Spoken and written register variation in Spanish: A multi-dimensional analysis

Corpora ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-37 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber ◽  
Mark Davies ◽  
James K. Jones ◽  
Nicole Tracy-Ventura
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Large Set ◽  
European Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
International Language ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation

There have been few comprehensive analyses of register variation conducted in a European language other than English. Spanish provides an ideal test case for such a study: Spanish is a major international language with a long social history of literacy, and it is a Romance language, with interesting linguistic similarities to, and differences from, English. The present study uses Multi-Dimensional (MD) analysis to investigate the distribution of a large set of linguistic features in a wide range of spoken and written registers: 146 linguistic features in a twenty-million words corpus taken from nineteen spoken and written registers. Six primary dimensions of variation are identified and interpreted in linguistic and functional terms. Some of these dimensions are specialised, without obvious counterparts in the MD analyses of other languages (e.g., a dimension related to discourse with a counterfactual focus). However, other Spanish dimensions correspond closely to dimensions identified for other languages, reflecting functional considerations such as interactiveness, personal stance, informational density, argumentation, and a narrative focus.

Dimensions of register variation in Somali

1992 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Douglas Biber ◽  
Mohamed Hared
Keyword(s):  
Public Information ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
Personal Involvement ◽  
Communicative Functions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
Mode Characteristics ◽  
General Topic ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation

ABSTRACTThe present study uses a multidimensional approach to analyze the linguistic characteristics of Somali spoken and written registers. Somali is unusual in that it has a very short history of literacy (only since 1973), but at present it has a wide range of written and spoken registers, including governmental, educational, and public information uses. It thus represents a very different language type from previously described languages. We analyze the distribution of 65 linguistic features across 279 texts from 26 spoken and written registers, using factor analysis to identify five major dimensions of variation. None of these dimensions defines an absolute dichotomy between spoken and written registers, although three of the dimensions can be considered “oral/literate” parameters. As in the multidimensional analyses of other languages, the present study shows that no single dimension adequately describes the relations among spoken and written registers; rather, each dimension reflects a different set of communicative functions relating to the purpose, general topic, degree of interactiveness, personal involvement, production circumstances, and other physical mode characteristics. In the conclusion, we briefly discuss our findings relative to previous multidimensional analyses of English, Tuvaluan, and Korean, laying the foundation for cross-linguistic analyses of universal tendencies of register variation.

Jumbos and Jumping Devils

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nisha P R
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Cultural Studies ◽  
South Asia ◽  
Social History ◽  
Post Colonial ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of

Jumbos and Jumping Devils is an original and pioneering exploration of not only the social history of the subcontinent but also of performance and popular culture. The domain of analysis is entirely novel and opens up a bolder approach of laying a new field of historical enquiry of South Asia. Trawling through an extraordinary set of sources such as colonial and post-colonial records, newspaper reports, unpublished autobiographies, private papers, photographs, and oral interviews, the author brings out a fascinating account of the transnational landscape of physical cultures, human and animal performers, and the circus industry. This book should be of interest to a wide range of readers from history, sociology, anthropology, and cultural studies to analysts of history of performance and sports in the subcontinent.

A multi-dimensional analysis of register variation in Brazilian Portuguese

Corpora ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tony Berber Sardinha ◽  
Carlos Kauffmann ◽  
Cristina Mayer Acunzo
Keyword(s):  
Dimensional Analysis ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Brazilian Portuguese ◽  
Linguistic Community ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
Comprehensive Picture ◽  
Six Dimensions ◽  
Dimensions Of Variation

In this paper, we present a Multi-Dimensional analysis of Brazilian Portuguese, based on a large, diverse corpus comprising forty-eight different spoken and written registers. Previous research in MD analysis includes multi-register investigations of a range of languages, including English, Spanish, Somali and Korean, among others. At the same time, a large body of literature on text varieties in Brazilian Portuguese exists, but previous research focusses on specific aspects of one, or at the most, a few varieties at a time and, therefore, does not present a comprehensive picture of register use in the linguistic community of Brazilian Portuguese speakers. In this study, we attempt to fill this gap by employing the MD framework, enabling researchers to account for a large number of different registers, based on a wide repertory of linguistic features. The analysis revealed six dimensions of variation, which are presented, illustrated and discussed here.

The Social History of Alcohol as Portrayed in the Comics up to the End of the Prohibition Era

1986 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 585-608 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sylvia Lambert ◽  
Stephen Israelstam
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social History ◽  
The United States ◽  
Considerable Effect ◽  
Comic Strips ◽  
Daily Newspapers ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Media

The mass media tend to shape the values and opinions of their audience as well as reflect the culture in which they exist. The comics have long been an integral part of the media, appealing to a wide range of age and social class. As such, they could have considerable effect on attitudes and behaviours regarding alcohol consumption. In this paper, we examine the comic strips appearing in the daily newspapers before, during and up to the end of the Prohibition era in the United States, to see how alcohol was portrayed during this period when its manufacture and sale were prohibited.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. xiv-2
Author(s):  
Samuel E. Balentine
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Cultural Knowledge ◽  
Biblical Studies ◽  
Near Eastern ◽  
History Of Interpretation ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Face ◽  
History Of ◽  
Cultural Functions ◽  
Analytical Approaches

The conceit in the title of this volume is that ritual, however expansively it may be defined, is ineluctably tethered to religion and worship. It has a primal connection to the idea that a transcendent order—numinous and mysterious, supranatural and elusive, divine and wholly other—gives meaning and purpose to life. The construction of rites and rituals enables humans to conceive and apprehend this transcendent order, to symbolize it and interact with it, to postulate its truths in the face of contradicting realities and to repair them when they have been breached or diminished. The focus of this Handbook is on ritual and worship from the perspective of biblical studies, particularly on the Hebrew Bible and its ancient Near Eastern antecedents. Within this context, attention will be given to the development of ideas in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim thinking, but only insofar as they connect with or extend the trajectory of biblical precedents. The volume reflects a wide range of analytical approaches to ancient texts, inscriptions, iconography, and ritual artifacts. It examines the social history and cultural knowledge encoded in rituals and explores the way rituals shape and are shaped by politics, economics, ethical imperatives, and religion itself. Toward this end, the volume is organized into six major sections: Historical Contexts, Interpretive Approaches, Ritual Elements (participants, places, times, objects, practices), Cultural and Theological Perspectives, History of Interpretation, Social-Cultural Functions, and Theology and Theological Heritage.

Arabic Historical Dialectology

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Seventh Century ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Origin And Evolution ◽  
South Arabia ◽  
Fertile Crescent ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Many ◽  
Arabic Speaking

This book, by a group of leading international scholars, outlines the history of the spoken dialects of Arabic from the Arab conquests of the seventh century up to the present day. It specifically investigates the evolution of Arabic as a spoken language, in contrast to the many existing studies that focus on written Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. The volume begins with a discursive introduction that deals with important issues in the general scholarly context, including the indigenous myth and probable reality of the history of Arabic; Arabic dialect geography and typology; types of internally and externally motivated linguistic change; social indexicalization; and pidginization and creolization in Arabic-speaking communities. Most chapters then focus on developments in a specific region—Mauritania, the Maghreb, Egypt, the Levant, the Northern Fertile Crescent, the Gulf, and South Arabia—with one exploring Judaeo-Arabic, a group of varieties historically spread over a wider area. The remaining two chapters in the volume examine individual linguistic features of particular historical interest and controversy, specifically the origin and evolution of the b- verbal prefix, and the adnominal linker –an/–in. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students of the linguistic and social history of Arabic as well as to comparative linguists interested in topics such as linguistic typology and language change.

scholarly journals Do not worry in Kinywang’anga: Reading Matthew 6:25–34 in a Tanzanian village

2011 ◽  
Vol 67 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sakari Häkkinen
Keyword(s):  
Roman Empire ◽  
Social History ◽  
Cultural Anthropology ◽  
Test Case ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
Christian Communities ◽  
The People ◽  
The New Testament ◽  
History Of ◽  
Harsh Conditions

One of the presumptions of this article is that most of the people in the nascent ‘Christian’ communities were ordinary people struggling with questions of living under harsh conditions in a country that was occupied by an enemy force. Another presumption is that the history of these ordinary people from antiquity needs to be heard. The article aimed, with the help of archaeology, cultural anthropology, social history of antiquity, literature of the time as well as other disciplines, to create a social context of Jesus and his disciples. The article approached the Gospels in the New Testament from the poor, the majority of people living in the 1st century Roman Empire. It gives a brief analysis of one of the poverty texts, namely Matthew 6:25–34. By means of interviews, stories of villagers in Tanzania, as well as their interpretations of the Gospel texts, have been documented. The people of Kinywang’anga serve as a test case for reading the ‘do not worry’ exhortation in the Matthean passage.

scholarly journals Pleonastic Application Of Synonyms In Alisher Navoi's Works

2021 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 10-17
Author(s):  
Yusubova Rano Norboevna, Yarashova Nasiba Jumaevna
Keyword(s):  
Scientific Basis ◽  
Literary Language ◽  
Linguistic Features ◽  
Literary Works ◽  
Lexical Semantic ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Lexical Structure ◽  
History Of

This article discusses the wide range of possibilities of the old Uzbek language in the example of Navoi's work led linguists to study the linguistic features of the poet's legacy on a deep scientific basis, which led to theoretical conclusions about the phonetic-phonological, morpheme-morphological, lexical-semantic and syntactic levels of the old Uzbek literary language. For today's linguists, it is important to study the lexical structure of literary works before Navoi, to compare the lexicon of the ancient Turkic language, the Old Turkic language and the old Uzbek language, to study the history of the Uzbek language. Identifying semantic differences in the semantics of synonymous lexemes, the works of A. Navoi serve as one of the main sources in the study of the historical roots of the Uzbek language, as well as in the study of the lingvo-poetic potential of language units. The lingvo-poetic possibilities of assimilation synonyms used pleonastically in a verse or byte further clarify these views.

scholarly journals Social conflicts in Ukraine XIX century in historiography and sources

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 203
Author(s):  
Tetiana Lytvynova
Keyword(s):  
Social History ◽  
Social Situation ◽  
Practical Significance ◽  
Sharp Change ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Selective Approach ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Relationship

The aim of the article was to identify the historiographic tradition of highlighting social conflicts in Ukrainian society of the nineteenth century. Using the methods of historiographic analysis and synthesis made it possible to ascertain that in modern Ukrainian historica science the modern period is still considered mainly from the perspective of the concept of Ukrainian national revival, while the specifics of social processes continue to be reproduced at the level of historiography of the ХIX–ХХ centuries. The main result was the consideration of several persistent historiographic myths that explain the relationship between noble landlords and serfs exclusively in the categories of class struggle. The desire to perceive and reconstruct peasant-noble relations only from such an angle of view precluded the factor of chance in these conflicts, their criminal component. Scientific novelty is determined by the fact that on the basis of archival sources an attempt has been made to show the vulnerability of such a perception of landowner-peasant interaction, the variety of causes and motives of social conflicts. It is argued that popular protests were not directly related to the deterioration of the situation of peasants, but were the result, first of all, of a sharp change in their legal and social status. It is noted that in the historiography of the New History of Ukraine the problem of intraclass conflicts was not even posed. This applies to all social groups, which in Ukrainian historiography are shown as extremely consolidated communities. Attention is drawn to the fact that historians often demonstrate a selective approach to sources, leaving behind the scenes episodes of friendly, solidary relations between landowners and peasants, frequent cases of a breakdown of mutual consent, refusal of peasants to be released, and examples of mutual assistance. The conclusion and practical significance of the study is that modern approaches in historical science require abandoning the extremes in interpreting the social history of Ukraine. It is necessary to pay attention to the reconstruction of the social situation, taking into account the specifics of the relationship between all participants in the agrarian process in the prereform Ukrainian village, to take into account a wide range of social relationships, the essence of conflicts and the circumstances of their occurrence. Type of article: analytical.

The Society of Prisoners

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Renaud Morieux
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Social History ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Prisoners Of War ◽  
Prisoner Of War ◽  
Clear Cut ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Forced Migrations ◽  
History Of ◽  
International Conventions

War captivity is an ideal observatory to address three interrelated questions. First, I argue that in order to understand what a prisoner of war was in the eighteenth century, from a legal viewpoint, we must forget what we know about this notion, as it has been shaped by twentieth-century international conventions. In the eighteenth century, the distinction between a prisoner of war, a hostage, a criminal and a slave was not always clear-cut, in theory and even more so in practice. Second, war captivity tells us something important about the eighteenth-century state, how it transformed itself, and why it endured. The third approach is a social history of international relations. The aim here is to understand how eighteenth-century societies were impacted by war: how the detention of foreign enemies on home soil revealed and challenged social values, representations, hierarchies, and practices. The book’s argument hinges on the experience of prisoners of war as the pivot of social relations within and outside the prison, between Britons and French and between prisoners and host communities. War does not simply destroy society, but it also creates new sorts of social ties.The book addresses a wide range of topics, such as the ethics of war, philanthropy, forced migrations, the sociology of the prison and the architecture of detention places. One of its strengths is the sheer magnitude and diversity of the archival material used, in English and in French, most of which have been little explored by other historians.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document