696030466 03 01 01 JB John Benjamins Publishing Company 01 JB code SCL 127 Eb 15 9789027243904 06 10.1075/scl.127 13 2026005846 DG 002 02 01 SCL 02 1388-0373 Studies in Corpus Linguistics 127 01 scl.127 01 https://benjamins.com 02 https://benjamins.com/catalog/scl.127 1 B01 Nuria Yáñez-Bouza Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria Nuria Yáñez-Bouza Universidade de Vigo 2 B01 Dolores González-Álvarez González-Álvarez, Dolores Dolores González-Álvarez Universidade de Vigo 3 B01 Esperanza Rama-Martínez Rama-Martínez, Esperanza Esperanza Rama-Martínez Universidade de Vigo 01 eng 333 vi 327 LAN009030 v.2006 CFG 2 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.CORP Corpus linguistics 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.DISC Discourse studies 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.PRAG Pragmatics 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.SOCIO Sociolinguistics and Dialectology 06 01 <i>Register and Discourse through the Lens of Corpus Linguistics</i> offers a rigorous and engaging exploration of two of the field’s most dynamic areas. Drawing on key frameworks – including Construction Grammar, Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies, Speech Act Theory, and Local Grammar – the volume showcases how qualitative and quantitative corpus-driven methods illuminate the interplay between linguistic form, communicative function, and contextual embedding. Across eleven chapters, contributors examine a breadth of linguistic features, from swearing, syntactic fragments, prenominal modification, nonstandard forms, and phraseology to interruption and humour, expressive acts, epistemic presupposition, expertise, and predictive stance. The studies span diverse settings – teen talk, Reddit forums, news media, historical newspapers, workplace interaction, political debate, and economic discourse – and incorporate synchronic and diachronic perspectives, as well as cross-linguistic comparisons. Collectively, the chapters demonstrate how register and discourse intersect as mutually informing dimensions of language use, enriching established research traditions and offering practical models for future inquiry. Their insights extend beyond corpus linguistics, resonating with scholarship in sociolinguistics, pragmatics, World Englishes, and applied linguistics. 04 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/475/scl.127.png 04 03 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/475_jpg/9789027233981.jpg 04 03 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/475_tif/9789027233981.tif 06 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_front/scl.127.hb.png 07 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/125/scl.127.png 25 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_back/scl.127.hb.png 27 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/3d_web/scl.127.hb.png 10 01 JB code scl.127.prelim i iv 4 Prelim pages 1 10 01 JB code scl.127.toc v vi 2 Table of contents 2 10 01 JB code scl.127.intro 1 12 12 Chapter 3 1 A01 Nuria Yáñez-Bouza Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria Nuria Yáñez-Bouza University of Vigo 2 A01 Dolores González-Álvarez González-Álvarez, Dolores Dolores González-Álvarez University of Vigo 3 A01 Esperanza Rama-Martínez Rama-Martínez, Esperanza Esperanza Rama-Martínez University of Vigo 10 01 JB code scl.127.01pal 13 42 30 Chapter 4 1 A01 Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez Palacios Martínez, Ignacio M. Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez University of Santiago de Compostela 20 abusive 20 expletive 20 fuck 20 language change 20 offensive language 20 slur 20 swear word 20 swearing 20 taboo 20 teen talk 01 This chapter examines the degree to which the swearing practices of British teens have changed over time considering young speakers are well-known for their high use of swear and taboo terms. Taking a corpus-based approach, it analyses the behaviour of a set of 12 swear word lemma forms and 14 slurs, using data from COLT (1990s), LIC (2004–2007), the BNC2014, and Drummond’s (2020) dataset. Findings show significant differences in the frequency of the 12 lemma forms across the four corpora. However, no evidence of an increasing use of slurs is found. In terms of the analysis as a whole, no major differences were identified in overall patterns. <i>Fuck</i>, <i>shit</i>, and <i>piss</i> consistently exhibit the highest frequencies across all data sources, while <i>cunt</i>, <i>wank</i>(<i>er</i>), and <i>cock</i> are among the least frequent. Meanwhile, <i>bloody</i> shows a clear decline in usage. 10 01 JB code scl.127.02aba 43 70 28 Chapter 5 1 A01 Laura Abalo-Dieste Abalo-Dieste, Laura Laura Abalo-Dieste University of Vigo 20 colloquialization 20 fragments 20 no-negation 20 not-negation 20 register levelling 01 This chapter investigates colloquialization in British English through an analysis of <i>no(t)</i>-fragments, that is, stand-alone noncanonical constructions beginning with <i>no</i> or <i>not</i> (e.g., <i>no doubt</i>, <i>not in a million years</i>). While such fragments are normally associated with conversation, they are not uncommon in writing, suggesting that colloquialization can help explain their distribution across registers. Building on prior research connecting clausal <i>no</i>- and <i>not</i>-negation to writing and speech styles, this study explores whether <i>no(t)</i>-fragments follow similar trends. A comparison between the 1994 and the 2014 versions of the British National Corpus shows an increase in the use of <i>no(t)</i>-fragments over time and a marked preference for them in speech-related contexts. Crucially, while <i>no(t)</i>-fragments decline in conversation, they increase in writing. Rather than colloquialization, these observations reflect register levelling, a process that narrows the stylistic gap between speech and writing. 10 01 JB code scl.127.03cal 71 90 20 Chapter 6 1 A01 Marcus Callies Callies, Marcus Marcus Callies University of Bremen 2 A01 Turo Vartiainen Vartiainen, Turo Turo Vartiainen University of Helsinki 3 A01 Aatu Liimatta Liimatta, Aatu Aatu Liimatta University of Helsinki 20 American English 20 complex premodifiers 20 Construction Grammar 20 densification 20 expressivity 20 magazines 20 newspapers 20 recent diachronic change 20 register 20 World Englishes 01 This chapter examines the emergence and recent diachronic development as well as the global spread of complex prenominal modifiers that involve (i) a comparison (e.g., <i> <b>better-than-average</b> health</i>) and (ii) an adjective plus infinitival clause (e.g., <i> <b>easy-to-understand</b> guidelines</i>) in two short- and long-term diachronic corpora of American English that are balanced for register. We show that these modifiers are a register feature of popular magazines and news reporting — registers subject to economy of expression and densification. Additionally, data taken from a corpus consisting of web-based newspapers and magazines from 20 different varieties of English suggest that complex premodifiers have also spread globally to comparable registers, but to varying degrees: they are much more frequent in South-East Asian Englishes than in African Englishes, which we explain by a substrate effect. 10 01 JB code scl.127.04and 91 122 32 Chapter 7 1 A01 Lieselotte Anderwald Anderwald, Lieselotte Lieselotte Anderwald University of Kiel 20 ain’t 20 dialect grammar 20 enregisterment 20 newspapers 20 nineteenth-century American English 20 nonstandard English 20 stigmatization 01 In this chapter, I investigate whether and how we can trace the historical enregisterment of nonstandard features in historical newspaper data. The nineteenth century provides rich evidence of the increasing stigmatization of <i>ain’t</i> in American English, through various text types that were common in newspapers at the time. In these texts, characterological figures are constructed as speakers of the nonstandard, involving the negative contraction <i>ain’t</i> plus a host of other features. Over time, these characterological figures consolidate and become recognizable stereotypes that are imbued with social meaning, leading to the stigmatization of a complete register of linguistic features and their speakers — processes that can only be reconstructed with much qualitative, historical background work. 10 01 JB code scl.127.05nad 123 157 35 Chapter 8 1 A01 Zuzana Nádraská Nádraská, Zuzana Zuzana Nádraská Charles University 20 (local) semantic prosody 20 “normal” 20 clusters 20 collocation 20 concordance line (KWIC) 20 contextualization 20 dialogicality 20 quotation marks 20 semantic preference 20 U.S. COVID-19 news discourse 01 This chapter examines the function of the adjective and noun “normal” in the U.S. news discourse on the coronavirus/COVID-19. Adopting a pragmatic and corpus linguistic perspective, it shows how quotation marks work in conjunction with surrounding lexicogrammatical patterns to express the semantic preference and the “local” semantic prosody of “normal” (Tribble, 2000; Sinclair, 2004; Hunston, 2007; Gutzman &#38; Stei, 2011; Partington, 2014; Meibauer, 2015). In U.S. pandemic news, “normal” functioned to express dialogic attitudes such as uncertainty, voice plurality and evaluation, predominantly negative. These attitudes targeted various aspects of “normal”, including its definition, existence and the prospect of returning to a prepandemic “normal”. Dialogic prosody is consistent with general features of news reporting, particularly news values and an emphasis on negative and disruptive events (White, 1997; Bednarek &#38; Caple, 2017). 10 01 JB code scl.127.06and 158 181 24 Chapter 9 1 A01 Gisle Andersen Andersen, Gisle Gisle Andersen NHH Norwegian School of Economics 2 A01 Christian Langerfeld Langerfeld, Christian Christian Langerfeld NHH Norwegian School of Economics 20 Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies 20 interactional sociolinguistics 20 meeting interaction 20 monetary policy 20 register 01 This chapter investigates the interaction of participants in high-stakes meetings, more specifically, the ways in which the deliberations of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in the United States are characterized by interruptions and humour. We explore the recently compiled FOMC corpus (Langerfeld &#38; Andersen, 2023) that contains approximately 12-million tokens of meeting transcripts from 1987 to 2018. The FOMC is part of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and makes key decisions on monetary policy that impact the American and global economies, such as the key interest rate. Methodologically, we base our study on a complementary quantitative and qualitative approach, as embodied in the framework of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (Partington, 2004; Partington &#38; Marchi, 2015; Gillings et al., 2023). Our findings show that humour is utilized commonly by chairs and delegates in ways which are similar to but also distinct from everyday conversational humour (Norrick, 2003) and from humour in the workplace more generally (Holmes &#38; Stubbe, 2003). They also show that, although interruption is inherently a disruptive discourse strategy, it also contributes to driving the deliberations forward and leading to the decisions and outputs that this community of practice is expected to deliver. 10 01 JB code scl.127.07def 182 208 27 Chapter 10 1 A01 Rachele De Felice Felice, Rachele De Rachele De Felice The Open University 20 corpus pragmatics 20 emotions 20 expressives 20 pragmatic annotation 20 speech acts 20 workplace emails 01 This chapter investigates the use of expressive speech acts in two corpora of workplace emails. It expands Ronan’s (2015) categorization scheme for expressives and applies it to over 1,100 authentic examples of expressives extracted from emails in the Enron Corpus. The chapter presents the lexical and phraseological properties of these utterances, together with a qualitative analysis of both this data and further data from the Clinton Email Corpus. There is a particular focus on utterances representing emotions such as joy, sorrow, agreement, and disagreement, which are found to interact closely with the degree of closeness between the interlocutors. The corpus data supports the need for a fine-grained categorization scheme for expressives, and for the importance of interactional communication in the workplace. 10 01 JB code scl.127.08rom 209 240 32 Chapter 11 1 A01 Elena Domínguez Romero Romero, Elena Domínguez Elena Domínguez Romero Complutense University of Madrid 2 A01 Marta Carretero Carretero, Marta Marta Carretero Complutense University of Madrid 3 A01 Mercedes González Vázquez González Vázquez, Mercedes Mercedes González Vázquez University of Vigo 20 cognitive attitude 20 Critical Discourse Analysis 20 epistemic stance 20 factivity 20 implicitness 20 newspaper discourse 20 nonpersonal 20 political discourse 20 presupposition 01 This chapter investigates the ways in which epistemic stance expressions (e.g., <i>perhaps</i>, <i>probably</i>, <i>I believe</i>, <i>it is known</i>, etc.) function in two registers of persuasive discourse: parliamentary debate and opinion journalism. It focuses on expressions that operate on two levels of implicitness — by concealing the epistemic source (speaker or writer) and by encoding the proposition within their scope as a presupposition. Drawing on two 60,000-word corpora — UK Conservative parliamentary debates (ANSARD) and <i>The Telegraph</i> opinion articles — which cover three major refugee crises and irregular immigration scenarios (2015, 2021, 2022–2023), the analysis identifies key differences in the distribution and discourse function of these expressions. Findings show that nonpersonal presupposition-triggering epistemic stance expressions are significantly more frequent in <i>The Telegraph</i> and in refugee discourse, where they legitimize selective support — especially for Ukrainian refugees — by constructing moral hierarchies and pre-empting dissent. 10 01 JB code scl.127.09hil 241 265 25 Chapter 12 1 A01 Turo Hiltunen Hiltunen, Turo Turo Hiltunen University of Helsinki 20 computer-mediated communication 20 discourse analysis 20 expertise 20 lexicogrammar 20 local grammar 20 Reddit 01 This chapter examines how references to expert knowledge are used as rhetorical resources in public online discourse, focusing on Reddit discussions related to science and technology. In light of a broader crisis of expertise, where traditional scientific authority is increasingly contested in public discourses, the study investigates how terms such as <i>expert</i> and <i>scientist</i> function rhetorically on Reddit. Adopting a corpus-pragmatic framework with form-to-function mapping, the study identifies lexicogrammatical patterns associated with these terms and interprets their discourse functions using the framework of local grammars. The analysis suggests that references to expertise are not only employed to enhance the credibility of claims through appeals to an authority, but also for downplaying the importance of expertise through disclaimers, which are pragmatically appropriate given the informal and conversational nature of the register of Reddit. By contextualizing the findings within sociological theories of expertise, the chapter provides insights into how expertise is conceptualized and negotiated in participatory digital environments. 10 01 JB code scl.127.10mus 266 294 29 Chapter 13 1 A01 Maria Teresa Musacchio Musacchio, Maria Teresa Maria Teresa Musacchio University of Trieste 2 A01 Dario Del Fante Del Fante, Dario Dario Del Fante University of Ferrara 20 attitudinal stance markers 20 cross-linguistic Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies 20 diachronic corpus linguistics 20 economic discourse 20 epistemic stance markers 01 This chapter investigates economic discourse and argumentation across a corpus of English and Italian theoretical treatises, textbooks, and handbooks published between 1900 and 1990. We examine how epistemic and attitudinal stance markers are used to construct economic claims. By triangulating data with previous research, the analysis identifies claim-expositive lexis and concurrent markers, comparing claim presentation in theoretical treatises with that found in educational textbooks. Utilising Wmatrix7 software, we also explore key semantic domains. Results reveal consistent patterns in conveying epistemic and attitudinal stance through adverbs and complement clauses in English and Italian. <i>Money</i> and related subjects are identified as common semantic domains across both languages. The overarching aim is to provide a diachronic view of the evolution of argumentation in economics. 10 01 JB code scl.127.11qui 295 321 27 Chapter 14 1 A01 Carla Quinci Quinci, Carla Carla Quinci University of Padua 20 cross-linguistic analysis 20 diachronic corpora 20 economic prediction 20 English 20 Italian 20 LexEcon corpus 01 This chapter presents a diachronic, corpus-based analysis of modal and lexical verbs used in economic predictions across twentieth-century English and Italian academic texts. Focusing on their frequency, distribution, and epistemic function, the study reveals cross-linguistic and temporal patterns in how economists express prediction, possibility, and obligation. It also provides evidence in support of previous observations concerning modality and the epistemic status of modal and predictive verbs. The data indicate a strong preference for verbs and modalities with high epistemic strength, while speculative or informal lexical verbs are systematically avoided. Diachronic trends highlight a growing assertiveness in English economic discourse and a slightly more variable pattern in Italian, with hypotheses appearing far more prominent than predictions. 10 01 JB code scl.127.index 323 327 5 Index 15 02 JBENJAMINS John Benjamins Publishing Company 01 John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia NL 04 20260324 2026 John Benjamins B.V. 02 WORLD 13 15 9789027233981 01 JB 3 John Benjamins e-Platform 03 jbe-platform.com 09 WORLD 20 01 00 130.00 EUR R 01 00 109.00 GBP Z 01 gen 00 169.00 USD S 759030465 03 01 01 JB John Benjamins Publishing Company 01 JB code SCL 127 Hb 15 9789027233981 13 2026005845 BB 01 SCL 02 1388-0373 Studies in Corpus Linguistics 127 01 scl.127 01 https://benjamins.com 02 https://benjamins.com/catalog/scl.127 1 B01 Nuria Yáñez-Bouza Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria Nuria Yáñez-Bouza Universidade de Vigo 2 B01 Dolores González-Álvarez González-Álvarez, Dolores Dolores González-Álvarez Universidade de Vigo 3 B01 Esperanza Rama-Martínez Rama-Martínez, Esperanza Esperanza Rama-Martínez Universidade de Vigo 01 eng 333 vi 327 LAN009030 v.2006 CFG 2 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.CORP Corpus linguistics 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.DISC Discourse studies 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.PRAG Pragmatics 24 JB Subject Scheme LIN.SOCIO Sociolinguistics and Dialectology 06 01 <i>Register and Discourse through the Lens of Corpus Linguistics</i> offers a rigorous and engaging exploration of two of the field’s most dynamic areas. Drawing on key frameworks – including Construction Grammar, Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies, Speech Act Theory, and Local Grammar – the volume showcases how qualitative and quantitative corpus-driven methods illuminate the interplay between linguistic form, communicative function, and contextual embedding. Across eleven chapters, contributors examine a breadth of linguistic features, from swearing, syntactic fragments, prenominal modification, nonstandard forms, and phraseology to interruption and humour, expressive acts, epistemic presupposition, expertise, and predictive stance. The studies span diverse settings – teen talk, Reddit forums, news media, historical newspapers, workplace interaction, political debate, and economic discourse – and incorporate synchronic and diachronic perspectives, as well as cross-linguistic comparisons. Collectively, the chapters demonstrate how register and discourse intersect as mutually informing dimensions of language use, enriching established research traditions and offering practical models for future inquiry. Their insights extend beyond corpus linguistics, resonating with scholarship in sociolinguistics, pragmatics, World Englishes, and applied linguistics. 04 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/475/scl.127.png 04 03 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/475_jpg/9789027233981.jpg 04 03 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/475_tif/9789027233981.tif 06 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_front/scl.127.hb.png 07 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/125/scl.127.png 25 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/1200_back/scl.127.hb.png 27 09 01 https://benjamins.com/covers/3d_web/scl.127.hb.png 10 01 JB code scl.127.prelim i iv 4 Prelim pages 1 10 01 JB code scl.127.toc v vi 2 Table of contents 2 10 01 JB code scl.127.intro 1 12 12 Chapter 3 1 A01 Nuria Yáñez-Bouza Yáñez-Bouza, Nuria Nuria Yáñez-Bouza University of Vigo 2 A01 Dolores González-Álvarez González-Álvarez, Dolores Dolores González-Álvarez University of Vigo 3 A01 Esperanza Rama-Martínez Rama-Martínez, Esperanza Esperanza Rama-Martínez University of Vigo 10 01 JB code scl.127.01pal 13 42 30 Chapter 4 1 A01 Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez Palacios Martínez, Ignacio M. Ignacio M. Palacios Martínez University of Santiago de Compostela 20 abusive 20 expletive 20 fuck 20 language change 20 offensive language 20 slur 20 swear word 20 swearing 20 taboo 20 teen talk 01 This chapter examines the degree to which the swearing practices of British teens have changed over time considering young speakers are well-known for their high use of swear and taboo terms. Taking a corpus-based approach, it analyses the behaviour of a set of 12 swear word lemma forms and 14 slurs, using data from COLT (1990s), LIC (2004–2007), the BNC2014, and Drummond’s (2020) dataset. Findings show significant differences in the frequency of the 12 lemma forms across the four corpora. However, no evidence of an increasing use of slurs is found. In terms of the analysis as a whole, no major differences were identified in overall patterns. <i>Fuck</i>, <i>shit</i>, and <i>piss</i> consistently exhibit the highest frequencies across all data sources, while <i>cunt</i>, <i>wank</i>(<i>er</i>), and <i>cock</i> are among the least frequent. Meanwhile, <i>bloody</i> shows a clear decline in usage. 10 01 JB code scl.127.02aba 43 70 28 Chapter 5 1 A01 Laura Abalo-Dieste Abalo-Dieste, Laura Laura Abalo-Dieste University of Vigo 20 colloquialization 20 fragments 20 no-negation 20 not-negation 20 register levelling 01 This chapter investigates colloquialization in British English through an analysis of <i>no(t)</i>-fragments, that is, stand-alone noncanonical constructions beginning with <i>no</i> or <i>not</i> (e.g., <i>no doubt</i>, <i>not in a million years</i>). While such fragments are normally associated with conversation, they are not uncommon in writing, suggesting that colloquialization can help explain their distribution across registers. Building on prior research connecting clausal <i>no</i>- and <i>not</i>-negation to writing and speech styles, this study explores whether <i>no(t)</i>-fragments follow similar trends. A comparison between the 1994 and the 2014 versions of the British National Corpus shows an increase in the use of <i>no(t)</i>-fragments over time and a marked preference for them in speech-related contexts. Crucially, while <i>no(t)</i>-fragments decline in conversation, they increase in writing. Rather than colloquialization, these observations reflect register levelling, a process that narrows the stylistic gap between speech and writing. 10 01 JB code scl.127.03cal 71 90 20 Chapter 6 1 A01 Marcus Callies Callies, Marcus Marcus Callies University of Bremen 2 A01 Turo Vartiainen Vartiainen, Turo Turo Vartiainen University of Helsinki 3 A01 Aatu Liimatta Liimatta, Aatu Aatu Liimatta University of Helsinki 20 American English 20 complex premodifiers 20 Construction Grammar 20 densification 20 expressivity 20 magazines 20 newspapers 20 recent diachronic change 20 register 20 World Englishes 01 This chapter examines the emergence and recent diachronic development as well as the global spread of complex prenominal modifiers that involve (i) a comparison (e.g., <i> <b>better-than-average</b> health</i>) and (ii) an adjective plus infinitival clause (e.g., <i> <b>easy-to-understand</b> guidelines</i>) in two short- and long-term diachronic corpora of American English that are balanced for register. We show that these modifiers are a register feature of popular magazines and news reporting — registers subject to economy of expression and densification. Additionally, data taken from a corpus consisting of web-based newspapers and magazines from 20 different varieties of English suggest that complex premodifiers have also spread globally to comparable registers, but to varying degrees: they are much more frequent in South-East Asian Englishes than in African Englishes, which we explain by a substrate effect. 10 01 JB code scl.127.04and 91 122 32 Chapter 7 1 A01 Lieselotte Anderwald Anderwald, Lieselotte Lieselotte Anderwald University of Kiel 20 ain’t 20 dialect grammar 20 enregisterment 20 newspapers 20 nineteenth-century American English 20 nonstandard English 20 stigmatization 01 In this chapter, I investigate whether and how we can trace the historical enregisterment of nonstandard features in historical newspaper data. The nineteenth century provides rich evidence of the increasing stigmatization of <i>ain’t</i> in American English, through various text types that were common in newspapers at the time. In these texts, characterological figures are constructed as speakers of the nonstandard, involving the negative contraction <i>ain’t</i> plus a host of other features. Over time, these characterological figures consolidate and become recognizable stereotypes that are imbued with social meaning, leading to the stigmatization of a complete register of linguistic features and their speakers — processes that can only be reconstructed with much qualitative, historical background work. 10 01 JB code scl.127.05nad 123 157 35 Chapter 8 1 A01 Zuzana Nádraská Nádraská, Zuzana Zuzana Nádraská Charles University 20 (local) semantic prosody 20 “normal” 20 clusters 20 collocation 20 concordance line (KWIC) 20 contextualization 20 dialogicality 20 quotation marks 20 semantic preference 20 U.S. COVID-19 news discourse 01 This chapter examines the function of the adjective and noun “normal” in the U.S. news discourse on the coronavirus/COVID-19. Adopting a pragmatic and corpus linguistic perspective, it shows how quotation marks work in conjunction with surrounding lexicogrammatical patterns to express the semantic preference and the “local” semantic prosody of “normal” (Tribble, 2000; Sinclair, 2004; Hunston, 2007; Gutzman &#38; Stei, 2011; Partington, 2014; Meibauer, 2015). In U.S. pandemic news, “normal” functioned to express dialogic attitudes such as uncertainty, voice plurality and evaluation, predominantly negative. These attitudes targeted various aspects of “normal”, including its definition, existence and the prospect of returning to a prepandemic “normal”. Dialogic prosody is consistent with general features of news reporting, particularly news values and an emphasis on negative and disruptive events (White, 1997; Bednarek &#38; Caple, 2017). 10 01 JB code scl.127.06and 158 181 24 Chapter 9 1 A01 Gisle Andersen Andersen, Gisle Gisle Andersen NHH Norwegian School of Economics 2 A01 Christian Langerfeld Langerfeld, Christian Christian Langerfeld NHH Norwegian School of Economics 20 Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies 20 interactional sociolinguistics 20 meeting interaction 20 monetary policy 20 register 01 This chapter investigates the interaction of participants in high-stakes meetings, more specifically, the ways in which the deliberations of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) in the United States are characterized by interruptions and humour. We explore the recently compiled FOMC corpus (Langerfeld &#38; Andersen, 2023) that contains approximately 12-million tokens of meeting transcripts from 1987 to 2018. The FOMC is part of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and makes key decisions on monetary policy that impact the American and global economies, such as the key interest rate. Methodologically, we base our study on a complementary quantitative and qualitative approach, as embodied in the framework of Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies (Partington, 2004; Partington &#38; Marchi, 2015; Gillings et al., 2023). Our findings show that humour is utilized commonly by chairs and delegates in ways which are similar to but also distinct from everyday conversational humour (Norrick, 2003) and from humour in the workplace more generally (Holmes &#38; Stubbe, 2003). They also show that, although interruption is inherently a disruptive discourse strategy, it also contributes to driving the deliberations forward and leading to the decisions and outputs that this community of practice is expected to deliver. 10 01 JB code scl.127.07def 182 208 27 Chapter 10 1 A01 Rachele De Felice Felice, Rachele De Rachele De Felice The Open University 20 corpus pragmatics 20 emotions 20 expressives 20 pragmatic annotation 20 speech acts 20 workplace emails 01 This chapter investigates the use of expressive speech acts in two corpora of workplace emails. It expands Ronan’s (2015) categorization scheme for expressives and applies it to over 1,100 authentic examples of expressives extracted from emails in the Enron Corpus. The chapter presents the lexical and phraseological properties of these utterances, together with a qualitative analysis of both this data and further data from the Clinton Email Corpus. There is a particular focus on utterances representing emotions such as joy, sorrow, agreement, and disagreement, which are found to interact closely with the degree of closeness between the interlocutors. The corpus data supports the need for a fine-grained categorization scheme for expressives, and for the importance of interactional communication in the workplace. 10 01 JB code scl.127.08rom 209 240 32 Chapter 11 1 A01 Elena Domínguez Romero Romero, Elena Domínguez Elena Domínguez Romero Complutense University of Madrid 2 A01 Marta Carretero Carretero, Marta Marta Carretero Complutense University of Madrid 3 A01 Mercedes González Vázquez González Vázquez, Mercedes Mercedes González Vázquez University of Vigo 20 cognitive attitude 20 Critical Discourse Analysis 20 epistemic stance 20 factivity 20 implicitness 20 newspaper discourse 20 nonpersonal 20 political discourse 20 presupposition 01 This chapter investigates the ways in which epistemic stance expressions (e.g., <i>perhaps</i>, <i>probably</i>, <i>I believe</i>, <i>it is known</i>, etc.) function in two registers of persuasive discourse: parliamentary debate and opinion journalism. It focuses on expressions that operate on two levels of implicitness — by concealing the epistemic source (speaker or writer) and by encoding the proposition within their scope as a presupposition. Drawing on two 60,000-word corpora — UK Conservative parliamentary debates (ANSARD) and <i>The Telegraph</i> opinion articles — which cover three major refugee crises and irregular immigration scenarios (2015, 2021, 2022–2023), the analysis identifies key differences in the distribution and discourse function of these expressions. Findings show that nonpersonal presupposition-triggering epistemic stance expressions are significantly more frequent in <i>The Telegraph</i> and in refugee discourse, where they legitimize selective support — especially for Ukrainian refugees — by constructing moral hierarchies and pre-empting dissent. 10 01 JB code scl.127.09hil 241 265 25 Chapter 12 1 A01 Turo Hiltunen Hiltunen, Turo Turo Hiltunen University of Helsinki 20 computer-mediated communication 20 discourse analysis 20 expertise 20 lexicogrammar 20 local grammar 20 Reddit 01 This chapter examines how references to expert knowledge are used as rhetorical resources in public online discourse, focusing on Reddit discussions related to science and technology. In light of a broader crisis of expertise, where traditional scientific authority is increasingly contested in public discourses, the study investigates how terms such as <i>expert</i> and <i>scientist</i> function rhetorically on Reddit. Adopting a corpus-pragmatic framework with form-to-function mapping, the study identifies lexicogrammatical patterns associated with these terms and interprets their discourse functions using the framework of local grammars. The analysis suggests that references to expertise are not only employed to enhance the credibility of claims through appeals to an authority, but also for downplaying the importance of expertise through disclaimers, which are pragmatically appropriate given the informal and conversational nature of the register of Reddit. By contextualizing the findings within sociological theories of expertise, the chapter provides insights into how expertise is conceptualized and negotiated in participatory digital environments. 10 01 JB code scl.127.10mus 266 294 29 Chapter 13 1 A01 Maria Teresa Musacchio Musacchio, Maria Teresa Maria Teresa Musacchio University of Trieste 2 A01 Dario Del Fante Del Fante, Dario Dario Del Fante University of Ferrara 20 attitudinal stance markers 20 cross-linguistic Corpus-Assisted Discourse Studies 20 diachronic corpus linguistics 20 economic discourse 20 epistemic stance markers 01 This chapter investigates economic discourse and argumentation across a corpus of English and Italian theoretical treatises, textbooks, and handbooks published between 1900 and 1990. We examine how epistemic and attitudinal stance markers are used to construct economic claims. By triangulating data with previous research, the analysis identifies claim-expositive lexis and concurrent markers, comparing claim presentation in theoretical treatises with that found in educational textbooks. Utilising Wmatrix7 software, we also explore key semantic domains. Results reveal consistent patterns in conveying epistemic and attitudinal stance through adverbs and complement clauses in English and Italian. <i>Money</i> and related subjects are identified as common semantic domains across both languages. The overarching aim is to provide a diachronic view of the evolution of argumentation in economics. 10 01 JB code scl.127.11qui 295 321 27 Chapter 14 1 A01 Carla Quinci Quinci, Carla Carla Quinci University of Padua 20 cross-linguistic analysis 20 diachronic corpora 20 economic prediction 20 English 20 Italian 20 LexEcon corpus 01 This chapter presents a diachronic, corpus-based analysis of modal and lexical verbs used in economic predictions across twentieth-century English and Italian academic texts. Focusing on their frequency, distribution, and epistemic function, the study reveals cross-linguistic and temporal patterns in how economists express prediction, possibility, and obligation. It also provides evidence in support of previous observations concerning modality and the epistemic status of modal and predictive verbs. The data indicate a strong preference for verbs and modalities with high epistemic strength, while speculative or informal lexical verbs are systematically avoided. Diachronic trends highlight a growing assertiveness in English economic discourse and a slightly more variable pattern in Italian, with hypotheses appearing far more prominent than predictions. 10 01 JB code scl.127.index 323 327 5 Index 15 02 JBENJAMINS John Benjamins Publishing Company 01 John Benjamins Publishing Company Amsterdam/Philadelphia NL 04 20260324 2026 John Benjamins B.V. 02 WORLD 08 750 gr 01 JB 1 John Benjamins Publishing Company +31 20 6304747 +31 20 6739773 bookorder@benjamins.nl 01 https://benjamins.com 01 WORLD US CA MX 20 55 18 01 02 JB 1 00 130.00 EUR R 02 02 JB 1 00 137.80 EUR R 01 JB 10 John Benjamins Publishing Company +31 20 6304747 bookorder@benjamins.nl 01 GB 20 18 02 02 JB 1 00 109.00 GBP Z 01 JB 2 Casemate Academic 610-853-9131 610-853-9143 Girard.Kratz@casematepublishers.com 01 https://benjamins.com 02 US CA MX 20 18 01 gen 02 JB 1 00 169.00 USD