Grammar Analysis of the expression /on the one hand...on the other hand/ Holmberg, Mattias January 2008 (has links) The expression /on the one hand…on the other hand/ (OH1 OH2) is a fixed linguistic pattern which is used to emphasize the comparison between two possibly complex propositions (henceforth X and Y). The static syntactic form of the pattern and the specific semantic comparison it evokes are strong indicators that it is a construction of the type discussed in the analytical method Construction Grammar (henceforth CxG). Thus, the aim of this essay is to argue that the pattern OH1X OH2Y is a CxG construction with specific syntactic and semantic constraints, and at the same time to give a descriptive account of the features of the construction. The British National Corpus was used to get examples containing the pattern. The syntactic and semantic features of these examples were analysed and the results were compared with how the traditional descriptive grammarians account for the pattern. on the one hand on the other hand syntactic semantic construction features Construction Grammar British National Corpus descriptive Specific Languages Studier av enskilda språk
4	Emotion Adjectives : A corpus study of the use of terrified, petrified and horrified in British and American English Hagström, Elin January 2009 (has links) <p>For many non-native speakers of English it can be difficult to distinguish semantic differences between near-synonyms. In order to create idiomatically correct sentences in a language it is important to know which word to use in a specific context. This study deals with the emotion adjectives <em>terrified, petrified </em>and <em>horrified, </em>which all refer to an emotion of fear of something that can or will happen. The present research aims at exploring the meanings of these adjectives, in American English and British English, and to discover which words these adjectives tend to collocate with. To obtain data a British Corpus and an American corpus were used with fiction and newspaper as subcorpora. A quantitative method was used where the frequencies of <em>terrified, petrified</em> and <em>horrified</em> were counted. Secondly, the most frequent left- and right-hand collocates were studied. Due to the variety of collocations found, it was discovered that the meanings between the adjectives differ somewhat. The literal meaning of <em>petrified</em> is to be hard as a stone while the non-literal meaning is to be extremely afraid. The literal meanings of <em>terrified</em> and <em>horrified </em>are to be very afraid, but unlike <em>terrified,</em> <em>horrified</em> also seems to refer to being shocked. It can be stated that in accordance with how vague the adjective is in its meaning the more frequently it is used, i.e. <em>terrified</em> is the most frequent adjective in all subcorpora and in both varieties of English most frequently used while <em>petrified</em> is least frequently used.</p> British National Corpus collocate(s) collocation(s) Corpus of Contemporary American English emotion adjectives horrified near-synonyms petrified terrified. Languages and linguistics Språkvetenskap
5	Emotion Adjectives : A corpus study of the use of terrified, petrified and horrified in British and American English Hagström, Elin January 2009 (has links) For many non-native speakers of English it can be difficult to distinguish semantic differences between near-synonyms. In order to create idiomatically correct sentences in a language it is important to know which word to use in a specific context. This study deals with the emotion adjectives terrified, petrified and horrified, which all refer to an emotion of fear of something that can or will happen. The present research aims at exploring the meanings of these adjectives, in American English and British English, and to discover which words these adjectives tend to collocate with. To obtain data a British Corpus and an American corpus were used with fiction and newspaper as subcorpora. A quantitative method was used where the frequencies of terrified, petrified and horrified were counted. Secondly, the most frequent left- and right-hand collocates were studied. Due to the variety of collocations found, it was discovered that the meanings between the adjectives differ somewhat. The literal meaning of petrified is to be hard as a stone while the non-literal meaning is to be extremely afraid. The literal meanings of terrified and horrified are to be very afraid, but unlike terrified, horrified also seems to refer to being shocked. It can be stated that in accordance with how vague the adjective is in its meaning the more frequently it is used, i.e. terrified is the most frequent adjective in all subcorpora and in both varieties of English most frequently used while petrified is least frequently used. British National Corpus collocate(s) collocation(s) Corpus of Contemporary American English emotion adjectives horrified near-synonyms petrified terrified. Specific Languages Studier av enskilda språk
6	Gender differences in usage of bitch and cunt across time : An analysis of findings in the BNC1994 and the BNC2014 Siikavaara, Josefina January 2021 (has links) This essay presents a study on gender differences with a focus on swearing and taboo language, based on findings from the BNC1994 and the BNC2014. Bitch and cunt are two words that are linked to the female gender, but previous research has shown that they are used differently by men and women. The usage of the words differs in terms of frequency, but it has also been suggested that men and women tend to differ in the way they aim their usage of the words, whether the usage is directed toward men or women. The aim of the study is to analyse both corpora in order to find out how the usage of the words differs between men and women in different age categories, and how it has changed across time. Previous research on swearing, in connection to gender and age, is presented as well as a historical background of the words. The results show that the usage of bitch has increased but the usage of cunt has decreased. However, there are findings in the results that show that in addition to the change in frequency there has also been a change regarding how men and women tend to aim their usage of the words. Hopefully, the findings in this study could shed more light on the topic on gender differences and swearing. swearing taboo language bitch cunt gender differences age differences British National Corpus linguistics General Language Studies and Linguistics
7	"Honourable" or "Highly-sexed" : Adjectival Descriptions of Male and Female Characters in Victorian and Contemporary Children's Fiction Sveen, Hanna Andersdotter January 2005 (has links) <p>This corpus-based study examines adjectives and adjectival expressions used to describe characters in British children’s fiction. The focus is on diachronic variation, by comparing Victorian (19th-century) and contemporary (late 20th-century) children’s fiction, and on gender variation, by comparing the descriptions of female and male characters. I adopt a qualitative as well as a quantitative approach, and consider factors such as lexical diversity, adjectival density, collocation patterns, evaluative meaning, syntactic function and distribution across semantic domains. Most findings are related to a dichotomy set up between an idealistic and a realistic portrayal of characters. The study shows that an idealistic portrayal of characters is typical of the Victorian material and a realistic portrayal of characters typical of the contemporary material. Further, gender differences are much more pronounced, and reflect traditional gender role patterns more in the Victorian material than in the contemporary material. For instance, a pleasant appearance is typically described for Victorian female characters and social position for Victorian male characters. Moreover, descriptions of mental properties of Victorian female characters are conspicuously rare. Such gendered patterns are less distinct in the contemporary material, although appearance is still more extensively described for female than male characters. As regards how the qualities are attributed to characters, the descriptions of Victorian female characters were found to be the most formulaic compared to the descriptions of Victorian male, contemporary female and contemporary male characters.</p> English language 19th-century English adjectives attributive British National Corpus characters children's fiction contemporary corpus linguistics description evaluative meaning female gender male part description predicative semantic domains syntactic function Victorian Engelska English language Engelska språket
8	"Honourable" or "Highly-sexed" : Adjectival Descriptions of Male and Female Characters in Victorian and Contemporary Children's Fiction Sveen, Hanna Andersdotter January 2005 (has links) This corpus-based study examines adjectives and adjectival expressions used to describe characters in British children’s fiction. The focus is on diachronic variation, by comparing Victorian (19th-century) and contemporary (late 20th-century) children’s fiction, and on gender variation, by comparing the descriptions of female and male characters. I adopt a qualitative as well as a quantitative approach, and consider factors such as lexical diversity, adjectival density, collocation patterns, evaluative meaning, syntactic function and distribution across semantic domains. Most findings are related to a dichotomy set up between an idealistic and a realistic portrayal of characters. The study shows that an idealistic portrayal of characters is typical of the Victorian material and a realistic portrayal of characters typical of the contemporary material. Further, gender differences are much more pronounced, and reflect traditional gender role patterns more in the Victorian material than in the contemporary material. For instance, a pleasant appearance is typically described for Victorian female characters and social position for Victorian male characters. Moreover, descriptions of mental properties of Victorian female characters are conspicuously rare. Such gendered patterns are less distinct in the contemporary material, although appearance is still more extensively described for female than male characters. As regards how the qualities are attributed to characters, the descriptions of Victorian female characters were found to be the most formulaic compared to the descriptions of Victorian male, contemporary female and contemporary male characters. English language 19th-century English adjectives attributive British National Corpus characters children's fiction contemporary corpus linguistics description evaluative meaning female gender male part description predicative semantic domains syntactic function Victorian Engelska English language Engelska språket

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