Journal•ISSN: 0075-4242
Journal of English Linguistics
SAGE Publishing
About: Journal of English Linguistics is an academic journal published by SAGE Publishing. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Variation (linguistics) & Corpus linguistics. It has an ISSN identifier of 0075-4242. Over the lifetime, 781 publications have been published receiving 12252 citations.
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1,305 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the discursive construction of refugees and asylum seekers in a 140 million-word corpus of UK press articles published between 1996 and 2005, and pointed out negative categories of representation, the existence and development of nonsensical terms (e.g., illegal refugee), and media confusion and conflation of definitions of the four terms under examination.
Abstract: This paper examines the discursive construction of refugees and asylum seekers (and to a lesser extent immigrants and migrants) in a 140-million-word corpus of UK press articles published between 1996 and 2005. Taking a corpus-based approach, the data were analyzed not only as a whole, but also with regard to synchronic variation, by carrying out concordance analyses of keywords which occurred within tabloid and broad-sheet newspapers, and diachronic change, albeit mainly approached from an unusual angle, by investigating consistent collocates and frequencies of specific terms over time. The analyses point to a number of (mainly negative) categories of representation, the existence and development of nonsensical terms (e.g., illegal refugee), and media confusion and conflation of definitions of the four terms under examination. The paper concludes by critically discussing the extent to which a corpus-based methodological stance can inform critical discourse analysis.
496 citations
TL;DR: The authors explored the sociolinguistic history of a U.S. city and found that a set of linguistic features that were once not noticed at all, then used and heard primarily as markers of socioeconomic class, have come to be linked increasingly to place and "enregistered" as a dialect called "Pittsburghese".
Abstract: This article explores the sociolinguistic history of a U.S. city. On the basis of historical research, ethnography, discourse analysis, and sociolinguistic interviews, the authors describe how a set of linguistic features that were once not noticed at all, then used and heard primarily as markers of socioeconomic class, have come to be linked increasingly to place and “enregistered” as a dialect called “Pittsburghese.” To explain how this has come about, the authors draw on the semiotic concept of “orders of indexicality.” They suggest that social and geographical mobility during the latter half of the twentieth century has played a crucial role in the process. They model a particularistic approach to linguistic and ideological change that is sensitive not only to ideas about language that circulate in the media but also to the life experiences of particular speakers; and they show how an understanding of linguistic variation, language attitudes, and the stylized performance of dialect is enhanced by expl...
451 citations
TL;DR: The authors define discourse as "the ways in which reality is perceived through and shaped by historically and socially constructed ways of making sense, that is, language, complex signs, and practices that order and sustain particular forms of social existence".
Abstract: It is imperative that linguists and educators (and all social theorists and cultural workers for that matter) move beyond the mainstream conceptual limitations of discourse presented as multiple utterances produced within a social context. Unfortunately, this definition, virtually disconnected from the historical, economic, social, and institutional relations within which language is produced, only invokes analysis around such depoliticized aspects as semantics, pragmatics, and the paralinguistics of body language and prosodics. Over the past century, more critical understandings of language, from Valentin Volosinov and Mikhail Bakhtin to Michel Foucault and beyond, have given rise to definitions of the concept of discourse that are far more socially and politically revealing. From such critical perspectives, discourse has evolved into the complex “ways in which reality is perceived through and shaped by historically and socially constructed ways of making sense, that is, language, complex signs, and practices that order and sustain particular forms of social existence” (Leistyna 1996, 336). As Stuart Hall (1997, 6) observes,
377 citations
TL;DR: A Comprehefl8i1Je Grammar of the English Language as discussed by the authors is the best and most complete description yet made of present-day English morphology and syntax, which is the modern equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon beot-a formal and ritualistic boast by a warrior, detailing his prowess and the feats he intends to perform.
Abstract: A Comprehefl8i1Je Grammar of the English Language is the best and most complete description yet made of present-day English morphology and syntax. Its title, to be sure, is the modern equivalent of the Anglo-Saxon beot-a formal and ritualistic boast by a warrior, detailing his prowess and the feats he intends to perform. For the warrior to fail to realize a boast once made was to turn it into mere vainglorious boasting. But to fulfill a promise delivered before the hearth-companions was to gain an immortal name for oneself in the songs of the scops. The boast of this book’s title is fulfilled in the pages of what is, indeed, the most comprehensive grammar we have for English. No grammar, to be sure, can include all the details of the structure of a language, just as no dictionary can include all the words in a language. &dquo;Comprehensive&dquo; is not &dquo;complete&dquo;. But it does mean inclusive rather than exclusive and implies a broad grasp of reality. In that sense, the Comprehensive deserves its name. This book is a sequel to, rather than a revision of, the authors’ earlier work, A Grammar of Contemporary English (1972). The new book is considerably larger and more thorough than the earlier one, large and thorough though the old book was. Moreover, although the
262 citations