Article In:
Journal of Language and Pop Culture: Online-First ArticlesA grammatical analysis of American and British pop music
Previous studies have shown that American-influenced singing is common in British pop music (BPM). While the
existing literature focuses on phonetic analysis, this article presents an analysis of BPM by investigating grammatical variables.
The data are drawn from two 1.5-million-word corpora that contain songs performed by either American or British singers during the
years 1953–2009. Four grammatical items that tend to appear more frequently in American English than in British English are
extracted (ain’t, third-person don’t, multiple negation, and the intensifier
so). The frequency of these items is examined, as are genre and diachronic effects, and the patterns in the two
corpora are then contrasted. A multivariate analysis through GoldVarb X reveals a high level of similarity in
terms of the relative strength of these predictor variables and the quantitative tendency of each factor. The results are
interpreted within an audience/reference design framework as evidence of the influence of American music on BPM.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Background
- 3.Data and methodology
- 3.1Research materials
- 3.2Methods
- 4.Results
- 4.1PMCE-US
- 4.2PMCE-UK
- 5.Discussion
- 6.Conclusion
- Notes
- Author queries
-
References
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