At first sight, prayers and letters might appear to be completely different genres. In fact, they show similarities, which make them worth comparing. A typical feature of prayers and letters is “the high involvement of the addressor with the addressee and the fact that the addressor performs speech acts which directly aim at the addressee” (Kohnen forthcoming b: 5). One can say that the basic communicative setting in both genres is similar.
This study will provide a corpus-based linguistic description and comparison of adjective use in prayers, private letters and official letters from the 16th century. Besides the analysis of the individual text types, there will be an analysis of different functional text sections within these three text types.
The linguistic analysis will be on the level of morphology, semantics and syntax. The morphological analysis concentrates on the method and distribution of comparison. In the semantic analysis, the adjectives will be grouped into semantic categories and it will be looked at the distribution of these categories in different text sections. Concerning syntactic aspects, there are two aims. Firstly, it will be distinguished between attributive, predicative and postpositive adjectives. The second aim is to look at occurrences, where more than one adjective modifies a noun phrase and additionally, the composition of these constructions will be considered with regard to the semantic categories the adjectives belong to.
The overall aim of this paper is to find out differences and similarities in these genres and text sections with regard to adjective use and to look at the effect they have on the language.
Kohnen writes concerning prayers that except for the work by Crystal and Davy, Investigating English Style from 1969, “there are hardly any linguistic descriptions, leave alone corpus-based studies” (forthcoming b: 1). On the other hand, there are many studies on letters from the Early Modern English Period, and it would go beyond the scope of this introduction to give an overview of the current status of research. However, what can be said is that there have not been quantitative studies on adjectives, providing a detailed description of the above mentioned text types and different functional text sections.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. Theoretical Background
2.1 Grammatical aspects of adjectives
2.1.1 Morphological aspects
2.1.2 Semantic aspects
2.1.3 Syntactic aspects
2.2 Background information on Prayers
2.3 Background information on letters
3. Linguistic analysis and discussion of the findings
3.1 Analysis of the prayer corpus
3.1.1 Morphology
3.1.2 Semantics
3.1.3 Syntax
3.2 Analysis of the private letter corpus
3.2.1 Morphology
3.2.2 Semantics
3.2.3 Syntax
3.3 Analysis of the official letter corpus
3.3.1 Morphology
3.3.2 Semantics
3.3.3 Syntax
4. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Key Topics
The primary objective of this paper is to conduct a comparative, corpus-based linguistic analysis of adjective usage within 16th-century prayers, private letters, and official letters. The study aims to identify and analyze both differences and similarities in how adjectives function across these diverse text types and their internal functional sections to determine their overall effect on the language.
- Comparative analysis of adjective morphology, semantics, and syntax.
- Examination of functional text sections within prayers and letters.
- Investigation of how adjective usage reflects affection, emotion, and respect.
- Distinction between attributive, predicative, and postpositive adjective usage.
- Quantitative assessment of superlative, comparative, and multiple adjective constructions.
Excerpt from the Book
1. Introduction
At first sight, prayers and letters might appear to be completely different genres. In fact, they show similarities, which make them worth comparing. A typical feature of prayers and letters is “the high involvement of the addressor with the addressee and the fact that the addressor performs speech acts which directly aim at the addressee” (Kohnen forthcoming b: 5). One can say that the basic communicative setting in both genres is similar.
This study will provide a corpus-based linguistic description and comparison of adjective use in prayers, private letters and official letters from the 16th century. Besides the analysis of the individual text types, there will be an analysis of different functional text sections within these three text types.
The linguistic analysis will be on the level of morphology, semantics and syntax. The morphological analysis concentrates on the method and distribution of comparison. In the semantic analysis, the adjectives will be grouped into semantic categories and it will be looked at the distribution of these categories in different text sections. Concerning syntactic aspects, there are two aims. Firstly, it will be distinguished between attributive, predicative and postpositive adjectives. The second aim is to look at occurrences, where more than one adjective modifies a noun phrase and additionally, the composition of these constructions will be considered with regard to the semantic categories the adjectives belong to.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: Presents the research scope, comparing 16th-century prayers and letters, and outlines the methodology for analyzing adjective usage across morphology, semantics, and syntax.
2. Theoretical Background: Provides the grammatical framework for adjectives and establishes the functional text models for prayers and letters used throughout the study.
3. Linguistic analysis and discussion of the findings: Delivers a detailed quantitative and qualitative analysis of adjective usage, broken down by genre and specific functional sections.
4. Conclusion: Summarizes the key findings, confirming that adjective usage across these genres serves as a linguistic marker for expressing affection, emotion, and respect.
Keywords
Corpus linguistics, 16th century, Early Modern English, adjectives, prayers, letters, morphology, semantics, syntax, comparative analysis, evaluative adjectives, superlative degree, functional text sections, linguistic description, historical linguistics.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the primary focus of this research?
The paper focuses on a corpus-based linguistic description and comparison of how adjectives were used in 16th-century prayers, private letters, and official letters.
What are the central thematic fields?
The study centers on the morphological, semantic, and syntactic properties of adjectives, particularly how they correlate with specific functional sections of the analyzed text types.
What is the core research question?
The paper aims to uncover the differences and similarities in adjective use across these genres and to determine what effect this usage has on the language, specifically regarding the expression of emotions.
Which scientific methods are employed?
The author uses corpus linguistic analysis, applying both quantitative (frequency per 1,000 words) and qualitative methods to categorize adjectives into semantic groups and syntactic positions.
What does the main body of the paper cover?
The main body systematically analyzes the prayer corpus, private letter corpus, and official letter corpus, evaluating findings on morphology, semantics, and syntax for each genre individually.
How is the paper characterized by its keywords?
The work is defined by its historical focus on Early Modern English and its methodological approach of using corpus data to analyze specific parts of speech within distinct functional registers.
Why are invocations in prayers and openings in letters compared?
Both sections share a common communicative function: they are used to address an entity (a transcendental addressee in prayers or a recipient in letters), making them primary sites for examining emotional language.
What role does the 'evaluative/emotive' category play?
This category is found to be predominant in all three genres and is identified as a key linguistic tool for manifesting affection and respect within the texts.
- Quote paper
- André Valente (Author), 2009, A corpus-based study on adjective use in 16th century prayers and letters, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/163190
