Idiolect refers to an individual’s unique use of language. Therefore, the author of a text can be identified by his/her use of language. This study is focused on Joan Hambidge’s recognisable idiolect across the boundaries of genres. It is expected that Hambidge will have a unique and recognisable idiolect, regardless of the genre she writes in. By making use of forensic linguistic principles, methods and applications, it has been shown that it is possible to determine an individual’s idiolect. Even though forensic principles are specifically focused on identifying an author, the methodology used in the research field can be applied to a corpus linguistic study to determine how clearly an individual’s idiolect features across the boundaries of genres.
By researching the research subject, explaining her oeuvre, creating a literary background, as well as discussing the literary approaches that Hambidge uses in her respective genres, and what she writes about, the necessary literary background was created, which contributes to the complete image of Hambidge and her influences. By creating this background, it is possible to determine which external factors have an influence on Hambidge's idiolect.
Linguistic research was done to determine the origin and background of sociolinguistics; as well as factors that can influence an individual’s idiolect. The background of forensic linguistics was provided, as well as the various corpus linguistic methods that can be used in a study such as this one.
After the background was provided, the empirical analysis was executed, in which both stylistic and stylometric analyses were performed by making use of inter- and intra-corpus linguistic research, according to which Hambidge’s idiolect was identified.
To identify Hambidge’s idiolect, the Taalkommissie corpus was used as a reference corpus to determine whether the idiosyncratic characteristics that were found in the Hambidge corpus truly are a unique feature or whether they can also be found in the Taalkommissie corpus.
The application and execution of the methods made it possible to determine to which extent, if at all, Hambidge has a unique idiolect, and how this idiolect features across the boundaries of genres. The research has determined that Joan Hambidge has a unique idiolect and that the idiolect is especially clear when research is done about her corpus in its entirety. When Hambidge’s separate genres were compared to each other, it was clear that genre influences idiolect, but also that Hambidge did not follow the prescribed genre conventions. Even though the two novels that were compared, did not match as was expected, the other, various genres did agree. Various categories were identified, from which it is clear that distinguishing characteristics can be found in Hambidge’s corpus. It can therefore be said without a doubt that Hambidge has a unique idiolect across the boundaries of genres. / MA (Afrikaans and Dutch), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NWUBOLOKA1/oai:dspace.nwu.ac.za:10394/11291 |
| Date | January 2014 |
| Creators | Nel, Mariska |
| Source Sets | North-West University |
| Language | other |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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