Article in:
Register Studies
Vol. 3:1 (2021) ► pp. 144–171

Multiple Correspondence Analysis, newspaper discourse and subregister

A case study of discourses of Islam in the British press

| Lancaster University
| Lancaster University | Xi’an Jiaotong University
| Lancaster University
This article introduces a new method for grouping keywords and examines the extent to which it also allows analysts to explore the interaction of discourse and subregister. It uses the multivariate statistical technique, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, to reveal dimensions of keywords which co-occur across the texts of a corpus. These dimensions are then interpreted in terms of the discourses to which they contribute within the data, thus forming the basis of a corpus-assisted discourse analysis. The approach is demonstrated through analysis of the discourses that are used to represent Muslims and Islam in a corpus of UK national newspaper articles published on these topics spanning 2010–2019. The approach reveals an interaction between discourse and subregister, hence this article argues for the need for (corpus-assisted) discourse analysts to account for subregister as a level of meaningful variation when analysing press discourse.
Keywords: keyword analysis, Multiple Correspondence Analysis, newspaper discourse, Islam
Available under the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) 4.0 license.

For any use beyond this license, please contact the publisher at rights@benjamins.nl.

Published online: 25 May 2021
https://doi.org/10.1075/rs.20024.cla

Full-text

Multiple Correspondence Analysis, newspaper discourse and subregister
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