‘My almost-leggings-so-I’m-kind-of-cheating jeans’: Exploring hyphenated phrasal expressions in fashion discourse
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Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli
Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli is Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Pisa. Her research focuses on corpus-assisted analysis of discourse in academic, professional, and digital settings. She has published in leading journals, including
Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Discourse & Communication, Text & Talk, Discourse, Context & Media , andEnglish for Specific Purposes . Address for correspondence: Università di Pisa, Via Santa Maria 67, 56,126 Pisa – PI, Italy. Email: belinda.crawford@unipi.it
Abstract
The language of fashion was first investigated by Roland Barthes in his influential book Système de la Mode, but it has since received scant attention from linguists, perhaps due to perceptions of frivolousness associated with the fashion world. This study explores contemporary fashion discourse through a systematic analysis of hyphenated phrasal expressions as linguistic features that are analytically challenging, but with strong expressive potential. The Fashion Discourse Corpus consists of 396,125 words compiled from the traditional fashion press (Vogue, Women’s Wear Daily, Harper’s Bazaar) and two leading fashion blogs, representing both American and British English. For comparative purposes, a reference corpus was extracted from American and British benchmark corpora. The quantitative analysis revealed that hyphenated phrasal expressions were considerably more frequent in the Fashion Discourse Corpus. Follow-up qualitative analysis identified conventional, semi-conventional, and non-conventional types, along with recurring structural patterns and communicative functions used to describe and evaluate fashion phenomena. The fashion blogs in particular contained richly expressive items that seemed to reflect the writer’s unique voice and identity within the discourse community. The findings can be applied in journalism and communication courses to help aspiring writers learn to use hyphenated phrasal expressions effectively.
About the author
Belinda Crawford Camiciottoli is Associate Professor of English Language and Linguistics at the University of Pisa. Her research focuses on corpus-assisted analysis of discourse in academic, professional, and digital settings. She has published in leading journals, including Journal of Pragmatics, Intercultural Pragmatics, Discourse & Communication, Text & Talk, Discourse, Context & Media, and English for Specific Purposes. Address for correspondence: Università di Pisa, Via Santa Maria 67, 56,126 Pisa – PI, Italy. Email: belinda.crawford@unipi.it
Appendix: Non-conventional HPEs in FDC
| Fashion blogs (N = 49) | Fashion journalism (N = 7) |
|---|---|
| all-girls-will-heart-this (type) | deep-end-Ghesquière-clad (actresses) |
| almost-leggings-so-I’m-kind-of-cheating (jeans) | enormous-on-anyone (coat) |
| also-surprisingly-temperate (weekend) | just-took-the-shears-to-my-own-ponytail (quality) |
| always-long-but-moving (line) | orange-flower-water (salads) |
| be-tee-dubs | post-post-party |
| chic-to-the-next-lev (clothes) (2) | racing-car-driver (boyfriend) |
| cinched-in-at-the-waist (shapes) | rock-star-confident (swagger) |
| comfortable-yet-put-together | |
| Elvis-nostalgia-tinged (collection) | |
| go-throw-a-party (etiquette) | |
| hit-hit-hit (collection) | |
| ho-ho-cut-out (dress) | |
| I’m-trying-to-impress-you (stages) | |
| I-hate-your-rules (double whammy) | |
| insanely-rich-but-somehow-refreshing | |
| Jews-on-Christmas (dinner) | |
| LBD-with-a-twist (2) | |
| look-at-me (sloganizing/print) (2) | |
| minimalism-as-an-aesthetic (thing) | |
| mohair-patched-up (knits) | |
| more-at-home-feeling (bustle) | |
| mostly-blank-canvas | |
| uniform-du-semain | |
| new-new-new (designers) | |
| no-white-after-the first-week-of-September (rule) | |
| one-dangly-earring (thing) | |
| on-trend-but-accessible (take) | |
| other-other-hometown | |
| overwhelming-to-me (38H) | |
| pink-ribbon-branded (products) | |
| pull-on-immediately (skirts) | |
| Sargent-Pepper’s-era-1960s | |
| skirts-and-dresses-almost-exclusively-style | |
| sparkly-stripe-sisterhood | |
| still-fresh-feeling (adventure) | |
| things-that-are-expected-of-us-by-a-certain-age | |
| too-much-right-on (adornment) | |
| totally-outdated-concept-of-daylight-savings | |
| Tryptophan-via-turkey | |
| unexpected-for-me (color) | |
| updated-as-items-are-added (2) | |
| very-California-girl (highlights) | |
| washing-you-out (moment) | |
| white-picket-fence-suburban (paradigm) | |
| wind-slapping-in-the-face |
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Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- ‘My almost-leggings-so-I’m-kind-of-cheating jeans’: Exploring hyphenated phrasal expressions in fashion discourse
- Investigating ‘care leaver’ identity: A narrative analysis of personal experience stories
- Web-TV as a backstage activity: Emerging forms of audience address in the post-broadcast era
- Discourse-pragmatic functions of the present perfect in American English TV and radio interviews
- Virtual communities: Interaction, identity and authority in digital communication
- Acting out on Twitter: Affordances for animating reported speech in written computer-mediated communication
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Articles
- ‘My almost-leggings-so-I’m-kind-of-cheating jeans’: Exploring hyphenated phrasal expressions in fashion discourse
- Investigating ‘care leaver’ identity: A narrative analysis of personal experience stories
- Web-TV as a backstage activity: Emerging forms of audience address in the post-broadcast era
- Discourse-pragmatic functions of the present perfect in American English TV and radio interviews
- Virtual communities: Interaction, identity and authority in digital communication
- Acting out on Twitter: Affordances for animating reported speech in written computer-mediated communication
