A corpus linguistic analysis of phraseology and collocation in the register of current European Union administrative French
The French administrative language of the European Union is an emerging discourse: it is less than fifty years old, and has its origins in the French administrative register of the middle of the twentieth century. This thesis has two main objectives. The first is descriptive: using the flourishing methodology of corpus linguistics, and a specially compiled two-million word corpus of texts, it aims to describe the current discourse of EU French in terms of its phraseology and collocational patterning, in particular in relation to its French national counterpart. The description confirms the phraseological specificity of EU language but shows that not all of this can be ascribed to semantic or pragmatic factors. The second objective of this thesis is therefore explanatory: given the phraseological differences evident between the two discourses, and by means of a diachronic comparison, it asks how the EU discourse has developed in relation to the national discourse. A detailed analysis is provided of differences between the administrative language as a whole and other registers of French, and indeed of genre-based variation within the administrative register. Three main types of phraseological patterning are
Anderson, Wendy J.
PC2074.75A6
A corpus linguistic analysis of phraseology and collocation in the register of current European Union administrative French. The French administrative language of the European Union is an emerging discourse: it is less than fifty years old, and has its origins in the French administrative register of the middle of the twentieth century. This thesis has two main objectives. The first is descriptive: using the flourishing methodology of corpus linguistics, and a specially compiled two-million word corpus of texts, it aims to describe the current discourse of EU French in terms of its phraseology and collocational patterning, in particular in relation to its French national counterpart. The description confirms the phraseological specificity of EU language but shows that not all of this can be ascribed to semantic or pragmatic factors. The second objective of this thesis is therefore explanatory: given the phraseological differences evident between the two discourses, and by means of a diachronic comparison, it asks how the EU discourse has developed in relation to the national discourse. A detailed analysis is provided of differences between the administrative language as a whole and other registers of French, and indeed of genre-based variation within the administrative register. Three main types of phraseological patterning are
corpus_linguistic analysis phraseology collocation register current european_union administrative french french administrative language european_union emerge discourse origins french administrative register two_main objective first descriptive use flourish corpus_linguistics specially compile million word corpus_text aim_describe current_discourse french term phraseology collocational patterning particular relation french national counterpart description confirm phraseological specificity language show ascribe semantic_pragmatic factor second_objective therefore explanatory give phraseological difference evident discourse mean diachronic comparison ask discourse develop relation national discourse detailed_analysis provide difference administrative language whole register french indeed genre based variation_within administrative register three_main type phraseological patterning