Chapter 2.2 Multi-Dimensional analysis of pop songs
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Patrícia Bértoli-Dutra
Abstract
This chapter reports on an MD analysis of North American and British pop songs from 1940 to 2009, comprising 6,290 individual songs from 32 artists and bands, representing 16 different music styles or genres. The corpus was automatically tagged for part of speech and semantic field. In addition, multi-word units in each song were identified and checked both against the Google 1 trillion word 3-gram corpus and against the whole song corpus in order to measure the use of formulaic language. The principal component analysis showed two sets of three factors, one for lexico-grammar and one for semantics. These were interpreted as dimensions, and the most representative songs, artists, styles, and time periods for each dimension were identified. Overall, this study advocates the relevance of song lyrics as an object of linguistic investigation.
Abstract
This chapter reports on an MD analysis of North American and British pop songs from 1940 to 2009, comprising 6,290 individual songs from 32 artists and bands, representing 16 different music styles or genres. The corpus was automatically tagged for part of speech and semantic field. In addition, multi-word units in each song were identified and checked both against the Google 1 trillion word 3-gram corpus and against the whole song corpus in order to measure the use of formulaic language. The principal component analysis showed two sets of three factors, one for lexico-grammar and one for semantics. These were interpreted as dimensions, and the most representative songs, artists, styles, and time periods for each dimension were identified. Overall, this study advocates the relevance of song lyrics as an object of linguistic investigation.
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Acknowledgments xiii
- Introduction xv
- Opening. Multi-Dimensional analysis xxix
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1. Multi-Dimensional Analysis and synchronic analyses
- Chapter 1.1 A Multi-Dimensional analysis of regional variation in American English 3
- Chapter 1.2 Dimensions of register variation in Brazilian Portuguese 35
- Chapter 1.3 25 years later 81
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2. Multi-Dimensional Analysis and diachronic analyses
- Chapter 2.1 Dimensions of variation in North American movies 109
- Chapter 2.2 Multi-Dimensional analysis of pop songs 149
- Chapter 2.3 Dimensions of variation in TIME magazine 177
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3. Multi-Dimensional Analysis and language learning
- Chapter 3.1 A Multi-Dimensional analysis of essay writing 197
- Chapter 3.2 A Multi-Dimensional analysis of advanced written L2 Spanish 239
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4. Multi-Dimensional Analysis: exploring the methodology
- Chapter 4.1 Expanding Multi-Dimensional analysis with qualitative research techniques 273
- Chapter 4.2 Conducting Multi-Dimensional analysis using SPSS 297
- Appendix 317
- Name index 323
- Subject index 325
Chapters in this book
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents vii
- List of contributors ix
- Preface xi
- Acknowledgments xiii
- Introduction xv
- Opening. Multi-Dimensional analysis xxix
-
1. Multi-Dimensional Analysis and synchronic analyses
- Chapter 1.1 A Multi-Dimensional analysis of regional variation in American English 3
- Chapter 1.2 Dimensions of register variation in Brazilian Portuguese 35
- Chapter 1.3 25 years later 81
-
2. Multi-Dimensional Analysis and diachronic analyses
- Chapter 2.1 Dimensions of variation in North American movies 109
- Chapter 2.2 Multi-Dimensional analysis of pop songs 149
- Chapter 2.3 Dimensions of variation in TIME magazine 177
-
3. Multi-Dimensional Analysis and language learning
- Chapter 3.1 A Multi-Dimensional analysis of essay writing 197
- Chapter 3.2 A Multi-Dimensional analysis of advanced written L2 Spanish 239
-
4. Multi-Dimensional Analysis: exploring the methodology
- Chapter 4.1 Expanding Multi-Dimensional analysis with qualitative research techniques 273
- Chapter 4.2 Conducting Multi-Dimensional analysis using SPSS 297
- Appendix 317
- Name index 323
- Subject index 325
