Chapter 19. Orality on the searchable web
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Douglas Biber
Abstract
As Culpeper and Kytö (2010) discuss, one challenge of historical linguistics is the extent to which written texts represent the linguistic characteristics of speech. Synchronic linguists face similar challenges, leading to the practice of using a web corpus to represent the spectrum of oral–literate registers. However, there has been little research that tests the validity of this practice. The present chapter begins by summarizing the patterns of register variation on the searchable web documented in Biber and Egbert (2018). While that study documents the importance of oral–literate linguistic dimensions, it does not investigate whether involved web registers represent the linguistic characteristics of spoken registers. We explore that research question here, comparing the multi-dimensional profiles of online registers and spoken conversation.
Abstract
As Culpeper and Kytö (2010) discuss, one challenge of historical linguistics is the extent to which written texts represent the linguistic characteristics of speech. Synchronic linguists face similar challenges, leading to the practice of using a web corpus to represent the spectrum of oral–literate registers. However, there has been little research that tests the validity of this practice. The present chapter begins by summarizing the patterns of register variation on the searchable web documented in Biber and Egbert (2018). While that study documents the importance of oral–literate linguistic dimensions, it does not investigate whether involved web registers represent the linguistic characteristics of spoken registers. We explore that research question here, comparing the multi-dimensional profiles of online registers and spoken conversation.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Foreword xi
- Chapter 1. Voices of English 1
-
Part I. Early Modern English
- Chapter 2. Pragmatic noise in Shakespeare’s plays 11
- Chapter 3. Keywords that characterise Shakespeare’s (anti)heroes and villains 31
- Chapter 4. Revealing speech 47
- Chapter 5. Saying, crying, replying, and continuing 63
- Chapter 6. Interjections in early popular literature 79
- Chapter 7. Godly vocabulary in Early Modern English religious debate 95
- Chapter 8. Patterns of reader involvement on sixteenth-century English title pages, with special reference to second-person pronouns 113
-
Part II. Late Modern English
- Chapter 9. Epistemic adverbs in the Old Bailey Corpus 133
- Chapter 10. Question strategies in the Old Bailey Corpus 153
- Chapter 11. Sure in Irish English 173
- Chapter 12. American English gotten 187
-
Part III. Present-day English
- Chapter 13. Explaining explanatory so 207
- Chapter 14. Return to the future 227
- Chapter 15. Sort of and kind of from an English-Swedish perspective 247
- Chapter 16. From yes to innit 265
- Chapter 17. “If anyone would have told me, I would have not believed it” 283
- Chapter 18. Intensification in dialogue vs. narrative in a corpus of present-day English fiction 301
- Chapter 19. Orality on the searchable web 317
- Select list of publications by Merja Kytö 337
- Index 347
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Prelim pages i
- Table of contents v
- List of contributors ix
- Foreword xi
- Chapter 1. Voices of English 1
-
Part I. Early Modern English
- Chapter 2. Pragmatic noise in Shakespeare’s plays 11
- Chapter 3. Keywords that characterise Shakespeare’s (anti)heroes and villains 31
- Chapter 4. Revealing speech 47
- Chapter 5. Saying, crying, replying, and continuing 63
- Chapter 6. Interjections in early popular literature 79
- Chapter 7. Godly vocabulary in Early Modern English religious debate 95
- Chapter 8. Patterns of reader involvement on sixteenth-century English title pages, with special reference to second-person pronouns 113
-
Part II. Late Modern English
- Chapter 9. Epistemic adverbs in the Old Bailey Corpus 133
- Chapter 10. Question strategies in the Old Bailey Corpus 153
- Chapter 11. Sure in Irish English 173
- Chapter 12. American English gotten 187
-
Part III. Present-day English
- Chapter 13. Explaining explanatory so 207
- Chapter 14. Return to the future 227
- Chapter 15. Sort of and kind of from an English-Swedish perspective 247
- Chapter 16. From yes to innit 265
- Chapter 17. “If anyone would have told me, I would have not believed it” 283
- Chapter 18. Intensification in dialogue vs. narrative in a corpus of present-day English fiction 301
- Chapter 19. Orality on the searchable web 317
- Select list of publications by Merja Kytö 337
- Index 347