A corpus-based stylistic study of newspaper English
This study is based on a corpus of 2400 clauses taken from British national newspapers in 1986 and stored in a computer database with each clause coded for a number of grammatical (and some semantic) features. These features relate to the verb phrase (e.g. finiteness), the clause (e.g. subordination) and the subject (e.g. form). In the first stage of the investigation the database is described in terms of the features coded therein. The scope of the description is on three levels. First, the data are described in total and are considered to constitute a representative sample of newspaper English. Secondly, the database is split into three pre-determined sub-databases according to their text-type. These are: news articles, editorials and readers' letters. A pattern is discovered of 'letters-as-norm' with the other texttypes on different sides of the average. Thirdly, the database is split on a different dimension according to the eight different newspapers included in the sampling. A pattern of three groups of newspapers; 'quality', 'central' and 'popular', is found for some features. The second section exploits the database primarily as an example of written English, rather than emphasising its newspaper origins.
Jeffries, Lesley Evelyn
English language in newspapers
A corpus-based stylistic study of newspaper English. This study is based on a corpus of 2400 clauses taken from British national newspapers in 1986 and stored in a computer database with each clause coded for a number of grammatical (and some semantic) features. These features relate to the verb phrase (e.g. finiteness), the clause (e.g. subordination) and the subject (e.g. form). In the first stage of the investigation the database is described in terms of the features coded therein. The scope of the description is on three levels. First, the data are described in total and are considered to constitute a representative sample of newspaper English. Secondly, the database is split into three pre-determined sub-databases according to their text-type. These are: news articles, editorials and readers' letters. A pattern is discovered of 'letters-as-norm' with the other texttypes on different sides of the average. Thirdly, the database is split on a different dimension according to the eight different newspapers included in the sampling. A pattern of three groups of newspapers; 'quality', 'central' and 'popular', is found for some features. The second section exploits the database primarily as an example of written English, rather than emphasising its newspaper origins.
corpus_based stylistic study newspaper english study base_corpus clauses take british national newspaper store computer database clause cod number grammatical semantic_feature feature relate verb_phrase clause subordination subject form first_stage investigation database describe_term feature cod therein scope description three_level first data describe total consider constitute representative_sample newspaper english secondly database split pre_determined sub databases accord text_type news_article editorial reader letter pattern discover letters norm different side average thirdly database split different_dimension accord different newspaper include sampling pattern three_group newspaper quality central popular find feature second_section exploit database primarily example write_english rather emphasise newspaper origin