La presente Tesis Doctoral se encuadra dentro la línea de investigación del lenguaje mediante los métodos basados en corpus, es decir, mediante análisis computacional y cuantitativo. El esencial objetivo ha sido llevar a cabo una comparación y análisis cuantitativo estructural y del léxico de dos textos específicos del género dramático: la cuarta edición en el infolio de Hamlet (1685) de Shakespeare, y la traducción al inglés de Gamlet (1787) [1748], del dramaturgo ruso Aleksandr Sumarokov, traducida del ruso por Richard Fortune en 1970. El análisis, comparación e interpretación de los resultados de los patrones estructurales y temáticos se ha dispuesto por actos, tanto en aquello que se refiere a la intra-obra (en Hamlet y Gamlet, separado), como inter-obras (entre Hamlet y Gamlet) a lo largo de los Capítulos 3º, 4º, 5º y 6º. Para desvelar los propósitos reales de Shakespeare y Sumarokov, especialmente en lo referido a las configuraciones sociales y organizativas estructurales de Hamlet y Gamlet, se utilizaron diversas aplicaciones informáticas e estadísticas. Para ello se administró el análisis cuantitativo de la distribución de los patrones de la presencia, intervención e interacción de todos los personajes, tanto los principales, como los secundarios. Para analizar y comparar las alteraciones temáticas, es decir, las diferencias cualitativas, no simplemente cuantitativas, con respecto a la conceptualización sociopolítica, religiosa, moral, familiar, filosófica y artística, entre Shakespeare y Sumarokov, se aplicaron los métodos cuantitativos y analíticos basados en la lingüística del corpus. A tal fin, se implantó la investigación de los patrones de distribución de las palabras de contenido (open-class ítems), es decir, las palabras con significado léxico, tales como sustantivos, verbos, adjetivos y adverbios, más frecuentes entre ambas obras. Los principales resultados obtenidos revelan importantes disimilitudes entre las estructuras de las obras por actos, es decir, percepciones marcadamente distintas de todos los personajes, de su relevancia en las obras y de complejidad de las relaciones sociales entre ellos. Los resultados de los patrones temáticos señalan las divergencias significativas en los contenidos básicos de ambos textos en relación con los temas más prominentes. Así pues, los resultados confirman diferencias sustanciales en los patrones estructurales y temáticos entre versión original de Hamlet y Gamlet. Resumen: / The main area of research of this PhD dissertation is the study of language by means of corpus-based techniques -in other words, by means of a computational and quantitative analysis. The aim was to carry out quantitative and qualitative structural and lexical analysis and comparison of two specific texts in the genre of drama -The Fourth Folio Edition of The Tragedy of Hamlet Prince of Denmark (1685) by Shakespeare and the English translation of Gamlet (1787) [1748] by the Russian playwright Sumarokov, translated from Russian by Richard Fortune in 1970. The analysis, comparison and interpretation of data related to the structural and thematic patterns were carried out per act: intra-play (in each play, separately) and inter-plays (between Hamlet and Gamlet). Accordingly, various computational tools were applied to reveal the differences in the social and organisational structures of the plays through quantitative and qualitative analysis of the distribution patterns of the presence, intervention and interaction variables of all the characters, both main and secondary. Quantitative and analytical corpus-based methodologies were used to analyse and compare thematic alterations between the two plays -in other words, the (dis)similarities in the authors' religious, socio-political, family, moral, philosophical and artistic conceptions- identified on the basis of the most frequent content words (open-class items), particularly nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. The key findings indicate important differences between the structures of the plays per acts, that is, significant divergences in the authors' perceptions of the characters and the complexity of their relationships. Another essential finding suggests obvious distinctions between both texts' basic contents per act: intra-play and inter-plays. In general, the findings uncover wide-ranging dissimilarities in the structural and thematic patterns in Hamlet versus Gamlet.

In many international schools where English is the language of learning and teaching there are large percentages of students whose first language is not English. Many of these students may have low vocabulary levels which inhibits their chances of taking full advantage of their education. Low vocabulary levels can be a particular problem for students in mainstream classes where fluent English speaking teachers are using English to teach content areas of Mathematics, Science and History. Not only do students have to comprehend the low-frequency, academic and technical vocabulary pertaining to the subject, but they also need to know the higher frequency vocabulary that makes up general English usage. If students’ vocabulary levels fall too far below the vocabulary levels with which their teachers are speaking, then their chance of comprehending the topic is small, as is their chance of succeeding in their subjects. This study has two broad aims. Firstly, I have set out to assess the English vocabulary levels of students at an international school where English is the language of learning and teaching. The majority of students at this school do not have English as their first language. The second aim of this study is to explore the vocabulary profile of the teachers’ spoken discourse at the research school. By gaining a better understanding of the nature of teacher discourse – specifically the percentage of high, mid and low-frequency vocabulary, as well as academic vocabulary that they use – English as a Second Language (ESL) teachers will be in a stronger position to identify what the vocabulary learning task is and be able to assist students in reaching the vocabulary levels necessary to make sense of their lessons. This study revealed a large gap between the generally low vocabulary levels of ESL students and the vocabulary levels spoken by their teachers. As a result the need for explicit vocabulary instruction and learning is shown to be very important in English medium (international) schools, where there are large numbers of students whose first language is not English. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Applied Linguistics)