ABSTRACT
Studies in Language and Linguistics
General Editors- Geoffrey Leech, Department of Modern English Language, Lancaster University and Jenny Thomas, School of English and Linguistics, University of Wales, Bangor
Broad-ranging and authoritative, Studies in Language and Linguistics is an occasional series
incorporating major new work in all areas of linguistics.
Variation in English- Multi-Dimensional Studies provides both a comprehensive view into a relatively new technique for studying language, and a diverse, exciting collection of studies of variation in English.
The first part of the book provides an explanation of multi-dimensional (MD) analysis, a research technique for studying language variation. MD is a corpus-based approach developed by Doug Biber that facilitates large-scale studies of language variation and the investigation of research questions that were previously intractable. The second part of the book contains studies that apply Biber's original MD analysis of English to new domains. These studies cover the historical evolution of English; specialized domains such as medical writing and oral proficiency testing; and dialect variation, including gender and British/American.
The third part of the book contains studies that conduct new MD analyses, covering adult/child language differences, 18th century speech and writing, and discourse complexity. Readers of this book will become familiar with the analytical techniques of multi-dimensional analysis, with its applicability to a wide variety of language issues, and with the findings of important studies previously published in diverse journals as well as new studies appearing for the first time.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part One|1 pages
Introduction to Multi-Dimensional Analysis
chapter Chapter One|10 pages
Introduction
chapter Chapter Two|30 pages
Multi-dimensional methodology and the dimensions of register variation in English
part Two|1 pages
Multi-Dimensional Studies Based on the 1988 Model of Variation in Spoken and Written Registers
section Section One|1 pages
Historical Evolution of Registers
chapter Chapter Three|20 pages
Scientific discourse across history
chapter Chapter Four|18 pages
Diachronic relations among speech-based and written registers in English 1
section Section Two|1 pages
Specialized Domains
chapter Chapter Five|9 pages
Author’s style and worldview
chapter Chapter Six|14 pages
Variation among disciplinary texts
chapter Chapter Eight|14 pages
Register variation, oral proficiency sampling, and the promise of multidimensional analysis
section Section Three|1 pages
Dialect Variation
chapter Chapter Nine|18 pages
Changing gender roles in popular culture
chapter Chapter Ten|14 pages
Historical shifts in the language of women and men
chapter Chapter Eleven|13 pages
A multi-dimensional comparison of British and American spoken English
part Three|1 pages
Other Studies Based on the Multi-Dimensional Approach