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Broadening the Spectrum of Corpus Linguistics: New approaches to variability and change
Edited by Susanne Flach and Martin Hilpert
[Studies in Corpus Linguistics 105] 2022
► pp. 172–195

Recent changes in spoken British English in verbal and nominal constructions

| University of Zurich,
Starting from a data-driven approach, the current paper compares the BNC1994 spoken to the BNC2014. We first narrow down possible research questions due to differences in the compilation and transcription of the two BNC generations. Then we investigate three robustly detectable changes at the level of lexis and morphosyntax: (1) gender and class differences, (2) the increase of be- and get-passive constructions and -ing forms from the verbal domain, and (3) the increase of noun compounds from the nominal domain. We also focus on the social context in which linguistic changes are embedded: which noun compounds particularly increase; which words are overused by which gender or social class? Technology seems to be a driver in the further advance of the construction of noun compounds, and strong swearing seems to have decreased between 1994 and 2014.
Keywords: spoken language, construction grammar, data-driven analysis, lexis, language and society, diachronic linguistics, gender, social class, passive forms, compound nouns
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction and motivation
    • 1.1Motivation
    • 1.2Opportunities and limitations
    • 1.3Our research questions
  • 2.Data and method
  • 3.Related approaches
  • 4.Analysis and results
    • 4.1Gender differences
    • 4.2Social class differences
    • 4.3Changes in the verbal system
    • 4.4Changes in the nominal system
  • 5.Conclusions
  • Note
  • References
Published online: 10 November 2022
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/scl.105.06sch
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