The aim of this thesis is to discuss certain aspects of the language of book reviews, stressing the importance and indispensability of a corpus-based approach in any study of this type. The thesis is to show that the register of book reviewing is a specialized language, characterized by specific vocabulary. By this is meant that there exist some words and phrases which tend to be used more frequently here than in other registers, or that some words have a special, narrowed meaning.
For this purpose the researcher has compiled her own corpus of book reviews in an electronic form, which provides the foundation for the analysis. This collection of written language samples is referred to as the Do-It-Yourself Book Review Corpus (henceforth, DIY BRC). As regards the source of materials, the reviews come from the websites of popular quality newspapers.
In order to ensure the research a relatively high reliability, the linguistic data needs to be as large as possible. Therefore, my corpus (DIY BRC) totals approximately 115 000 words derived from as many as 166 book reviews. The mean sample size is between 660 and 982 words.
Contents:
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
1 THE THEORETICAL BACKGROUND OF THE CORPUS LINGUISTICS
1.1 Corpus linguistics - historical sketch and scope of interest
1.1.1 The definition and area of interest
1.1.2 The historical background of corpus linguistics
1.2 The idea of corpus
1.2.1 Defining the term
1.2.2 Major electronic corpora
1.2.2.1 The COBUILD Bank of English
1.2.2.2 The British National Corpus
1.2.2.3 Other important corpora of English
1.2.2.4 Corpora for special purposes
1.2.3 Issues in compilation and corpus design
1.2.3.1 Criteria for corpus design
1.2.3.2 Size
1.2.3.3 Representativeness
1.2.4 Basic procedures used in corpus analysis
1.2.4.1 Frequency list
1.2.4.2 Concordances
CHAPTER TWO
2 INFORMATION CONNECTED WITH THE GENRE OF REVIEWS
2.1 Main characteristic of the press
2.1.1 Press genres
2.2 Main characteristic of reviews
2.2.1 Book reviews
2.2.1.1 Book review vocabulary
CHAPTER THREE
3 A CORPUS-BASED RESEARCH INTO BOOKS’ REVIEWS
3.1 Compilation of the DIY Book Review Corpus – basic information
3.2 Frequency of words
3.2.1 General versus specialized vocabulary
3.2.2 Findings concerning the frequency list of book review terms
3.3 Concordance analyses of selected terms
3.3.1 The noun reader
3.3.2 The noun book
3.3.3 The noun novel
3.3.4 The noun plot
3.3.5 The noun character
3.3.6 The noun story
3.3.7 Synonyms writer and author
CONCLUSION
SUMMARY IN POLISH
BIBLIOGRAPHY
TABLE OF FIGURES
TABLE OF TABLES
APPENDIX
-
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X. -
Upload your own papers! Earn money and win an iPhone X.